Which Blogging Archetype Are You?

If one more blogger tells me that my posts are long and makes it sound like that’s a problem, I might just… listen to them and cater to their need for short posts?

No. I don’t blog for others, I blog for myself.

Here’s a tip – Don’t read it if the length (or whatever else about it) is a problem for you, but if you really want to force yourself to read it, learn to skim-read long posts until something interesting catches your eye and makes you want to dive in the deep end and perhaps read all of it.

I love writing posts the way I do it, I figure out personal puzzles as I scribble and re-read my scribbles.

I also love reading the long posts of others.

I’m one of those people who prefers long reads because there’s usually more depth to them, you can see the mileage a person took in thought, in emotion, in life – they’re like a satisfying deep conversation.

I’m also a reading addict and have devoured books since I learned to read. Having dyslexia made me get creative about how I read when I was experiencing difficulty.

I don’t always read long posts from start to finish, I may bookmark and read the rest later, or jump around reading a paragraph here and another one there, sometimes I start from the end and scroll up to the beginning.

The important thing is to enjoy what you’re doing and not make a chore for yourself of it – if it’s a chore it’ll bore.

Turning this long read post into a quickie: If you’re here for the – Which Blogging Archetype Are You? – question and don’t want to wade through my blah blah to get to it, skip to the image with a circular rainbow of colours.

Fun Fact: There’s also a bonus challenge which invites one and all to participate in figuring out a life problem, brought to you by a very interesting blog and blogger-member of that blog – skip down to the screen shot with – Brain-storming 2 – as its title. OR go here instead – Brain-Storming 2 by Betul Erbasi on Pointless Overthinking

I used to worry about the length of my posts.

I’m not exactly sure when I started worrying about that – especially considering that the most popular posts, mainly with non-bloggers (most of the views and visits my blog gets aren’t from bloggers), on my blog are long reads.

I even tried writing shorter posts. At one point I decided to write my usual long style of post and then create a short version of it which I published after the long post version. I think I only did that once.

Then, recently, I finally figured that puzzle out and the issue is no longer an issue for me – that doesn’t mean I won’t get pissed off if someone pokes me there. It’s not a worried taking it personally wanting to change myself to suit others pissed off now. It’s a just don’t read it if you find it too long for you kind of pissed off.

Whenever I resolve a personal problem, life may test me to see if it’s really resolved or if I’m just fooling myself and it’s not resolved at all, it’s just buried under denial.

I used to hate those tests, now I mostly love them. I’m finally getting the hang of my natal Saturn square Sun which the issue of my posts being too long for others falls under.

Saturn square Sun is about never being good enough, having the impression that you’re always doing it wrong, getting constantly criticised and getting your ego crushed repeatedly.

My natal Sun is in the Zodiac house of Leo and creativity. Saturn is the hard taskmaster, the disciplinarian, the tester of mettle, and it’s in one of the Zodiac houses which represents other people and the values of others. Having my creations judged by others in a way which makes me feel inadequate, a failure, useless, worthless is par for the course with this aspect and its placements.

I do have another planetary aspect getting involved in that Saturn square Sun dynamic – natal Pluto in the Zodiac house of Aries and the experience of being me-me-me. Pluto trines my Sun, and whenever Saturn beats up my Sun, and my creative self is down for the count, knocked out and possibly on the verge of death… Pluto steps in. Pluto teaches you how to rise up from the ashes of you, renewed, transformed – when in hell keep going and going until you find your way out, the experience will change you… for the better?

Also, at the moment transiting Pluto and Saturn are involved with the natal aspect action, since I’m a Capricorn Sun and they’re in the sign on either side of my Sun sandwiching it. So it’s a good time for me to sort myself out and get over old issues – and see the value of having them, the experience of them.

I’m mentioning astrology partly because there are 12 Zodiac signs and there are 12 Archetypes, and the two 12’s overlap. You can use the Archetypes to understand the Zodiac and vice versa.

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12 Archetypes worksheet from How To Create Clear, Consistent Content with Brand Archetypes by Clay Ostrom of Map & Fire

You are now here -> Which Blogging Archetype Are You?

I haven’t checked to see if anyone else out there has done this, they probably have and if you’re one of those who have or know of someone who has, please pop a link to your/their version of this in the comments on this post. The more the merrier!

For me this started with a comment from Mel of Crushed Caramel (she’s lovely, if you don’t know her blog please check it out, it’s all about love) on my previous post, and something she said sparked inspiration, and this is what I said in my reply:

“It’s intriguing to observe who we gravitate towards, especially once you’re a blogger in the blogging community.

The blogging community is a bit like a world with countries made of archetypes, eg. Jesters who do humour, Sages who dole out wisdom, Caregivers who care about everything and everyone, Outlaws who tend to avoid everyone else and do their own thing, Creators who share their artistic creations, Explorers who travel in search of treasures to collect, etc.

Each archetype country has a different culture of blogging, with a different belief system of blogging, and different rules, etiquette, customs and versions of the reality of blogging.

Do we gravitate towards the blogging archetype country which reflects us, which suits our own archetype or at least the one which we have chosen for our blog?

For instance, your blogging archetype I’d say is predominantly that of Lover, since you write about love and love everything and everyone 😀 So do you gravitate towards other bloggers who are Lovers – lovers of love, of food, of travel, of life?

