I started writing a blog to keep my mind and my fingers nimble, to maintain a facility with words I’d gained as a freelance writer of long standing. That was almost three years ago, when I quit the freelance world but still wanted to hold on to my skills.
Today I write a blog because if I don’t I won’t write anything at all. Even though plots and characters and scenery dance in my head. I quit blogging for almost six months in the hope of turning those characters and scenery into words-on-paper; but I didn’t write a
single line. So I nudged myself to resume blogging this past January so that I don’t lose my knack in case the characters and scenery force themselves to center stage. If that happens, I’ll make time for them.
Blogging is an interesting phenomenon from my perspective. It’s become almost a national obsession, at least with certain age groups; yet, what is written out there in the ether world is often banal. Often tedious. Also often grammatically incorrect.
Someone’s chronology of his or her day isn’t good writing; it’s merely list making in essay form. Someone else’s description of something that has been described upteen times before isn’t original; it’s regurgitive. And someone’s comments about something on YouTube® isn’t literary because he or she creates an entire blog around a link.
Blogging in pure form is like reading a daily column in the newspaper. The content appeals to a general audience; it addresses a general topic but provides the authors unique spin on it; and it adds information rather than refers someone to another site to find it.
I don’t know where the world of blogging will end; suffice to say, it’s a work in progress. The one thing it has going for it in my world is that at least I write a minimum amount of words most days. I post them and hope they hit home with others somewhere. Judging from the statistics my site gathers, there’s a small group of you out there who read me. Thank you.
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