Tag Archives: blogging

March 22, 2013 · 3:18 pm

I Wish I Could Write

I wish I could write well.

What do you mean? you say to me. You’ve got a blog. Of course you can write.

But I still wish I could write well.

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you probably noticed I’ve been posting less. It’s not because I’ve run out of ideas. I always have ideas. It’s because I’ve run out of confidence my ideas need to be written.

I can write as well as the average blogger, maybe better than some, and worse than others. I can write short, entertaining little stories that some lovely people shell out money to buy. But is that reason enough to write? I want to write things that make people feel, that contribute to society, that add something to the world. Not change the world, but are more than a momentary distraction.

Because, after all, I read tons of blog posts that I don’t remember the next day. I surf through thousands and thousands of very interesting articles in a month, and when I run across them again later, I don’t remember whether I’ve read them or not. Something needs to be truly great for me to remember it, and for me to see the world differently because of it.

So what is the point of me being another contributor to this infinite stream of information on the web? Why does the world need another slightly charming distraction from the daily grind? Shouldn’t what I write be somehow worthwhile?

There are three types of people in this world. There are people who can’t write, and who look on those who can with awe. There are the vast multitudes of those who can write, varying along a scale from absolute hacks to clever and skillful authors. And then there are those who don’t merely write, but actually write – the difference is almost impossible to describe but obvious to see. They are able to describe something no one else can put into words in a way everyone can relate to. In a way that, when you read it, you’re forced to say – yes, that’s actually how it is. I just never knew how to express it before. And then you go away amazed that other people in this world feel the same way you do.

But sometimes, as I struggle along with the vast multitudes of serviceable writers, the gap between us and these virtuosos of the craft seems so large, so impossible to cross, that it hardly seems worth it to struggle along anymore. Why does the world need another writer to put the mundane into mundane words, when so many writers who do just that already exist? The world needs more virtuosos. And to get to that point – there are no instructions. Each writer is on their own.

So now you know, if you’ve been wondering why this blog hasn’t been updated as much. I apologize for that, if you’ve been looking forward to it. I haven’t lost interest in writing, and I can never lose interest in it. I write because writing gives me the chance to get the words exactly right, in a way just speaking the words never allows me to. Speech is fleeting and gone in a moment, and you can so easily leave the wrong impression without meaning to. Writing gives me the chance to say what I mean. I just hope that someday what I mean will be worth writing.

***

Update: Curious if I can write? Try one of my short, five-minute reads for free–either a romantic Christmas read (Spring Fever), or a story of unrequited love (Lookin’ Good).

1 Comment

Filed under On Writing

Tagged as authors, blogging, blogs, writers, writing, writing 2013, writing well

December 14, 2012 · 12:58 pm

Slow Blogging, And Why You Should Blog Less

This post was planned to be an announcement of Stories and Stuff going down to one post a week for the next month or two, to give my blogging muscles a rest and to focus on fiction writing a bit more. Well, think of my surprise when I came across this slow blogging manifesto. Author Anne R. Allen points out that blogging often, at least three times a week, is great for getting Google searches to land on your page. But it is less useful for the sort of word-of-mouth promotion that really builds your readership. Quality is more important than quantity. Needless to say, this made me feel better about my decision.

Here are several of her reasons for ‘slow blogging.’ Click here to read the whole thing:

1) A slow blog has a longer life-span.

The average life span of a blog is three years. But you want your writing career to last longer than three years, don’t you? A neglected blog hanging in cyberspace is worse than none.

So you’ve got to plan a blog that’s going to beat the odds. A slow blog is more likely to do that.

2) You reach more people by commenting on other people’s blogs than by madly posting on a new blog nobody reads…

3) Busy people are less likely to subscribe/follow a blog that’s going to clutter their email inbox/rss feed every day.

4) Everybody has bad days. When you have to think of something to say on the day you got that nasty/clueless review/rejection, your emotions could leak out.

…

So, until further notice, this blog will be updated on Fridays from now on. Most posts will be Quotables, but I certainly will post longer ones once in a while, because when the writing bug strikes, you have to see where it leads you.

See you more regularly in a few months, and hopefully I’ll have an armload of new fiction once this is over!

What do you think – is posting more often better than posting only once a week? Or is there merit to ‘slow blogging’?

1 Comment

Filed under On Writing, Randoms & My Life

Tagged as 4 reasons, Anne R. Allen, blogging, slow blogging, writing

November 30, 2012 · 11:24 am

Who Says I’m Qualified to Contribute to Academic Conversation?

