These are my thoughts. Tell me yours

2026-05-02T00:00:00Z

I woke up early this morning, my head fizzing with ideas. This is not a day for writers’ block. It’s been some time since I published any writing, and longer still since I’ve felt excited about writing. But I’ve loved writing ever since I can remember. I used to love writing on my web development blog, but the tech world has become so tarnished for me that I can no longer muster up the energy to write about it.

But, you know what? Screw it. I don’t have to write about technology. I can write about hating the tech industry that I (stupidly, naively) built my identity around, only to have it shattered. In fact, I can write about any of the millions of other things I’m interested in that have nothing to do with the tech industry. I can write about things that aren’t real, and I can write about things that are all too real. I can write about writing, like I’m doing now. It’s my blog, and you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.

A friend of mine told me that she was planning to try and write something every day in the month of May, and that’s what I’m trying too. Maybe some days all I’ll manage is a few lines, but the fact that someone else is sharing the challenge makes a difference, I think. Making a connection to others by writing something that might help someone else is what I used to love about web development blogging. I’m realising that connection is what I crave in everything I do.

So this is a new, blank page, a fresh chapter. And with this blog comes a stripped back, minimalist redesign of my website, because I want to be able to write and think without clutter. The world is all ready too full of it.

I don’t expect many people to read this, and I’m fine with that. I don’t want to hear what you think of my writing. I want to read what’s in your head. What’s made you laugh, what’s made you cry, and everything in between. I want to hear what you make of this strange and beautiful world that is our only home for such a brief time. The mundanity of everyday existence, and the events that had such a profound impact that they transformed your outlook forever. I want to look into the space in your head and see the world through your eyes expressed in your words, that are only yours and no one else’s. Because you are not a machine. Maybe this is the start of a conversation.

These are my thoughts. Tell me yours.

Talking About Writing

2026-05-01T00:00:00Z

At a crowded art show, my friend and I found ourselves sitting at a table at the end of the evening talking about writing. Somehow, separately, we had both landed upon the resolution to explore our writing practice. Neither of us is what we think of as a “writer”. But what is a writer, except someone who writes? And whatever your reason for writing, if you write, aren’t you therefore a writer?

Why we write is more complicated. Does writing have to be read? Are you a writer if you’re writing only for yourself? I think I’m writing for myself, but why? Because I have something in my head that needs to come out. Because writing is the way I make sense of my thoughts, of the world. The same reason artists make art, I guess, but I never felt important enough to label myself an artist. I was happy enough to be “creative”.

Do I want someone to read what I write? Is it vanity to want that? After all, wouldn’t it be nice for someone to (metaphorically) pat you on the back and say “aren’t you a great writer”? But, to me, it depends on whether you can sufficiently detach yourself from your work and release it into the wild. I think when you do that, the work is no longer your own. It becomes something for someone else to read and interpret and, just maybe, find their own meaning in. Those are the magical moment that make writing, and publishing, something worth taking a risk on.

Michelle Barker

These are my thoughts. Tell me yours

Talking About Writing