Blogging Blues
Swish that taste around in your mouth. Kind of salty and bitter, with a nasty aftertaste of lutefisk? It's called disappointment. And you're not alone. I'm all pouty-faced and slump shouldered as well.
I hit a few roadblocks this weekend while designing a new and improved blog face. There are only so many things you can do when you run up against a brick wall . . . curl into the fetal position, cry for your mommy, bang your head against the cruel cold stone, or yell "doggone it!" and determine to continue chipping away at the problem.
I've decided to press on. Yes indeedy, WOTL will get a facelift, but not today. Tomorrow? Maybe. Hopefully. Depends upon if my computer geeky husband has the time to help me tonight.
But the bigger question is why press on? Why not just heap the ol' blog onto the garbage pile of life, wipe off my hands, and ride off into the sunset without a backward glance? Several reasons, actually.
5 Reasons Why You Should Blog
It's your backyard and you can garden in it however you want.
This reason smacks of pride, and, well . . . I suppose I could concede a point there. But the beauty of a blog is that it's your own little piece of world wide web. You can say what you want. Do what you want. Make a vlog, write a rant, post a picture of your dog trotting around in tennis shoes. Whatever. It's freedom, baby. There are no blogger Nazis aiming AK-47s at your head. Wait a minute . . . did Nazis even use Russian guns? Whatever. The point is your content is whatever your twisted mind can dream up.
It's a place to keep track of cool links.
Yeah, I know that's what Pinterest is for so quit shouting. It makes my ears ring. The thing is that not everyone is into pinning. Gasp. Yes, I said that out loud. The fact is there are two camps and only two. Either you're an uber-gotta-pin-pin-pin-rabid-freakazoid or you have zero desire to find out what Pinterest is. So, that's one reason to blog: to share things you've found on the internet that might be of value to others.
It develops relationships.
Sweet mercy. Of course I know that's what friendsforlosers.com or patheticallylonelyhearts.net is for. Truth is, though, that the blogging community is huge and warm-hearted. Commenters are loyal and have valuable feedback. You will develop relationships that would otherwise not be possible were you not blogging.
It forces consistent writing.
A blog is a place to sort through big thoughts and whittle them down into smaller chunks. You think I'd do that voluntarily? No way. I'd rather sit on the couch in my underwear, slugging back espressos and eating chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, working my way into a reading coma. But the pressure of putting up a blog post means I have to instead writing something, which is way better on the waistline. Blogging is good for a writer simply by means of pressure to create a post in a regular manner, whether you're feeling creative or not.
Platform
You knew I'd get to this sooner or later. It used to be that authors had to start a blog. No, really. Agents and editors twisted authors' arms until they cried "uncle" or their shoulders popped out of the socket. But that was back when the mafia controlled publishing. BTW, you probably shouldn't quote me on any of this because I'm just making it up. Anyway, the platform reason is still valid, even though it's no longer in vogue for every author to start one. From my experience, I've gained readers that I otherwise wouldn't have had. I even gained a publisher because of my blog. You never know who's going to stop by and sample a serving of your writing.
Blogging is a a great way for a writer to make sense of the world and share those thoughts with, uh, the world. I highly recommend it. What I don't recommend is trying to figure out how to put a new template on your blog without some serious technical guns at your side.
Hmm. Maybe if I bake hubby a banana cream pie for dessert, I'll have my blog facelift done in no time.