In business terms, taking stock means to perform a count of your onhand physical inventory to make sure nothing’s lost, ruined, or stolen. It’s all about keeping the (financial) books balanced. The mental equivalent of taking stock is to examine your thoughts and feelings about anything and everything to gain clarity, perspective, and an ability to refocus. Hence, I’m taking stock with this post.
This post on writing (arguing that most bloggers really aren’t writers) has stuck in my mind like the linkbait that it probably was (as per Jonathan Fields’s assessment of the post). On the one hand, many bloggers are not fiction writers (or maybe they are, especially the ones that are scraping content or putting together content solely for the purpose of selling ads). On the other hand, some bloggers are great essayists, analysts, journal writers, and entertainers.
I care a bit less about skill than I do about the ability to tell good stories that ring of authenticity and feeling. I admire people who are willing to put their egos and feelings on the line to tell the world about important things, even if they’re only important to the writer. I love it when people dig deep into a subject to find the gold. I especially dig people who engage with their communities and the people that they read about.
I am also fascinated by the idea of timeless, enduring writing. I’m not convinced that it has to be the product of hours of hard, sweaty, nervewracking work that requires five edits and a legal team to help it see the light of day. Nor do I think that spewing your surface thoughts onto a screen is the key to enduring prose, either.
I am getting tired of formula, though. I use it from time to time: carefully constructed headlines, gripping opening statements, categories, tags, keywords, images, headings, subheadings, etc. to make sure that your content is scannable and easily understood when getting fleeting glances of your iPhone screen as you dash madly to catch your bus or taxi on the way to work. After all, attention is scarce and we want to focus on relevant content with as little effort as possible. In a world where we can go numb from exposure to so many choices of opinion, content, and topic, we’ve got to make it easy, right? Formula provides the road signs, familiar positioning, and fits within existing patterns of perception and cognition and allows the content to slide in with minimal friction.
And then it occurs to me that I don’t like some of my favorite blogs as much as I used to. Part of the reason is that they’re mature publications in maturing niches, so it can be hard to bring forth new and interesting content. There’s more of a focus on the quantity of content that’s being produced, of bringing in new voices, of starting to focus more on products and services.
You know what I miss? I miss some of the thoughtful analysis, deconstruction, and hypothesizing that I was seeing in some of these blogs a couple of years ago (I wrote about some of these kinds of posts here (about paper) and here (about the rise of microblogging) . I miss the feeling that I felt when some of the stuff I was reading about was new to me and it opened my mind to new possibilities. Maybe these more meaty posts are out there elsewhere, waiting to be discovered.
If only I manage to retrain my own attention span to watch for them and actually read them through.
Maybe I need to start writing more of them myself.
# # #
Somewhere between the lands of business oriented blogging (ultimate goal to sell products and services, although not directly at times); news or journalism (just the facts, man); and personal journaling, I think there’s a realm of debate, exchange of knowledge and ideas that makes us all smarter, more thoughtful, and hopefully generous enough to share without trying to wring every last unit of money out of it.
That’s where I’ve built my treehouse, where I survey the world, and from where I share my thoughts here at Broadcasting Brain. I don’t have many answers, but I do have lots of questions. And, of course, you’re always welcome to visit.
What do you think? Has the larger social media sphere (including blogs, of course) lost something during the past couple of years? Or am I digitally myopic?
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Back in October I wrote a slapdash post on the business of being “a real writer.” For what it’s worth:
http://writelife.net/2009/10/14/when-is-a-writer-real/
Personally, I find any debate about blogs and writing and who is good etc. mainly tedious now. The article that you link to, Bloggers are not writers, is silly … Well, I’ve only scanned it. However, if bloggers aren’t writers that’s okay since online people are not readers. We tend to scan rather than read. And that statement is just as sweeping and silly as “bloggers aren’t writers.”
Bill´s last blog ..Reference points
Why so down ?
I am relatively new to the blogging world and I have all those feelings of possibility and excitement. It sounds like you need to check out the new kids on the block. I can see how listening to the same points of debate over and over might get dull. I think things do move forward though, it’s inevitable.
As for whether bloggers are writers. I used to be told that you are not a writer or journalist unless you are getting paid for it. That is clearly no longer the case.
Thanks for the post,
Lucy
@Bill – Heh, I like the way that you’ve put it. I don’t entirely disagree with everything that the writer had to say; I just think she painted a picture with a big brush and broad strokes.
@Lucy – It was a kind of stream-of-consciousness rant/musing. By all means, I agree that there’s lots of great stuff out there, new and old. Sometimes, though, it just seems like the “back catalogs” for some of my favorite blogs are better than the new stuff. That’s just my opinion. I don’t mean to discourage you, just to suggest that there’s lots of good older material out there.
I’ve been re-evaluating why I blog too. Years ago, it was necessary to blog in order to “build a reputation,” but when you can buy 10,0000 Twitter followers for $9.99, reputation becomes negotiable.
I’m interested in interesting conversations. That may never be a direct route to fame and fortune, but at this stage, I’d prefer to write posts that may spark interesting debates and grant me some kind of personal insight into the world and the way my readers think than the alternative, which is writing 10 posts a week laden with keywords and linkbait designed to best exploit my AdSense widget.
