A Sort Of Meta-Post

      I've been putting off writing my meta-post for awhile simply because writing about my own writing didn't seem very appealing to me. As students at New Trier, we've had to do similar reflections on our writing every year. We've had to do our "writing portfolio" and basically write an essay about previous essays we've written in the year and how we'd improved and grown as writers. I've never particularly enjoyed writing about my own writing and that might come from the fact that I don't like being wrong, so I have a hard time admitting that I've made mistakes.
       However, I think the real reason I have trouble reflecting on my own writing is because I'm not extremely interesting in improving or changing the way that I write. I'm not saying that I think I'm a perfect writer so there is nothing to improve, I don't believe that at all. I do think there is a lot I could learn to do in order to improve my writing. The problem is I'm not interested in writing. I don't enjoy writing because I feel like I'm better at getting my point across if I talk to someone rather than writing it down and having them read it. So for me, the only reason I want to improve the way that I write is to get a better grade. Which I know is awful, and I probably shouldn't admit that to my teachers, but I feel like I should be honest. Because I want to change that. I want to want to get better at writing because I used to love writing when I was a kid and I want to love it again. 
       So now I'll bring this all back to how it relates to blogging. I think that my blogs are better when I write about my opinions and feeling on a topic. I'm more expressive when I'm passionate about the topics. I always get frustrated because I'll have ideas about things I want to write about on my blog, but I can't write about them unless I find a text or some piece of evidence to relate my points to. I feel limited by this because sometimes I can't find a piece of evidence and then therefore can't write a blog post about what I wanted to. Although I do understand that having evidence really helps argue your point and make it stronger, like in the various posts where I have a video or a picture I'm analyzing the reader can really follow along with what I'm saying, I would still like more freedom with what I can write about. I think with more freedom I'd want to improve my writing because I would be passionate about my writing.
       I think that myself, as well as others, would benefit if we didn't always having to write a blog post with the standard claim, evidence, explanation format. I know it's important to practice our skills writing in that style, but I also believe that there are other ways to get your opinion across and everyone has a different way that they do that best. Sometimes I would just like to post a poem I wrote and maybe explain why I wrote it or possibly write the beginning page of a book and see if people like it. For others, being able to post a rap they wrote or the painting they created and talk about it would be a great way to practice their writing and have it be about something they love. I think people would find it easier to log on and write a blog post every week if there was more freedom in the way they wrote their blog. I want to want to blog, but I'm having difficulty finding inspiration.
      I'm sorry this is a lot to read, but I wanted to get my point across. As I said earlier, I'm better at writing when I'm passionate about the topic. If my teachers don't believe that I fulfilled the requirement for my meta-post I'd be happy to write another one. The assignment was to read previous blog posts and reflect on your writing and this was all inspired by my frustration with my blog posts.