​For the consistency of 1,000 blog posts

​For the consistency of 1,000 blog posts

A lot of time has passed since I achieved 1,000 blog posts. Now, blogging has become a natural thing for me, like drinking coffee in the morning. I have become someone who can write about anything every day. Even if there is no special topic, I am given a single title and the writing comes out naturally. I used to be someone who took a long time to write even one sentence.

​Even just writing one sentence, I had to feel a lot of self-consciousness. What if someone reads this and laughs at me? What if I get embarrassed because of a spelling or grammar mistake? What if I hurt someone's feelings or say something that experts think is wrong and I get a complaint? I couldn't write even a single line because of all the worries, concerns, and anxiety. However, a blog is essential for an artist who has to constantly promote their work. At first, I only ran a site for my work and a little bit of self-introduction.

​However, the fact that I, who had no experience in the art field, debuted as an artist in a foreign land like Germany and had been working steadily for over 10 years and selling my paintings piqued people’s interest. I started getting tired of these people’s questions. So I started a blog to open up my story. At that time, WordPress and Weebly were popular blogs in my neighborhood. This was actually popular among my son’s group who were teenagers at the time. My son strongly recommended Weebly, and I started a blog. When I first started my blog, I had to decide whether to do it in English or Korean. I also needed a direction, such as whether to write a professional blog about art or just about my daily life. I chose English because I wanted to study English more and, above all, because I wanted to communicate with people from all over the world. Due to the limited time, I decided to write about everyday topics that would give a more familiar look into the lives of artists, rather than professional writing that would take a lot of time. And looking back, I think this decision was a good one.

​Because if I had covered difficult and complicated topics from the beginning, I dare say I would not have achieved 1000 posts. Also, because I chose English, it was very helpful for me when I studied in graduate school. I learned how to write while blogging and was able to overcome my fear of English. Also, although I blog somewhat distractedly with various topics, this method helped me to post consistently for more than 3 years. If you start a blog now, I want to tell you that you should start comfortably, as if you were writing a diary, with a topic that is very comfortable for you. Otherwise, you are likely to give up blogging within a year. Above all, if you are blogging simply for income, the possibility is even higher. After running a blog for several years, you should feel like a person talking to a wall without any income. In order to overcome all this boredom and lethargy and achieve 1000 posts, you need a strong motivation to overcome these difficulties. I think this motivation should be found in 'fun'. If you are not having fun, you cannot blog every day. If you successfully pass the 1000-post hurdle, you will now be able to have your own color and direction for your blog. Above all, I think your blog will become your best friend who has similar hobbies and tastes to you.

​Blogs will also become a database of your unique world of works. This is why I cannot give up blogging. And blogging allows you to create your own brand. The advantage of writing is that you can organize your thoughts and philosophies. By writing, I learned how to organize and express my thoughts and feelings well. And these things help me write a statement as an artist. Especially in this era where shorts like YouTube and various SMS are popular, there is a lot of input but it is difficult to produce your own output, so writing and reading help expand your own unique domain and brand it. I like writing in this way.

​This summer, I will continue the camp where I make picture books with children. This work always gives me joy and is another challenge. This camp is not a camp where I teach how to write. In fact, children learn how to make children's books on their own. I think teachers string the beads they have well and make wonderful jewelry as gifts. I think there should be more books written by children in the world. Children's books that they write themselves are really fun. Whenever I read these books, I smile like a grandmother. Children are such lovely future dream trees. I will continue to make picture books with these dream trees every summer.

​The easiest mistake that a beginner blogger makes is trying to write content that will attract attention and gather many visitors from the beginning. However, in my case, the articles that I wrote with all my heart and soul did not attract many visitors. Rather, I found that when I felt something difficult, solved the problem myself, and wrote about the process, that content became popular. And there were cases where I didn’t know why some content became popular. That’s why you should definitely write a lot. The same goes for drawings. You have to draw a lot, going through countless trials and errors until you create your own style and attract fans who like your style. In this sense, I also recommend that students challenge themselves a lot. This is a lesson I learned from the director of the research institute when I worked at the institute. We had to write 100 proposals to accomplish one project every year. This was often compared to fish. The more fish there are in the sea, the easier it is to catch them. It’s a very common and obvious story, but it’s difficult to actually apply it. That’s why you have to wake up in the morning and keep challenging yourself, regardless of who sees it or not. It can be frustrating at first. As I wrote above, blogging is a monodrama that plays with a wall. Your audience is a wall that does not respond to anything except echoes. At first, this wall will feel very thick and high. Whenever I feel like I am about to have a slump, I overcome it by imagining one image. It is like piling stones on a beach, stacking them one by one until they exceed the height of the wall. Then, people on the other side of the wall will be able to see your stones that are higher than the height of the wall.

​I am also stacking stones like this. And in the process of stacking stones, I often receive comments. The beautiful comments that are full of support are very helpful to me. I sometimes sit down in front of the computer again because of these comments. I am sincerely grateful to the readers who write me wonderful comments that support me.

​Imagine the process of building a blog that you are doing consistently right now. Your blog will be a big building in a few years. There will be a store in your building in a category. Many visitors will visit your store. Your building will be better and better. Someone will ask you to rent your store. You can help someone. And you can grow together. If you don't write anything today, it won't happen. Never give up. Keep writing and writing. Keep drawing and drawing. Consistency is also a great ability and talent.