National Blog Posting Month

Why do you blog?

It is a weird activity is blogging - posting your personal thoughts about life, work and everything in between for the whole world to see. So, why do we do it?

I took up blogging to improve my written expression. I am a terrible writer. I have all these ideas in my head, but getting them out of my head and into the written form is an ordeal. Therefore, I blog. I am not entirely sure if it has improved my writing or if just a much wider audience than my suffering old English teachers are now being traumatised by my attempts.

So, why do you blog?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linsey on November 5, 2007 at 7:33pm: everything about my habits in the past scream "DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A WEBSITE," because I've been . at best, inconsistent. My partner got me a journal years ago and I excitedly wrote in it that this was it! This was going to be the first time I'd start a journal and actually write in it consistently! I never wrote in it again. But there is something about writing online - something about the potential audience - that makes it more fun. I've never been good at writing for myself. I do well when I have an audience - even if it's only a handful of people who sometimes say - "oh hey, that was kind of funny."; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Riayn on November 5, 2007 at 9:13pm: So how long have you been able to keep up your blog for? Do you find that you tend to post daily or on a less frequent schedule?

I do agree that it is nice to have an audience rather than writing in a paper journal to an audience of one.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Linsey on November 5, 2007 at 9:27pm: well, my blog is fairly new, but it means something to me that I've managed to keep at it longer than any other attempt at writing. I definitely am not a daily poster - but I'm working on giving myself more time to work on my site which should lead to more frequent updates. I'm shooting for 3-4 a week, present month not included. :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Not the Mama on November 8, 2007 at 4:36pm: I'm a born writer. I was writing from the time I was old enough to put pen to paper. At six I emptied out a large hall closet and dragged in a desk and chair, declaring the are my "office". I was a journalism major in college and worked as a journalist for awhile. And I have written tons of fiction, including a novel I'm hoping to finish and submit to agents/editors in the next year. I'm also an avid journal keeper. I have dozens of notebooks and journals full of private musings. I resisted blogging for a long time because I thought it was too revealing -- I didn't want strangers reading about my personal life. But I fell in love with reading blogs, and finally caved and created one of my own. Happily, I've discovered that I can keep a blog without revealing EVERYTHING. I still keep a private journal where I write my private thoughts. My blog is a way to reach an audience, something I've missed since leaving the world of journalism. I write in it my public thoughts about my life, my job, politics, current events, etc. I love writing for other people, knowing that they are reading even if they aren't commenting. And I really love when people comment, not just because it's an ego-booster, but because I feel like I am connecting with my audience and writing about things people care about.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by LizzieLou on November 19, 2007 at 3:23pm: I blog because I may have mentioned something one time about having a web page of my own. Thus, my web-savvy lady-gay asked me what domain name I wanted, bought it, hopped on to wordpress, and said, "There ya go!" I never intended to have a blog. I thought I would put some stories or photos or something on a web page, but nothing like a journal. But there it was, and I started hearing: "Are you going to write anything on your blog?" and "Hey, I know... why don't you go blog?" and "That's a good one. You should blog that." and "Linsey has a blog." and "I don't know. You'll think of something."

And so I try to think of things. Then I write them down to try to make five people laugh.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ReluctantBlogger on November 25, 2007 at 4:11am: I haven't quite worked it out really. But it is mostly fun. I did write a post about this myself a week or so ago but didn't come up with any answers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by (In)Sanity Gal on November 3, 2008 at 7:37am: I think I agree with Linsey - there's something about having an audience that I enjoy more than just my personal journal-writing. I had an original blog that wasn't seeming to fit me, and I quit writing. But after a while I heard the call again :), so I started a new one a couple months ago, and I'm really enjoying it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nikki Jeske on November 6, 2008 at 4:19pm: I blog because the idea of being able to reach out to a large number of like-minded people via the internet is exciting. I love to write, and I love hearing what others have to say, so I blog about my life and urge others to tell me about themselves. I'm anti-social recluse in real life, but I love learning about people, so the internet is definitely the way to go. I don't have the leave the house, but I'm meeting tons of interesting people and sharing our ideas and loves and goals. It's fascinating.

It's also a good way to record my life so I remember it. My memory sucks.; ▶ Reply to This