What is blogging?

View from on top of Aspen Mountain - Aspen, CO
Photo by Loree Huebner

I’ve switched posting to Monday, starting today. With the beginning of the new fall season, it’s just easier for me to post on Mondays now. I still will be visiting my favorite blogs during the week.

Also, I'm having trouble commenting on some blogs. For some reason, I can't comment on the blogs without pop up windows. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon. Thanks for your understanding. 

Now on with this week’s post ~

Last Saturday night, hubby and I went to the movies. We took in a late show, seeing Contagion. This post isn’t about the movie, but a line from it that took me by surprise.

In one part, Jude Law’s character, a freelance writer specializing in conspiracy theories, named Alan Krumwiede, is confronting a research scientist/professor, played by Elliot Gould. The doctor says to him:

Dr. Ian Sussman: “You’re not a writer. You’re a blogger. Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation.”

Whoa! The line blindsided me and it took me a few minutes to digest and process.

Granted that the character does use his blog for his own (I want to insert “selfish” here) gain, but nevertheless, the line set me to wondering—do people really think this about blogging?

“Blogging is not writing. It’s just graffiti with punctuation.”

Apparently, like everything else, there are good and bad reviews about art of blogging. There are many, many blogging communities—news, politics, business, marketing, religion, sports, and entertainment just to mention a few. You name a hobby, there’s a blog about it.

Here in the writing community, blogging is about sharing the writing and the publishing experience, as well as platform building. I think we all support that. We love to celebrate someone’s recent successes—like getting an agent, acquiring a book deal, or just completing the first draft of a manuscript. We support and cheer on as we also climb the same ladder. We encourage and sympathize when someone receives a rejection letter. We post about the ups and downs. That’s life in the blogosphere of the writing community. I like the feeling that I’m not alone when I read a post about the very same thing I’m going through.

I am a writer. Period. And a blogger! Exclamation point! 

I’ve only been blogging for about seven months now. I’ve been reading blogs for several years. I personally think blogging is terrific. And of course, what I read is my choice.

In the writing community, there are some superb blogs filled with a fountain of information about publishing, agents, how to write queries, setting a mood, formatting, character development, research, genres, platform building and branding…something for everyone. I could go on and on. This is what I enjoy reading. I’ve learned so much about craft and the business of writing from reading certain author’s, agent’s and editor’s blogs. There is a wealth of information about the publishing industry for everyone from the novice to the published and beyond. It’s up to you to pick and choose what to read. We have a diverse blogging community of readers, writers, agents, editors, and publishers. How awesome is that?

The real plus about blogging for me is that I’ve met some real great people in the writing community, both authors and readers who visit my blog, and who I visit. It’s more than just “graffiti with punctuation”. I genuinely care about what other authors have to say. I learn great tips from the agents in business. I study the information and the experience we give and receive in our general interest of writing and publication. I find most is helpful in different stages.

Of course, our real lives do occasionally spill over into our blogs as we share a little of our daily grind as a writer juggling parenthood, work, a happy event, an illness, or a loss. I enjoy learning little tidbits about my fellow writers. We give and take. It’s more than “graffiti and punctuation”.

I love it.

What do you really think about blogging? Do you enjoy it? Care to share any good or bad experiences? Do you think it’s necessary for an author to blog?

Below I’ve included quotes that I’ve found on blogging. I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with them. I just found them an interesting read. A few are funny, most are truthful, and several are just—what the heck?

Between you, me and the gatepost,

Loree

“I read blogs every day, for all sorts of reasons, but I turn to blogs especially when I want to hear alternative viewpoints — for example, information on a particular medical treatment from the viewpoint of patients receiving it, rather than doctors administering it; reports from the battlefield seen through the eyes of soldiers rather than politicians; thoughts on a particular technology from the standpoint of engineers rather than executives.” (Jim Buckmaster)

“Blogging is good for your career. A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field.” (Penelope Trunk)

“In at least one way we are atypical bloggers. That’s because we just keep on posting. The typical blogger, like most people who go on diets and budgets, quits after a few months, weeks, or in many cases, days.” (Stephen J. Dubner)

“Blogging is the new poetry of our time!” (Author Unknown)


“Blogging is…to writing what extreme sports are to athletics; more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is in many ways, writing out loud.” (Andrew Sullivan)


