On blogs and blogging

JB's Opinion Dump blog gives a lot of info and insight about the thoroughly new millennium concept of blogs and blogging (It's the November 6, 2006 entry, if it doesn't show up when you click on the link).

The thing is, I wish I had taken it up much sooner, because I have found it to be a very helpful exercise in writing - especially in that it keeps me in the practice of writing. Before I started blogging, it was difficult to stay motivated to keep writing, because I didn't have an audience to give me feedback on what I wrote. And in truth, when I first put up my website, writing a blog was an afterthought. Actually, someone who is familiar with my written and drawn works gave me the idea, because she felt that I could benefit from the practice of blogging. Boy, was she ever right!

The main challenge for me is not to have something to write about. That actually comes pretty easily for me. Just a few moments of staring at my monitor, and I can usually come up with something, and more often than not, I end up writing several paragraphs. I usually think of my ideas for topics when I'm away from my computer, and then it's just a matter of remembering what I had planned to write about once I've gotten access to a computer with Interet access.

No, the main challenge is to write something that will draw a response from my readers. I don't want to write in a slew of profanity, or to say something that's just so outrageous and/or offensive that readers are guaranteed to respond. To me, that's both a shortcut and a copout to actually writing something substantive. I don't want to be that way, and I don't want to get into the habit of writing that way. No, I want to write in such a way as to make my readers think.

While I don't generally get responses here on my blog that get posted, I do have readers that I know in person or by e-mail that will respond in person or by e-mail. I like getting responses and reactions to something I've drawn or written, and it was what I missed from my college days when I first took up opinion writing.

And many times, I write something that isn't a complete thought with a formed opinion. Sometimes my topics are "works in progress" in which I ask an open ended question which will encourage responses and answers from my readers. My entry about women's magazines posted just today is one such example. And I've gotten responses. I'll be posting them in the next day or so once I've talked it out some with the respondents. The responses so far have proven to be very educational.

So in summary, I very much recommend taking up blogging if you have an inkling to write. Your blog will be a big test on whether you can sink or swim with your writing abilities. You will also find out just how much you love writing. So far, I've enjoyed it very much. :-)