B – Blog
04/02/2014 12 Comments
When I was in college, and answering the question of “what I wanted to do when I grew up,” my answer was inevitably writer or author or something of the type. The follow-up question became “do you have a blog?” Blogs had become the big thing, of a sudden, it seemed. I had written some travel stories, mainly, in a Live Journal… I had joined others in creating fiction on forums… Social Media was just catching its stride with the advent of Facebook… I had competed in NaNoWriMo… but no, I did not have a blog.
After college, there were a number of years where I did little or no writing, and it was during these years it might have been nice to have had a blog. However, even as I started my Master’s and they had us create a blog (the very foundations of this blog here), I did not use this for the writing I could have been doing. You can see a big gap in the archives from the blog’s start, in 2009, and when I later took a course on blogging that had me blogging more in earnest.
However, a blog is really more of a delivery method, and also an interface. It’s not a driving force in-and-of itself. Having a blog does not make one write. You can see this in any number of blogs which start up, have some steam, and then just lose it and disappear. Honestly, this blog has looked like that at a number of points in its lifetime.
So the question asking me if I had a blog was like asking if I used Word, or if I shared my fiction on Facebook. It’s about getting known and presence, or about where and how you write. I hope now that people are forming this question more carefully when they ask young students, so they don’t just feel dumb for not having a blog. Because having a blog does not make you a writer. Writing does. Having something to write is what helps you write. And, if you figure out what that something is and it happens to be a blog, make a blog. Look for the right place to blog. I still hold that someday I am going to write fiction and put it on Tumblr. But holding the Tumblr real-estate down has not made me write the stories.
It’s the overall audience-finding, content-creator connection to content-consumer aspect of a blog which is powerful for a writer, and these sorts of benefits can come from good branding and a good social media presence in general. Twitter can be huge, and lots of writers are hanging out there, waiting for you to read their books. Should you have a blog? Maybe. I think the main answer I would give is have a blog if you’re going to write the blog: a blog without content is a webpage. You should maybe have one of those. And blogging, as a public, interactive thing, brings along interactive, social media elements that are important. But be ready for that.
What do you think? Do you need to have a blog as a writer? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
About CompGeeksDavid
DBCII 
Great point about the way in which professors tend to ask questions with “expected” responses already in mind. I had similar experiences, especially in grad school, and felt the sting of self-doubt and judgement when my answers didn’t comply with expectations. Thanks for sharing!
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There’s always questions in life like that, where people ask and have an “expected” response. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out why giving the non-expected response can be okay too!
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Love the quote, “having a blog doesn’t make you a writer – writing does.” I’m writing that one down – thanks!
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Thanks for stopping by! Like your blog!
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Thanks! This A to Z Challenge has been really fun already, and it’s only the second day!
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Yeah I don’t think a blog gets you to write. You have to make an effort to write period. Whether its on paper, a computer or a blog, whatever, is just a choice. A blog does open doors to gaining an audience, but not necessarily. Just because you have followers doesn’t mean they read. Neither do likes. Still do what you choose, ultimately you have to be getting something out of it. Cheers 🙂 http://perspectiveofawriter.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/b-brimstone/
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Good point about audience! No guarantees between putting yourself out there and actually being read. What things get read, picked up, shared, get freshly pressed, go viral… some is skill, and some is luck, and some is just a matter of persistence and time!
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No, I don’t think you need to have a blog as a writer. I do think you need readers, though. I do not think you’ve completed the writing process until you find the first reader, If you don’t find at least one reader, it’s all just composition.
I do think it’s useful to have a social media presence.
As far as what counts, in terms of views, likes, and such: comments are what count most for me. Especially comments that let me know someone actually read. The thing I get the biggest kick out of with the blog is when I see two people talking to one another on my threads instead of just talking to me.
I had no idea you were so much younger than me. When I was a freshman in college, I was writing my essays out longhand and typing them up in a computer lab that had just been added to the campus the year before.
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I’m not sure I could guess your age, fair enough. It’s an interesting side effect of writing online, although of course, making comments to date ourselves helps narrow these things down!
I’m pushing 30 this year, so I feel I’m hitting a good age to be doing a lot more writing. One thing I felt for sure when I was younger was that I didn’t understand people well enough. That comes with time. With knowing people. With seeing things happen. Life, in other words.
We’ve been starting to ask questions more often on Comparative Geeks, hoping to spark conversation. I don’t know how much I feel like that has helped – any advice?
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I do think questions can help. Jeremy does that all the time.
I don’t have a lot of insight into how to get people talking back. My feminism discussions work so well because most of the people who comment on them are people I’ve put real time and effort into making friends with. So, I guess my suggestion would be think about who your friends are that might comment on the blog, and write about something that’s interesting or important to all of them.
I did not expect the feminism discussion to still be going on, but I’m getting ready to do another one tomorrow.
I’m in my early 40s. You’re approximately Diana’s age.
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For those of you over-reading this comment, you can check out that Feminism conversation over on Gene’O’s blog Sourcerer: http://sourcererblog.wordpress.com/
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