dre poetic: words by adrien salazar

I never chose a topic for drepoetic. That was fine for the last year it’s been up and running. A lot of us write for no reason at all. I wrote poems here. I posted quotes, pictures, videos. I shared events. I wrote some commentary about stuff. All this was great for experimenting and feeling things out. It was a process.

For some of us, that’s all a blog will be — a journal, a sketchbook, a personal chronicle, a process of reflection that just happens to be public — which is all good. But I have recently been craving more. Like a painter who looks at a blank canvas and sees everything that is possible, I see this blog. I see what it can be.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized drepoetic was in beta. drepoetic was an unwitting experiment. As I shift towards more purposeful and determined directions in my life, my interests become more clear, and drepoetic as it is doesn’t vibe with me anymore.

I want my works here to reflect my life. As I begin to live actively and purposefully, I am ready to make the best of this form in a focused and deliberate way. I am ready to streamline. Hence, drepoetic is going under redesign.

New directions, new blogs

I have decided to ground my future blogging in two strong roots that undergird everything I do and care about:

1. My deep interest in community building, socio-political issues, and critical thought; and
2. My deep interest in art, writing, and all the wonderful things that inspire me.

Thus I plan to create two new blogs around these interests:

drepoetic 2.0

Continuing under the same name, but far from the same in appearance and content, drepoetic is going to be completely revamped. It will be a totally new blog. The new drepoetic will be the home base for all matters in art, design, music, poetry, and sources of inspiration of the life drepoetic. It will be my digital sketchbook for real — a window into my creative life and process.

drepoetic will be the site of my new aesthetic.

Project Codename: Blog 2

Within the next couple of months, I plan to launch my second blog. Blog 2 will be a site of relevent social commentary on current events, politics, culture, and community. It will also be the source for periodic updates on my life and work as a growing community builder. With this blog, I hope to exercise my critical thought and commentary to contribute to the shaping of our rapidly changing world.

Two Adrien Salazar blogs! It is a little daunting, but I am determined. My life is shifting. It’s only natural I take this work to the next level.

Expect new edutaining content and exciting creative visions flying at your eyeballs soon!

Rule number one* of starting a blog is: Pick a topic. If you’re going to write regularly then it better well be a topic you’re interested in.

Blogs are tools, and if you plan to keep bloggin, at one point or another you have to ask yourself, what do I want to do with this tool? Do I want to display my expertise in something? Do I want to practice my prose? Do I want to showcase my music taste? Or do I want some place to centralize all my brain vomit?

And if it is brain vomit, why do it online? A blog is a social tool, a public medium. So when you think about blogging, ask yourself, in what way do I want to connect with other people through this tool? Because unless you are writing an offline word doc, then other people are going to see your online vomit.

A blog can be a great way for you to get yourself and your ideas known, and a way to express who you are and what you’re about. A blog you remain committed to becomes a reflection of you and a way for people to get to know you before ever meeting you.

So if you don’t want to get bored of it and you’re in it for the long haul, write stuff you’re interested in. Then people interested in said stuff start reading your blog. They find that you’re interested in the same stuff and then they want to connect with you (via email, facebook, twitter, whatever)!

Voila: the formula for using blogs to build real connections with real people!

Oh and don’t strain yourself over topic. You can always change things up later.

*As with any set of guidelines, Rule Zero is learn the rules and then you can break them.