5 Reasons I Blog Meme · 7 August 2007
Nymeth tagged me for the 5 Reasons Why I Blog Meme and I'm finally getting around to posting my answer.
I have an aversion to passing along memes, probably born out of chain-letters that threatened death to people who broke them and MySpace bulletins that threatened un-friending if you didn't return "the comment love." So, if anyone would like to pick this meme up, please help yourself, I've got it all wrapped-up cozy and sitting on the porch step for you.
5 (Out of Many) Reasons that I Blog
1. Practice Writing/ Scheduled Writing
The foremost motivation in starting this blog was to provide me with a structured venue for writing on a regular basis. Those who know me know that I have a large cache of ideas for stories, but that I have trouble finishing them.
The most common advice I see for writers is variations on the theme of “Read everyday; write everyday.” Blogging encourages me to publish completed articles regularly. It also encourages me to look at the world with the idea of writing about it.
I originally started a blog on MySpace, and it had an entirely different theme, that of writing about writing. Site lag, outages, and spam drove me off MySpace, and at that time I decided that writing about writing would take a backseat to writing about things that would be captivate a wider audience.
Now that I’ve been blogging for over half a year, I notice that I still have more ideas than I can effectuate. I also notice that my focus has turned from writing fiction to writing blog posts, and I’ll probably be shifting things around here a bit in order to re-focus myself.
2. Desire to share love of the good things in life
I feel that many people wander around life, waking up, going to work, going home, going to sleep, and never stopping to look around and examine what they are doing. I know I did the same for a while, then I realized that years had passed and, aside from the experiences I had at work, I was the same person that I was when I had started that period of my life. I hadn’t reached out or grown in any way. I looked down the path that I was on and was terrified. Was I going to wake up at fifty and regret that all I had done was try to advance my economic position in life?
After that, I made a conscious decision to spend more time pursuing things that interested me and kept me growing. Eventually, I wanted to be able to share this by showing people that it doesn’t take a lot of time to incorporate things above and beyond the daily grind into their lives. Part of the original vision of this blog was a focus on “The good things in life and how to experience them in your limited time.” As the blog has evolved, that focus hasn’t been brought to the forefront, but it’s still in the back of my mind whenever I write about things that I do and hopefully it shines through.
3. Desire to document cooking experiments.
When I thought about what kind of blog I wanted to write, I knew that I wanted it to be about things that I enjoyed and could talk about. The cooking posts here were originally designed to create a method to my madness. I can’t say that I’ve always been interested in cooking. It’s a somewhat recent (post High School) hobby, one that I pursued haphazardly for years, mostly cooking out of necessity and then cooking what was convenient. I don’t pretend to be a food expert, I just have a love of food research and so my posts are more about exploring food than presenting expert food. They’re designed to inspire further exploration rather than to dole out expert advice.
There’s a theme of interconnectivity in my blog. You are what you consume, whether it be food or knowledge. To incorporate this idea into a blog, I decided to write food posts about books. It’s also one of the ways that I envision people saving time. You have to eat, why not learn something as you do so?
4. Expand on knowledge and method of reading (learn more about SF community)
I really enjoy working in a community. This is probably the primary reason that I continue to take classes “just for fun.” There’s something about conversing with a group of people that tickles my sense of learning. I’ve always loved books, but for most of my life it’s been a solitary love. I have a lot of pages under my belt, but unless I read the book for school, I never really dug deeper into the context or community behind the book.
Writing about books make you think more about what you’ve read, and it encourages me to explore more about the people who wrote the books and how the books fit into the wider body of genre or period work.
5. Step 1 – Write Blog, Step 2 - ???, Step 3 – PROFIT!
While this isn’t a commercial blog, I hope one day to be able to leverage my experiences here into something that is eventually profitable, either by simply honing my writing skills, or by making new contacts that will lead to eventual freelance work, industry knowledge, or other employment.
I firmly believe in trying to make money at what you enjoy. After all, money is necessary for survival (rent, food, etc.) and so for most people working is necessary for survival. My goal here is to lay the foundation for an eventual career in doing something I love.
I tend to be conservative about money decisions. I’d rather have the steady paycheck then take a huge risk, so my plan is a slow and steady one, hold down a job while I’m doing a number of side projects with the idea that one will eventually pan out. I think most aspiring writers are in a similar situation. Making a living writing is a hard path, one that I’ve heard can take 10 years or more. Blogging is just one of the avenues I’m taking towards pursuing my eventual goal of being a person who is paid to do what I love.
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Chris · 7 August 2007, 22:01
In regards to number 5, I can definitely see your blog leading to some paid work eventually. I think you’d make a great columnist and your fiction is great too from what I’ve read in the tiny stories contest.
I used to keep a myspace blog too, but I enjoy my Blogger blog SO much more. Myspace is just a pain :/
Dark Orpheus · 7 August 2007, 23:52
‘Part of the original vision of this blog was a focus on “The good things in life and how to experience them in your limited time.” ‘ – I like this goal. Too often we’re just running on automatic without realising it.
Good luck on the money making bit though. Nothing wrong with making lots of money – it’s what you do with it that counts.
Nymeth · 8 August 2007, 00:01
lol, just today my boyfriend and I remembered the Underpant Gnomes for some reason!
Like you, one thing I love about blogging is the fact that it keeps me writing regularly, and that it makes me approach things with a “I will write about this” frame of mine. But you’re right, I do notice that since I’ve been blogging, fiction writing has pretty much been left behind :\ But hey, Neil Gaiman is the evidence that both are possible, so I guess it’s just a matter of organization.
I agree with Chris – your tiny story was one of my favourites. You’re a great writer, and I hope you do succeed on your goal.
Mailyn · 8 August 2007, 14:59
I blog because I like meeting new people, especially those that have things in common with me. That’s hard to do around here where I live so online it is! __
Kim · 8 August 2007, 17:34
Chris – Thanks for the words of encouragement and the MySpace commiseration. I’ve tried to start a grass roots movement with my straggling MySpace friends, but many of them are still hooked on it.
Dark Orpheus – It’s not so much about making lots of money (though I certainly wouldn’t complain). It’s about being able to quit my “I have to wake up in the morning and go into the office job” and being able to stay glued to a word processor or a novel all day ;)
Nymeth – My boyfriend is trying to slowly fill in the gaps in my pop-culture knowledge. We just saw the underpants gnome episode recently and I couldn’t stop laughing!
Mailyn – Meeting like minded people is a definite benefit of the Internets. We’re so lucky to be able to take advantage of it.
Tia · 8 August 2007, 18:06
Those are all good reasons for blogging . . . and very similar to mine!
Jackson · 8 August 2007, 21:42
No matter the reasons, this blog is pretty damn awesome. Keep having fun and we’ll all keep having fun reading. By the way, is the next post #100?
jean pierre · 9 August 2007, 03:55
one of the things i really enjoy about this blog is you sharing the good things about life! i love reading your posts about food and cooking experiments. i especially enjoy how you link it with literature.
Kim · 9 August 2007, 07:52
Tia – Thank you and welcome. Glad you dropped by :)
Jackson – The review of Crystal Rain is post #100! My publishing software (Textpattern) uses the same numbering system for all articles, regardless of the section they’re posted in.
jean pierre – I’m glad my approach is working out for you :)
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