A Writer’s Life

This quiz is continuing the Blog Action Day theme; the organisers’ created it for a bit of fun and to help people get the message out about the day on October 15. If you haven’t signed up yet it’s for a good cause, so no matter what kind of blogger you are, hurry up and join in!

My result says that I’m a Purist Expert Socialite blogger… okay… I guess I agree with the purist bit; I got into blogging because I love writing and wanted a place to talk about issues online, and everything else has just been a bonus. I’m not so sure about the social bit, though; I’m into social sites and I enjoy reading a lot of blogs, but I know I’m not very good at commenting and such. It’s the time difference - by the time I’m able to read them, most posts are already hours old and I’m not contributing anything new.

Obviously it’s just a fun quiz but still, it’s made me think about what this blog’s about and how it’s changed. I mainly started it to write book reviews and editorial pieces, things which I didn’t expect to be that widely read. But after a few months I found I started to talk about more general things; nothing too personal as it’s not that kind of a blog, but thoughts on technology, entertainment, online culture, copyright… now it’s a mix of many different things. Generally that’s not such a good idea for a blog, but it seems to be working… and I like being eclectic.

What’s surprised me the most, though, has been the conversation it’s created. I saw the blog as a way of showcasing my writing at first, but then people started commenting; they read my posts and went from there to look at my work… now I’ve received more feedback on my stories because of the blog than from all my publications combined. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised as that’s the whole idea behind Web 2.0, but for a writer it’s an incredibly valuable tool. Writing these days is really about marketing yourself and the best way to do that is through word of mouth; if someone says they read something on my blog that they liked, or if they liked a poem enough to reproduce it for others to read, that’s a big compliment and the best kind of marketing I can have. It’s something I didn’t consider at the beginning, so I’ve already gained more than I expected.

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts on blogging, brought about by Blog Action Day… I wonder what kind of blogger you are, how your blog has changed since you started it?