What would a blog by Emily Dickinson look like?<\/p>\n
Would she be interested in writing a blog? I think so, but\u00a0I think she would probably post anonymously. She would write because it made her feel better. That’s the way I think it should be.<\/p>\n
I think that Emily Dickinson would agree that\u00a0blogging introduces some different challenges than writing privately. The audience, the pace, and the focus on the present are some of the challenges and blessings of writing a blog.<\/p>\n
Challenge #1: The Audience<\/span><\/p>\n My audience can influence what and how I write. I know how many people visit the blog each day. This is not a\u00a0good thing to think about. Numbers aren’t always a good measure of merit. They are\u00a0a\u00a0measure of my lack of publicity, my\u00a0non-trendy voice\u00a0…. and the number of female siblings that I have.<\/p>\n I know my audience, so I post lots of pictures of the kids. I care about my relationships, so I tread carefully though certain topics. This is a good thing. I have avoided many topics because I have an audience. Authenticity is one of those terms that people present\u00a0as an ultimate goal. Many people think being authentic means sharing everything that comes into our heads. I think authenticity comes when we have carefully considered\u00a0our words. If I wrote a negative post\u00a0about something bad in my life, this would not be authentic to the person I spend most of my time trying to become. If I wrote negative things, it would be a little bit like a celebration of these things. It’s more difficult to root out behaviors and ideas that we celebrate.<\/p>\n So, an\u00a0audience is both a help and a hindrance, but I’m grateful to have one. It’s more fun to write to someone other than myself.<\/p>\n Challenge #2: The Pace<\/span><\/p>\n Now and then\u00a0I do an experiment and post a link to this blog on Facebook. This produces many visitors, but most don’t come back the next day. The pace of the internet requires\u00a0something new all of the time and a quick link to get there. That’s just the way it is. I acknowledge it and remind myself that I don’t write to be popular. I write because I want to write.<\/p>\n Recently I saw a comic in a newspaper with two old guys sitting together\u00a0and one says to the other, “One thing that I\u00a0have learned from the internet is that there are\u00a0precious few\u00a0original ideas.” How true.<\/p>\n How many paintings does one artist really have inside? How many poems did Emily Dickinson leave behind? Would your favorite author be interesting as a blogger?<\/p>\n Challenge #3: The focus on the\u00a0present<\/span><\/p>\n Something in human nature is drawn to the never-ending story, not because it’s great, but because it changes. I have learned to write with an awareness of this and with an understanding that blogs are\u00a0an incomplete record and\u00a0measure of a person.<\/p>\n Many\u00a0blog authors that I read have given up trying to write frequently. Some feel guilty and\u00a0sad about it. I\u00a0think it’s good to\u00a0remember that writing about the present is limiting because we lack perspective when we’re busy\u00a0living through something. Also, life is repetitive and full of events\u00a0that aren’t interesting to write about. No one has something amazing to add to the world every day.<\/p>\n On the other hand, writing almost daily\u00a0has helped me to find my writer’s voice. I have improved in my ability to express my thoughts. When I began, it would take me hours to write a few paragraphs. Now I spend much less time and I use fewer cliches. And I have some company along the way. Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What would a blog by Emily Dickinson look like? Would she be interested in writing a blog? I think so, but\u00a0I think she would probably post anonymously. She would write because it made her feel better. That’s the way I think it should be. I think that Emily Dickinson would agree that\u00a0blogging introduces some different … Continue reading Some thoughts about writing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-according-to-angela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9144"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9173,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9144\/revisions\/9173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}