So I am in middle of writing a twenty-page paper about Woodstock, which means my writing muscle is pretty occupied right now. (Though seriously, the organizational disaster that was Woodstock is an incredibly interesting topic, and it’s worth reading and laughing about sometime. 400,000 hippies hanging out in the mud, with almost no food and only 600 bathrooms for them all – sounds like a great time!) Fortunately, I previously did a post on the hair-pulling anxiety that is writing a paper, which seems appropriate to re-post today. After all, it is exactly the same hair-pulling anxiety that is seizing up my brain at this very moment. So I present you…

Why It’s Harder to Write a Term Paper Than a Blog

Some people might think blogging is pretty scary – putting up stuff for all the world to criticize, and maybe to use to your disadvantage when you run for President someday. However, I realized these past two weeks that writing academic papers scares me more. Then I started wondering why, and ended up writing:

The Utter Bloody Fear of Handing in a Paper

OR: Who Says I’m Qualified to Contribute to Academic Conversation?

Whenever I write a paper for university, I have a period of at least day of paralysing fear, where I’m certain I’m about to fail this paper and never pass another course again. I don’t get this with exams. Exams you can just write the thing and walk away, and if you forget an important thing it doesn’t mean you’re stupid, you were probably just stressed out.

But when writing a paper, you’re expected to poke holes in ideas of people a hundred times smarter than you, and hand it in to someone a hundred times smarter than you. Well – when I’m rational I try to convince myself the prof probably isn’t that much smarter than me, just disciplined enough to finish a doctorate in the subject. But that don’t negate the fact I’m walking into THEIR territory with this paper, and they know this stuff and I’ve just taken a two month course on it.

I mean, honestly, you want me to criticize Karl Marx? Or Foucault, or Hayden White, or whoever the theorist of the course happens to be? I might disagree with them, but I can hardly engage them on their own terms. In fact, I’m usually having trouble grasping exactly what they’re talking about. And since I hate misrepresenting people’s ideas (even on this blog, I’m always afraid to misquote someone), I feel pretty unqualified to comment on someone’s theory when I’ve only read a half-page excerpt of what the guy actually said.

So, thinking about this, I realized I have this trouble in real life conversations too. They always describe academic publishing as like a conversation, and this may explain why I feel so uncomfortable jumping blindly into the conversation. I don’t like entering a conversation unless I actually have something interesting to contribute. So sometimes when people think I’m quiet, I’m actually trying to avoid repeating bland ideas that have already been said a hundred times before. As well, if the topic of conversation is video games, hip-hop, movies I haven’t seen, or any other topic I don’t know enough about, I really don’t feel expert enough to interrupt the flow and jump in with something, just to remind everyone that hey, I’m standing in the group too. However, in academia, it is essential to remind everyone you’re still standing there – it’s ‘publish or perish,’ after all. But still, I hate pretending I know enough to actually write on this stuff.

All the same, writing papers is probably a good thing. It teaches you to take a position, and back your opinions up. Sometimes taking a position in these debates is the only way to feel your way around, and find out what the debate really all involves (and sometimes you find out your initial position is wrong, too, of course). You might be surprised, say, by what Karl Marx actually said, even if you still think he’s wrong.

Still, it is strange writing papers scares me more than blogging. Even if I get two hits a day, that’s still several more people reading my stuff here than the one prof and maybe a TA who read my academic papers.

Well, wish me well as I go to slay the anxiety dragon!

The above post was originally posted here. I did modify it a little in the re-post.

Blogging Responsibly

Blogging is a funny thing. Many times I’ve poured thought into some topic, feeling like a post about it really needs to get out there. That this little thing I’ve noticed about the world around me has got to be noticed by other people too. Then – nothing. No reaction from the internet at large. But when I`m running short on time and I have no ideas for what to post, when I quickly surf a couple sites and stick up a random link to write about…. well, then I am flooded with more comments than I expected. Really, the amount of thought and effort I put into a blog post doesn`t seem to be apparent to the majority of readers.

Which could tempt me to slack off. I could just whip up random posts at the last second on a regular basis, instead of just during exam periods or other hectic times. The blood, sweat and tears of a writer does not seem to inevitably show up in between the lines a writer produces, so why bother sweating at all?

Well, because being a contributor to the infinite stream of information poured into the web each day comes with responsibilities. (Fun fact: did you know there more video uploaded to Youtube…) 99.9% of this thing we know as the internet is complete garbage, but that doesn’t mean people don’t rely on what looks less like garbage than most.

