Essay: What Makes a Personal Blog (partito uno)
Gentle reader,
Since you are reading this you obviously know what blogs are. If you don't, go find out and then come back and finish this. Blogs, like people, come in many shapes and sizes. Some are like diaries, some are travel journals, others are informative, and a lot are just wonderful fun to read. But the personal blog has the ability to encompass them all.
Why do I say that? Because a personal blog is all about the writer: their likes, dislikes, interests, affairs, etc. For instance, I love hiking, photography, writing sappy love sonnets, writing short stories, dancing, drinking, travel (even though I don't travel much anymore), and a lot of other things besides. My personal blog can encompass each and every one of these subjects, or I can create a whole new blog on just photography, sonnets, or whatever I want.
Personal blogs, however, may be more prevalent than any other type. I say "may" because I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing. That makes it more important to look at what people do in a personal blog than to figure out what a company does in a blog or what a single type of blog (for instance a travel blog) is like.
An example would be what a friend of mine does. Ron updates his blog infrequently, but each post tends to be different. On one post he might talk about his (not so) recent foot surgery and his recovery, another may deal with his favorite celebrities and what they are doing, and yet another may be a rant against the Cleveland Indians blowing yet another game! With Ron you never know what he is going to post, but it is always interesting to see how his mind works.
Not all personal blogs are as chaotic as Ron's. For instance, my personal blog tends to stick to the details of what I do from day to day, week to week. While my blog may cover many subjects, the basic theme is that of a diary. Whatever I talk about usually is something I did or experienced first hand. For instance, if I hear about something my friend Helene did while she was in Toledo and it may be interesting, I probably will not put it in my blog. However, if we're together and talk about the guys, gals, and various creatures of the night we encounter as go gay bar hopping will most likely be in my blog, simply because I am there.
A blog similar to mine is done by this really cool guy named Chad Fox. He lives out in San Francisco and his blog details his adventures in that city. Nothing is sacrosant with him. He even talks about how he had this conversation with his mother when he found out she was reading it. Guess there are just somethings a mother is NEVER supposed to know. But then, why would someone put it out on the net and tell your parents not to read it. That's just an invitation to disaster.
Still, his blog is the best written and most hilarious piece of work I've come across in a long time. Definitely worth reading if you have the time. My recommendation is to start at the very beginning and work your way up to the present.
But I digress... His blog, like mine, is in a diary format. The events he relates have happened to him or are important to him in some way. Assuming, of course, that he isn't a good short fiction writer and is making everything up!
Next time I will look at another blog and also delve more in to what Chad and Ron are doing with their blogs.
Since you are reading this you obviously know what blogs are. If you don't, go find out and then come back and finish this. Blogs, like people, come in many shapes and sizes. Some are like diaries, some are travel journals, others are informative, and a lot are just wonderful fun to read. But the personal blog has the ability to encompass them all.
Why do I say that? Because a personal blog is all about the writer: their likes, dislikes, interests, affairs, etc. For instance, I love hiking, photography, writing sappy love sonnets, writing short stories, dancing, drinking, travel (even though I don't travel much anymore), and a lot of other things besides. My personal blog can encompass each and every one of these subjects, or I can create a whole new blog on just photography, sonnets, or whatever I want.
Personal blogs, however, may be more prevalent than any other type. I say "may" because I don't know for sure, I'm just guessing. That makes it more important to look at what people do in a personal blog than to figure out what a company does in a blog or what a single type of blog (for instance a travel blog) is like.
An example would be what a friend of mine does. Ron updates his blog infrequently, but each post tends to be different. On one post he might talk about his (not so) recent foot surgery and his recovery, another may deal with his favorite celebrities and what they are doing, and yet another may be a rant against the Cleveland Indians blowing yet another game! With Ron you never know what he is going to post, but it is always interesting to see how his mind works.
Not all personal blogs are as chaotic as Ron's. For instance, my personal blog tends to stick to the details of what I do from day to day, week to week. While my blog may cover many subjects, the basic theme is that of a diary. Whatever I talk about usually is something I did or experienced first hand. For instance, if I hear about something my friend Helene did while she was in Toledo and it may be interesting, I probably will not put it in my blog. However, if we're together and talk about the guys, gals, and various creatures of the night we encounter as go gay bar hopping will most likely be in my blog, simply because I am there.
A blog similar to mine is done by this really cool guy named Chad Fox. He lives out in San Francisco and his blog details his adventures in that city. Nothing is sacrosant with him. He even talks about how he had this conversation with his mother when he found out she was reading it. Guess there are just somethings a mother is NEVER supposed to know. But then, why would someone put it out on the net and tell your parents not to read it. That's just an invitation to disaster.
Still, his blog is the best written and most hilarious piece of work I've come across in a long time. Definitely worth reading if you have the time. My recommendation is to start at the very beginning and work your way up to the present.
But I digress... His blog, like mine, is in a diary format. The events he relates have happened to him or are important to him in some way. Assuming, of course, that he isn't a good short fiction writer and is making everything up!
Next time I will look at another blog and also delve more in to what Chad and Ron are doing with their blogs.
posted by bagelbuoy at 23:30
1 Comments:
Good start. I take this to be your central claim in this post about the person blog: "a personal blog is all about the writer." Here, you explore that claim, and further define what you mean by "all about the writer," by noting that Ron comments on events in his own life and issues he feels passionate about (and giving examples of some posts). You note that you comment only on events and conversations in which you have taken part - hearsay is out.
I look forward to seeing where you go from here. This post seems to be about ways that the bloggers' choice of topics reveals themselves. Where do you go from here without repeating yourself? Will you talk about writing style? About profiles and what sort of personal information the site provides?
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