My previous post and the comments have started me thinking - what exactly is a blog? What is a blog for?
The WIKI explains that a blog is a contraction of, weblog and is a series of postings on various subjects. It then goes onto to inform that there are over 12 million blogs out there. A lot of them no doubt about cats.
That's not really helpful. It does not address the big question - why do we blog?
I've started several blogs over the years and allowed them to fall into disuse, to sit there unloved, not visited and ultimately they moulder like binary hermits in the vastness of cyberspace.
But not The Tainted Archive - it continued to thrive and it's not about cats.
Now I'm a writer, bit-part actor, sometime cab driver and full time dreamer so I guess any blog I write will contain a mixture of these roles that go into making the person. I think of it as an online magazine rather than a blog - I want to entertain and often inform and of course I want to sell some books - Obviously I write because I have to, need to, love to but I want as many people as possible to read and hopefully enjoy my work. So yeah I'll always pimp my stuff, put it all on offer (hey I want to be popular and loved - who doesn't) but the blog is far more than simply an online promotional tool.
I suppose if I was an underwarter girder welder with an interest in stamp collecting I'd philatersise about penny blacks while wearing a wet suit. By the way I think I've invented a word there. If I was a 1970's girle mag fanatic...well, it would be difficult to type with blistered palms.
I'm not though (well apart from owning the odd girlie mag) and so I'll continue to do what I have been doing - writing about books, films, making spelling mistakes, mistyping names, pushing my books, posting random pictures of me as James Bond, doing interviews, some name dropping and all without a blister in sight.
And no Cats!!!!!!!!!
10 comments:
I think it's people's perceptions of you that make you popular. For instance, you seem like an upbeat likeable chap so I keep coming back. to see what master plans you've come up with next. I mean, who wants to waste time on a moaning minnie (or mickey)? We only have to go to work/the supermarket/the pub to have the (dis)pleasure of their company. :-)
People will just have to go to my blog for the occasional garden/dog/cat fix. Although I try to be of service by writing reviews and the like especially for Western writers, I do like the freedom of mixing it up a little, even if it's self-indulgent sometimes.
For me its a way to connect to a community of folks who like the same kinds of books that I do. I don't see many of them around where I live.
I admire your energy, and that's why I read your blog daily, via my Google Reader.
No cats, the man says . . . and what does he do? !!
No complaints, mind. Although the Black Horse Extra isn't a blog, I've run pictures of cats at least twice in the Hoofprints. In my personal life, I once spent thousands (yes!) of dollars in vet's bills prolonging the life of a diabetic cat with a heart condition.
Joanne -- nice to see the picture. What were you so shy about?
Gran -- yeah, that energy is really something. I envy as much as admire!
Almost a year old - doesn't time fly when your enjoying yourself.
I read blogs to "meet" and discover lots of interesting people.
By the way you might enjoy this week's MTM.
I got into blogging on a whim when I checked on a favorite only to find the author had taken it down. There was a start your own blog blurb there and so I did.
I haven't regretted it for an instance. I post my thoughts on movies, books, television, politics, and people take them however they want.
I've made a few friends, like-minded people as Charles pointed out(Charles thinks his area is dry of such types!), that I would never otherwise have encountered.
I like to think of a writer's blog as an appendix to what s/he is working on (on paper or chewing mentally) at any given time. It's a nice addition to the fiction and I've no doubt The Tarnished Star will have an added layer of richness for my having read the Archive these past months.
You ought to not knock the calico cat in the bottom photo as they bring the owner good luck.
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