Do you want to know what I think the worse thing a blogger can do?
- Some would think that it is blogging about something you know will annoy others.
- I have a few people I know that would suggest it may be not re-reading what you post before pressing publish: though I have seen a few blogs that really could use an editor ;-).
I am sure you can add other things that could be considered the worst thing....
For me the
worst thing a blogger can do is to sit there with your blog and expect others simply to come to you just because your blogs exists. The most important thing for a blogger to do is to appreciate that there are most likely 1000s, if not more, blogs out there that are just like yours - what makes you so special? Tell me if you think I am wrong.
The thing that can make your Blog special is that you are willing to participate! Yep that is right - get out there and network with at least a % of those many blogs like yours and other blogs that you think are worth encouraging to continue. No Blog is an Island - if you want it that way then I suggest you start a LiveJournal and lock your posts down to you, yourself .... : so no one else can read them.
My confession is: Up until about 6 months ago
I was an Island. I sat there alone and did not show any, or really not enough, appreciation towards those who have supported me since the beginning. So what changed for me - well the facebook application NetworkedBlogs has recently helped, but I think it was simply that I realised there are some fantastic blogs that need myself and others to support them. Blogs whose authors need to know others care about what they post. Another realisation for me occurred when my
Blog of Poetry reached the age 2 years old and I wanted to do something to celebrate - hence this blog
Behind Dreaming. And working on this blog has made me want to become more active.
My other confession is more "Wow having a blog of poetry did not work out the way I intended when I began". When I started blogging well over 2 years ago I did so because I wanted to share my poetry with my friends, family and anyone else I thought might be interested. By posting my poems to a blog they are open to anyone I know to read and there is also a sort of interesting risk that someone may come along and tell you to get a life ;-). Well I am happy to say that being told to get a life and to not give up my day job has yet to happen. Though I do love my day job so I am not in a rush to give it up. I have realised that many of the ones I wanted to share my poetry with do not come to my blog, as they are simply too busy. Feeding my poems into My Notes in Facebook has helped, but I still have been known to prod friends on occasion to say 'hey look at what I did'. There are those solid group of friends who do actively read my post and they know who they are. Though if they want others to know who they are let me know and I will post a 'Reader Roll' so I can name names: my version of a Little Black Book.
This acceptance helped to get over my initial goal and to look beyond my Island and realise the world of Blogs and other such tools is a wonderful place to be. I now want to find others who may learn to care about what I have to say and for me to be able to find the work of those I can not help but love.
So on this day of confessions I want to send a BIG thank you to Barbara Flowers for emailing, on a work list, the idea of creating a community of blogs. This idea entailed Barbara running a core site and all our blogs would be linked to it. Now at this point of the post I will tell you the
worst thing I have done as a blogger is to not show Barbara and the rest of the
Queensland Writers' Group a greater appreciation for their wonderful writing. I have also not thanked them more for providing the chance to belong to a community of fantastic writers.
If you love short stories then I recommend Barbara's latest post
The brothel-keeper's tale, which is a story that captured me. I especially love the character Tillie
. There are many stories on
Barbara's blogs. Barbara has also posts poems and the one I want to highlight today is
The usefulness of thoughts.
To help Barbara, Skye Gurtner and I have been added as authors of the
Writers' Blog. Skye has added her
first post about a wonderful book she found called ''Bird by Bird: some instructions on writing and life'' by Anne Lamott. You can read more of by
Skye at her blog. I am mulling over what I will write for my first post and I am thinking about writing of my experiences as an Australian Poet in New Zealand or more specifically Dunedin.
So was this a shocking confession: you are probably thinking
no. I was not actually striving to shock. I simply thought is was worth admitting my mistakes. However, I am willing to take suggestions for how I can make my posts more shocking :-)
