Writing Blogs

The first thing you need to consider when starting a blog is why you want to start a blog. In my case, I wanted to display my writing. I think I’m doing all right with that, but I know there are better bloggers out there. Analyze why you want to blog. Then you have to think of how often you want to blog. Do you want to blog on a daily basis? Or do you want a more relaxed schedule? Consistent posting is important. I chose Sunday as the day I post these weekly blogs because I was more likely not to have to work. Then I discovered a great feature of WordPress©, it lets you write your blog, post it to your site as a draft and schedule it to post automatically.

It’s a good idea to be organized. I keep a running list of blog topics and the weeks I have no topics for. Then I write the blog, that way, I have a list of the blogs I have written and those that I haven’t. I also know where the blog topics are, because I use a spreadsheet to do that. I simply include a hyperlink to the topic file so that I can find it and determine where I thought I would be going when I first thought of the topic. I am also keeping an archive of the files here on my local computer as well as the archive on WordPress©. The spreadsheet is an automatic index. Lately, I have begun adding hyperlinks to the index. That way, I can find the blog file should I need to. The index will have the links by year, but I think I should copy the topics in each year and include a hyperlink to that entry in the index, which in turn will lead to the actual blog file. That may seem cumbersome, but I think I can work it out to be less so.

On the author page of my blog, I stated what my blog was about. I need to update that, now that I think about it. It’s a good idea to keep your personal info to a minimum and just talk about your blog. That will help you determine who your audience is. You have to consider your audience when you blog as well. Who is your target audience? I didn’t have any idea when I started blogging. I still don’t think I have the answer yet, but I enjoy doing the blog, except for coming up with topics. That’s hard work.

Maintaining the list means that I can have a little leeway with that. Sometimes topics occur to me with no effort on my part; I just think of the topic and add it to the list. Sometimes I actually write the blog at that time and add it to the list. Some of my blogs seem to write themselves. I just arrange them in the list so that they match up to the date they are due to be posted, usually at least a week in advance, especially in November, when I participate in NaNoWriMo. Then I confess, the blogs scheduled for posting in November are set up to post in October.

I have no idea how the people who blog daily do it. I can’t. Most of what I write in my personal journal every day is not fit for public consumption, although I do use the journal to write the weekly blogs. I copy and paste the required text to a new file and edit it. My daily journal is just a very large rough draft. I use it to write my fiction as well as my blogs. So it is a real hodgepodge of stuff, very little of which is in a fit state to publish. That’s ok, it isn’t intended for publication, at least, not all of it.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!