I really didn’t believe, when I started blogging regularly, that I’d get more than two or three people reading this. And while I’m nowhere near those superstar bloggers who’ve somehow turned their blogs into book deals, I still have more readers than I imagined I’d have. Which scares me at times. I was never nervous about blogging at first, despite seeing hundreds of bloggers complain about writers’ block and nerves before pressing ‘publish,’ because I really thought my blog would get buried somewhere in the internet. You know, not so buried that I could write inflammatory stuff without consequences, which I would never dream of doing, but buried enough that I didn’t have to worry about what people thought of my writing.

(Interestingly enough, I have far worse nerves when submitting something to be published somewhere, because print tends to be taken as some sort of canon. I’m scared of rejection, of course, but more than that I’m scared I’ll write something and get it published, and realize I phrased something in such a way that it does not sum up the truth of my thoughts at all. That I’ll mislead people from the truth – crazy fears, but writers’ fears do tend to be crazy.)

But I have ended up with a tiny little platform to shout from, and I should consider what I use it for. I don’t think any platform, however tiny, is too small to be worth caring about. If you’re telling stuff to merely half a dozen people, you still have to think about being accurate, and how what you say will affect them.

It’s not just getting facts right, though that’s horrifically important (and I’d rather have a mistake pointed out to me than wrongly inform whoever reads this). It’s the fact people sometimes relate to what you write. Or you shared a link that started a lot of thought-provoking conversation – I have this more often with facebook, which makes me aware I should be careful what I post on my timeline. It’s easy to stir up the controversy, but is it productive or worthwhile? Or maybe someone comes to you later and tells you the link you shared really helped them think a different way about this-and-this situation in their life, which is scary. It scares me to think of some little thing I have ever written in my life could send another person bouncing off in a completely different direction, like some internet form of the butterfly effect. Not that I can flatter myself that I have that much power, but the smallest possibility that I could is nerve-wracking.

Because it’s easy to throw up post after post, link after link, without thinking about the way it could impact others. But in reality, each one of us actively sharing stuff online are almost like mini-Googles, filtering the web for the interesting bits. Except our biases and failings are more our responsibility than an automatic computer program.

Fortunately, I have never insisted I was an expert, which means every single one of you is free to disagree with me. You’re free to tell me if I’m stirring up controversy for no reason, or if all I share is irrelevant time-wasters. You’re free to take what I say with a grain of salt, and I’d prefer it if you do. After all, I’m just trying to write about living, which is something we all go through.

4 Comments

Filed under On Writing

Tagged as accuracy, blogging, responsibility, writer's fears, writing

January 6, 2012 · 3:15 pm

Why Blog?

Typing, by harmamae

Advice for New/Old Bloggers

Apparently the number of blogs on the net is approaching infinity – if you count everyone’s Myspace and Facebook notes and so on. Still, if that is true, why on earth am I writing another one? Or if it was your New Year’s Resolution to start one yourself, why should you bother? Here are three reasons.

Competing with Infinity:

Remembering that you are competing with infinity forces you to write. Forcing yourself to write can be a good thing. After all, if there are an infinite number of blogs out that, I’d guess ninety percent of that inifinite number are dead blogs (you can probably tell I’m not a math whiz here). People got too busy for blogging, ran out of ideas, or got discouraged when they didn’t get ten thousand visitors in a day. So let me let you in on a little secret: if you blog regularly you are already ahead of ninety percent of that infinite number of blogs. (Statistics may be debatable, but you get the idea). I’ve noticed when I’m very clear about what days I post, my stat numbers are way higher than back when I just posted randomly. So pick several days to post and stick with it.

For Those Who Want to Write:

If you’re like most of the bloggers I follow, you want to blog because you’re a writer, and you want to improve your writing skills. And I’m here to tell you, you’re right. Blogging will improve your writing skills, even if every post you turn out makes you cringe in disgust. That is because one very important skill a writer needs is discipline. Sure, you can complain about writer’s block as much as you want, but are you truly a writer if you never write a word because of it? If you have a blog you have to write something every week. Preferably something good that people will read, but just the act of making yourself write something regularly develops a writer’s discipline.

Good Post? Bad Post?

Lastly, blogging helps you realize what a bad judge you are of your own work. Some days I have terrible writer’s block and I search the web for hours just hoping to stumble across an idea. And when I churn out some kind of post, it sounds like I’m writing a highschool essay and I can’t imagine anyone would want to read it. And then when I check back the next day the post has a whole string of comments, and people are actually really interested in the topic! Then again, some posts you think are great disappear into the vortex of the internet without anyone noticing they exist. So you never know.