Side note: what’s the best way to utilize one’s own back catalogue? So much focus is on “today” that we rarely give credence to (or think to recirculate ideas from) “yesterday.” Over the long haul, that feels like a great writer’s exercise but a horrible example of building relevance or maximizing all available media.
Justin Kownacki´s last blog ..The Relevance Economy
“I think there’s a realm of debate, exchange of knowledge and ideas that makes us all smarter, more thoughtful, and hopefully generous enough to share”
Love that quote. That’s a large reason why I write my blog. Thanks for sharing your opinion on the subject, always interesting to hear what others think.
Rebecca´s last blog ..Can you have any job you want?
I started my Writelife blog back in 2004 and have been reviewing the posts trying to identify the better ones. Over that time period, I see it waxing and waning in quality, focus and relevance. I think that’s inevitable. I’ve also seen the focus shift. It is still about writing but also social media etc.
Today I’ve been thinking of clutter and have been toying with the idea of going back and deleting all the posts that were just wastes of time or very period-specific or just plain irrelevant. I’m not sure I’ll do that — for one thing, it would be a time-consuming task. But it would certainly make the blog of greater value to anyone visiting.
On the question of why I blog … I think sometimes people get things turned around. Speaking just for me, I don’t write because I blog. I blog because I write. I would be writing all that I do anyway because, I think, that is what writers do — they write. Blogs are just a vehicle to make your scribbles and musings public and getting feedback as well as engaging in conversations. As I’ve said elsewhere, my blog is also my “thinking out loud online” vehicle. I believe that is one reason why the quality is a bit erratic.
Bill´s last blog ..The great digital landfill
@Justin: ah, but I thought that money didn’t have any value…
Isn’t social proof (i.e. the Twitter following) a bit different than reputation?
I agree wholeheartedly about conversations. I’ve been missing/wanting that a lot and I think it’s starting to happen more frequently here.
I think Adsense is overrated, myself, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never used it successfully.
I think that one of the best ways to reuse the back catalog is self-linking, personally, through relevant new posts. eBooks might be another option. The thing is, though, that the back catalog can become outdated as technology and circumstances change, so it would be best to use it with care.
@Rebecca: amen. You certainly stirred up some conversation.
@Bill (twice in one post? cool) – there are certainly some older posts that I’d like to burn, I mean get rid of, but at the same time I’m reluctant to do that.
I think there’s value in “thinking out loud”. If nothing else, you can get feedback about what you’re thinking.
Great post and I hate to sound like this, but I was just talking about the same thing with a friend of mine. I’m going to hit this theme hard over the next week or so.
Nathan Hangen´s last blog ..Don’t Mistake Traffic for Trust
That’s the ticket.
After enough practice, the formulas become second nature.
Michael Martine´s last blog ..Why Your Customers Might Be Your Biggest Untapped Resource
@Nathan – I’ll be interested in seeing what you write.
@Michael – yeah, but I worry that formula becomes pre-fab blog posts without soul. You know?
Seriously. It’s hard, following things for a long period and remaining interested. Writers in established niches don’t grow – and it’s worrisome to think we might fall into the same trap of creation on automatic. We need to mind our own economy of effort (to pun on Justin) and make sure we’re not just producing, but being proactive and changing things up.
You’re right, I don’t quite get the title joke – but it’s perhaps a valid thought. Nothing comes from nowhere, I’m finding varied exposure is my best ally in the constant quest for better, more interesting conversation.
Maybe I need to get in touch with you about a project idea
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..News Flash: People Still Failing the Social Resume
Ian: look at the first letter of each word in the title. The actual words are not that meaningful.
LMAO I love the title. It touches me in a universal-truth kind of way
@Bill and @Mark: I’ve been blogging sine 2004. In 2007, I deleted all the old posts and started over. Of course, I had my host copy them all to a file (that I’ve never looked at again) for me, but yes, they were all gone. I didn’t have all that much Google juice at that point anyway, and some of the topics were just personal essay that were irrelevant to my new focus on writing, reading and social media.
I am starting to feel like I need a change again, 3 years later (perhaps I’m on a natural 3-year program? lol). I’m going to concentrate on podcasting author interviews. Authors need all the help they can get these days, and I’m connected to a niche community that is interested in their work. So, I’m learning to edit and make an intro and all that jazz. I have to keep it interesting for myself or I’d shut down the blog altogether. That would leave me vulnerable to over-using Facebook or Twitter as a blogging platform, and no-one wants that!
But don’t be afraid to delete, especially those posts that don’t get a hell of a lot of traffic anyway. Copy the files, stick ‘em somewhere, and move on. Data ain’t sacred, and even online clutter takes a mental toll.
-Christine Cavalier
PurpleCar´s last blog ..Review of Write It Now 4: Writing software
@PurpleCar – good points on how to treat your archives. Hm, where’s the delete key? Also, your new focus sounds quite cool!
Ahhh, I see what you did there.
Haaa. Yeah. I got it now.
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..Book Review – Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
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