“The casual conversational tone of a blog is what makes it particularly dangerous.” (Daniel B. Beaulieu)


“Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining “Blog” is a fool’s errand.” (Michael Conniff)


“Blogging is an art, same as any other method of self-expression. Some are better at it than others.” (Hugh Macleod)


“With 206,675,938 websites and blogs as of March 2010, you should be able to gain understanding of anything.” (Author Unknown)


“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” (Brian Clark)


“If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you’ve got. Just don’t plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.” (Seth Godin)


“Blogging alone is nothing but a big hamster wheel.” (David Risley)

“And it occurred to me that there is no such thing as blogging. There is no such thing as a blogger. Blogging is just writing — writing using a particularly efficient type of publishing technology.” (Simon Dumenco)

“Without the New York Times, there is no blog community. They’d have nothing to blog about.” (Malcolm Gladwell)

“I sincerely believe blogging can save America.” (John Jay Hooker)

“But there’s a bigger trend I’m seeing: people who used to enjoy blogging their lives are now moving to twitter.” (Robert Scoble)

“People have often described me as a blogger. I generally shy away from the term because, to me, bloggers are boring, self obsessed narcissists who use their website mainly as a means to discuss the inconsequential minutiae of their day to day lives.” (Anonymous writer)

“I believe the term “blog” means more than an online journal. I believe a blog is a conversation. People go to blogs to read AND write, not just consume.” (Michael Arrington)

“When I started writing this blog more than 3 years ago, it was in response to traditional media’s habit of twisting interviews to fit the headlines they wanted to create.” (Mark Cuban)

“The Lazysphere – a working definition – is a group of bloggers who I won’t name by name, but you can spot them a mile away. Rather than create new ideas or pen thoughtful essays, they simply glom on to the latest news with another “me too” blog post.” (Steve Rubel)

“A novice blogger knows he can write about anything. A veteran blogger realizes he shouldn’t.” (Unknown)

“Blogs, social networks, newspapers, any other form of publication – all have social aspects to them. It is a spectrum really, with social networks at one extreme and a 19th century novel at the other. But there’s room for all types of social publishing platforms.” (Richard MacManus)

“Blogs are already moving up market and improving. The term “Professional Blogger” is no longer an oxymoron. Some in the traditional media realize this – ESPN, for example, recently purchased the popular basketball blog TrueHoop.com to complement its other online news offerings.” (Luke Langford)

“A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list.” (Author Unknown )

“Your blog is your unedited version of yourself.” (Lorelle Van Fossen)

“Blogging is not rocket science. It’s about being yourself, and putting what you have into it.” (Author Unknown)

“The personal nature of the blog is what they find appealing.” (Ethan G. Salwen)

“The first thing you need to decide when you build your blog is what you want to accomplish with it, and what it can do if successful.” (Ron Dawson)

“Blogging is hard because of the grind required to stay interesting and relevant.” (Sufia Tippu)

“Blogging is best learned by blogging…and by reading other bloggers.” (George Siemens)

“Yes, blogging is entertainment. It is performance. Each blog post a show, sometimes an opera, sometimes a 30 second commercial. Like a show, it may start with a bang, lead you along from song to song, have a great climatic moment, then leave the audience wanting more.” (Lorelle Van Fossen)

“To be sure, the blogosphere is subject to all of the same risks as the Internet itself. Many blogs are loaded with vanity posts, half-truths, rumors, and even intentional distortions.” (Christopher Cox)

“All bloggers have one faithful reader at least – Google bot.” (Unknown)

“As I have repeatedly written in one form or other, blogging is not about writing posts. Heck, that’s the least of your challenges. No, blogging is about cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with an ever-growing online readership, and that’s hard work.” (Alister Cameron)

“Then some profiles go, ‘for me, blogging cathartic’. Their posts are just a verbal diarrhea.” (Unknown)

“The more popular a person thinks he is in the blogosphere, the thinner his skin and the thicker his hypocrisy. This should be exactly the opposite: the higher you go the thicker the skin and thinner the hypocrisy.” (Guy Kawasaki)

Amongst these, I found a gem:

“Breathe. Know that the Internet has no eraser.” (Liz Strauss)

YIKES!

Have a great week!