Don’t Forget the Followers!

But it is the audience interaction that really drives blogs. It’s thanks to my lovely readers and their insightful comments that I’ve learned so much in my first year of blogging. I cannot express my appreciation enough.

So whether you write a blog, or just like reading them, I hope you have a wonderful 2012.

6 Comments

Filed under On Writing

Tagged as blogging, blogging tips, writer's block, writing

November 18, 2011 · 1:54 pm

Why It’s Harder to Write a Term Paper Than a Blog

Frustration! by Bev Sykes. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution LIcense 2.0 Generic

Some people might think blogging is pretty scary – putting up stuff for all the world to criticize, and maybe to use to your disadvantage when you run for President someday (fortunately, there’s no chance of me doing that). However, I realized these past two weeks that writing academic papers scares me more. Then I started wondering why, and ended up writing:

The Utter Bloody Fear of Handing in a Paper

OR: Who Says I’m Qualified to Contribute to Academic Conversation?

So, thinking about this, I realized I have this trouble in real life conversations too. I don’t like entering a conversation unless I actually have something interesting to contribute (and yes, hopefully this blog isn’t a useless piece of online chatter, but actually thought-provoking once in a while). So people may sometimes think I’m quiet, but actually I’m just trying to avoid repeating bland ideas that have already been said a hundred times before. As well, if the topic of conversation is video games, hip-hop, movies I haven’t seen, or any other topic I don’t know enough about, I really don’t feel expert enough to interrupt the flow and jump in with something, just to remind everyone that hey, I’m standing in the group too. Of course, some of my friends know if you wind me up on a topic I actually feel like I know something about, I can rant about my opinions for hours.

But still, I hate pretending I know enough to actually write on this stuff.

So, I’m handing a couple papers this week. I’m writing this to procrastinate, and also to get my thoughts about this down on paper, which seems to help me think. Hopefully all will go well!

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Filed under History, On Writing

Tagged as academic papers, blogging, blogging is scary, fear, univeristy, writing

May 28, 2011 · 11:31 am

Subscription Disorganization

Or: Aaaaaaaaaah, How Do I Keep Track?

Stress, by Abie Sudiono. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

I haven’t come up with a good organizational system to keep updated on the blogs I follow yet. Not that I’m the most organized person on the planet – see last week’s post for the messy system I came up with to keep my notes for my novel straight. But it seems like there’s a million different ways to keep up with people’s blogs, and none of them work quite as well as I’d like them to.

The easiest method is with WordPress (the blogging platform I use, in case you didn’t know). If you have a WordPress account, you can just click on the little “subscribe” button at the top of the blogs you find interesting. Of course, this means you have to be signed in to WordPress to read your subscriptions, but I usually catch up with them before or after I make a post myself. The downside is this only works for WordPress blogs. Blogger, Tumblr, etc. you have to find another method for.

The other tool I use is Google Reader. If you have a Google account (for Gmail, GoogleDocs, etc.) you can get into Google Reader and type in the web addresses of the blogs you want to follow. The handy thing is you can organize blogs into folders according to topic or whatever you want, which is what I’ve down. My problem is I’ve got lots of blogs on here, and I forget to check this (mainly because I have to sign in to check it). As a result, my Google Reader currently says I have 500 or so updates to read, which I’m never going to catch up on. Also, if I read a blog without going through Google Reader first, it says that update is still unread, even though I’ve read it.

Another method is through email updates. There are only a couple blogs that I follow this way, mainly because I don’t really want to clutter up my inbox. If I get really lazy, I sometimes use my browser to bookmark blogs, because I don’t have to sign in to do this. Unfortunately, bookmarks don’t tell you about updates. And they’re not there if you happen to use a different computer.

The last way I keep up is to click on the person’s name every time they comment on Stories and Stuff, just to see if they’ve updated since I checked last. Sometimes it’s a good reminder, because I realize somehow I’d lost track of one of the blogs I’m interested in.

As a result, I often read blogs in batches, catching up on the last five posts someone wrote all at the same time. So if you’re wondering why sometimes I have five comments all at once, when I haven’t dropped by for a little while, just blame it on my disorganized system of staying updated.

What about you? What methods to you use to stay up-to-date, and how well do they work?

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Filed under Randoms & My Life

Tagged as blogging, blogs, disorganized, life, organization