I would say that the deadly serious bloggers who engender feelings of terror, inferiority and intimidation in their readers/followers may be of the Ruler archetype, and many rulers end up trying to dominate, control and dictate. Those feelings you got from them are most likely what they’re feeling underneath their facade.

This is a fun way of looking at blogging… I may do a post about it, thank you for inspiring it!

Which blogging archetype do you think you are?

Which archetype suits your blog, your blogging style?

Which blogging archetype do you gravitate towards in others?

There are several ways to approach answering the – Which Blogging Archetype Are You? – question.

You can check out the Archetypes in the image above and pick the one which suits you/your blog.

You can create your own archetype.

You can expand and improve the idea.

You can answer in the comments on this post or write your own post and pingback and/or put a link to your post in the comments.

You can do all of the above or none of the above.

Have fun and share it with me please, pretty please with cherry on top!

That’s it for that bit.

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On to the second challenge:

Brain-Storming 2 – the potential artist dilemma by Betul Erbasi on Pointless Overthinking

Last night or maybe this morning I “Liked” Betul Erbasi’s latest Brain-Storming challenge:

Here’s the link again – Brain-Storming 2 – the potential artist dilemma by Betul Erbasi on Pointless Overthinking

And I returned to it to check out the answers people had given to her question-puzzle-problem shortly after I’d replied to Mel and was thinking about blogging archetypes and all the ways that idea could go…

I’m a diagonal thinker and INTP with Mercury in Aquarius – all of those love love love going off on tangents, thought journeys, connecting dots like stars in the sky to create thought-constellations.

There is no such thing as pointless overthinking…

Except there is, there’s a blog with that name and I’m really loving the new series on it written and curated by Betul Erbasi. I love the way she interacts with those who participate and comment. She is an inspiration!

I participated in the first Brain-storming session: Brain-Storming – the parent’s dilemma by Betul Erbasi on Pointless Overthinking

But I didn’t participate in the second. Partly because it hits close to home and my answer would be a complicated and complex mess which might crush someone’s dreams.

My father was a professional artist.

He lived the Creator archetype.

He went against his family to become an artist – his mother never got over the fact that he didn’t become a bus driver which was a respectable job even though she enjoyed the benefits his artistry gave her. Once he became successful, she never had to worry about money, having a roof over her head or food on the table ever again.

He also earned money as a teenager sketching American soldiers stationed in Rome during WWII… which allowed him to see that he could pursue art and make a living from it. That money helped keep his mother and siblings clothed, fed with a roof over their head.

His teacher at school encouraged him to pursuit art, go to art school, after she noticed his sketches on his schoolwork.

He went to art school, then worked as a graphic artist – his early career consisted of creating posters for films, advertising and public events.

He worked his butt off throughout his career – he worked 24/7/365, never took holidays without them having some work element in them, from the moment he woke up until late at night he was drawing, painting, sculpting, collaging, taking photographs, visiting museums, reading up on art and artists, collecting inspiration, making contacts, socialising with other artists and collectors, people in the art business…

The art business is brutal and will eat you up alive. I’ve worked on the business side of the art world. I eventually burned out from the stress, escaped to never return and couldn’t look at art or hear the word “artist” for a long time afterwards without feeling rage, panic, and experiencing unpleasant flashbacks.

I was born a long time after my father became successful due to his hard work and graft. My birth coincided with my father’s growing dissatisfaction, disillusionment and despair turned to depression with the world of art.

As I grew up I heard on repeat about all of the problems an artist faces to become successful, to make money from their work, to make enough money to live off their work.

There were several “traumatic” events for an artist which sent my father spiraling down into self-destruction and other versions of personal hell.

Anyone who thinks pursuing your art dream doesn’t come with all those things which a regular job comes with – hard work, grueling hours, little reward for all the effort you put into it, unhappiness, frustration, having to put up with difficult people making demands of you which tear at your heart and soul, making you want to abandon all for something more fun, easier, etc – is in for a shock.

I’d recommend that they watch the film – Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) – it’s a fictional art world horror story, but the real art world, especially the business side, can be a horror story for artists whether they survive the cutthroat competition to make it or not.

There is an up-side – it’s easier to pursue art nowadays because of the internet, you can set up your own shop, gallery, do it all from home and keep the costs down, you can be your own agent, do your own PR, deal directly with your collectors, network with other artists like you who are doing the same thing.

I really love what Joseph Gordon Levitt did with HitRecord (wikilink)

My father would have loved the freedom the internet offers artists.

But if you want to pursue the creative life you’re still going to have to work your butt off to make it. Artwork is created by art + work… a lot of work.

When people used to ask my father how long it had taken him to paint a single painting, he’d always answer with the amount of years he’d been working as an artist – ie. 35 years, 50 years.

And you’re going to have to learn to deal with criticism, a lot of criticism of the not constructive kind, often from total strangers who think they can critique your work because you’ve made it open and available to the public.

Basically you need to gird your loins to have a Saturn square Sun never good enough with a dose of Pluto destruction through creation and creation through destruction experience.

As for happiness… yes, I’m going to once again share my favourite cartoon from a very talented artist who works their butt off:

by Zen Pencils

That’s it…

Over to you!