Ever since I heard about blogging, I really wanted to be a blogger. The problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to blog about. So I kept putting it off…
and off…
and off…
because I didn’t want to commit to something stupid. Or worse, something controversial (I really hate confrontation and internet hate).
Over the years, I started different blogs for various things–my LDS mission, the time I taught English in Russia (Miss Tyf Mischief was such a good blog title, tell me I’m wrong), church related topics. (My church one still actually exists at everydayparallels.blogspot.com) But none of them really took.
When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I was really upset. I believed that as a psycho (someone who took antipsychotics), I couldn’t be a wife, or a mother, or even just a productive member of society. I went to work devastated. My boss told me I should start a blog. He was a huge proponent of “feed your crazy.” And he was so excited to tell me that I should call my blog “Heckfest at Tyffani’s.” You can’t argue with that kind of creativity.
Thus, the heckfest was born.
It started out as a mental health blog. Not this url, but heckfestattyffanis.blogspot.com chronicles my early days of being diagnosed and going through medications and adjustments. It’s still up if you care to check it out. I started it because when I was acclimating to the idea of actually being mentally ill, I wanted some guidance. I scanned the blogosphere for anything that could be helpful, but all bipolar writers were just like me: so consistently inconsistent. I couldn’t really find anything. So I decided to try and be for someone else what I wish someone was for me. I had probably one reader, a dear friend who was desperately trying to understand me so she could help me through it.
Because I didn’t really see anything come from it, I abandoned the blog. But I didn’t want to abandon the url or the blogging, so I bought a domain at a different site (here, wordpress) and instead of wait for the perfect niche idea to hit me, I decided to just blog about my life. I wanted the key element to be humor. I have enough embarrassing stories and socially awkward encounters to fill a library, so why not a blog?
Now that I’ve been doing that a while, I realize that I’m pretty much a mommy blogger minus the kids. I don’t have very many readers, because only like 10 people really care about my life. So if I want to get serious about blogging (which I do), I have got to amp up my game.
So I’m trying to find a niche. What do people like to read about? What’s hot these days?
Recipe blogs are pretty popular, but I’m really average at cooking, so it wouldn’t be good enough to enjoy or bad enough to laugh at; it would just be sad.
Weight loss blogs are pretty popular but ya girl does not have the humility or dedication enough for that.
Blogs about how to make money are pretty popular, but if I knew how to make money, I wouldn’t be spending all my time job hunting and pinning pins on Pinterest about how to make money blogging.
Fashion blogs are a thing, but I personally look homeless much of the time. However, I’m pretty good at judging the heck out of some pieces of designer clothing.
I want to play on my strengths. I want Heckfest to be a blog that makes people laugh. That doesn’t take things too seriously. That covers topics in a way that isn’t boring and stale. So I put together an About Me page where you can read the ABC’s of me. And I’m going to play on some of those. I’ll probably flaunt the mental health angle, because the sufferers need to hear the voice of survivors.
I want to spread good news–there are enough sites that broadcast the bad. I want to learn something new every day and share it. I want to rant about grammar sometimes because social media bums with lots of followers tweet stupid stuff and I can’t correct them on twitter without all their blind, believing followers coming after me. I wan’t to make fun of modern day fashion and talk about selling certain items in my imaginary store called “yIKEA.” I want to sometimes share the burden of being bipolar. I want to try out Pinterest pins and see if they work. Mostly, I just want to write. And I hope there are people who want to read it.
I’m still finding my place in the blogosphere. But I hope it’s not just as another childless mommy blog.
Heckfest @ Tyffani's 