I thought for a really long time on what I wanted to write my blog on; and I really do mean a long time. I spent hours at my computer looking through blogs, promising myself I was being productive because this was for a class. I found a lot of amazing blogs and writers, and I had several ideas but couldn’t settle down on one. The thought that kept plaguing me was: “who is even going to care about what I’m writing? What’s the point?” I kept thinking of my blog in terms of what the cyber-world–however big or small that might be–would want to read. In an attempt at further procrastinating, I decided to take my mind off of it by watching a Harry Potter movie–a classic film choice for a 19 year old, sophomore girl, right? I then realized, as I was watching alone, that I had a lot to say about this movie but no one to say it to, and there hatched my idea.
My plan is to write a blog post in response to a movie for every blog assignment. Since I’m incredibly indecisive in nature (I’m not sure if that was made obvious or not in the previous paragraph), I’m having other people choose the movie I watch. I plan to ask my friends, family, professors, etc., what their favorite movies are and why. I’ll write a short blurb at the opening of my post explaining the choice and my relationship with the person choosing. I also plan to watch the movie with my two roommates to get two other perspectives and see how they differ from my own.
I want to write in a way that’s very raw and unfiltered, just my pure thoughts and takeaways from the movie without completely summarizing. I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from Matt Bellassai’s “Whine About It” weekly vlog where he gets drunk off wine and “complains about stuff.” (Here’s one of his videos talking about college kids, which I deemed fitting for my college class).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApiFNU9fvM
He talks about things that bother him personally, but other people like watching him and they relate to him; and so, my hope is to achieve something similar. Another blog that exemplifies this style pretty well is “Betches Love This.” Though almost everything on that blog makes me feel as though it’s a step back in the fight for gender equality, ending body shaming, promoting a healthy image for young girls, etc., the tone of voice is so honest, straightforward, and unapologetic. I’ll use this as an inspiration for my voice, but hopefully less mean and degrading.
I could not find any blogs that had done what I’m trying to do, which is both encouraging and intimidating. The closest thing I could find was “The Movie Guys.” They claim to write funny reviews, but I don’t think I laughed once reading them. This could probably be because I’m not their target audience, which made me question who my target audience will be. I’m not entirely sure yet and it might just be me and my roommates, but I’m okay with that for right now. You’ve got to start somewhere.