On Blogging

I’m giving a little workshop on blogging tomorrow.  I’m not going to go in to all of the ways I will probably embarrass myself, but I’m pretty sure this will be the ideal time for inappropriate pictures to show up on my screen saver.  AND GET PROJECTED ON THE BIG SCREEN.  So, that will be awesome.  You’ll hear about it later.  Anyway, it’s made me think a lot about blogging, why I continue to do it, and the surprises that have come of it.

My very first post on this blog was a list of reasons why I shouldn’t start a blog, and one reason why I should.  Surprisingly, several of the expected disasters have not happened yet, although the one about my son bringing posts to his future psychiatrist will most likely play out.  And maybe the one about using my words against me in court.   Who am I kidding, it’s all going to go down in a ball of flames!

 I’m thrilled that the ONE reason I thought I should start a blog – to keep myself writing – was spot on.  Although not quite how I imagined.  It’s true, the blog guilts me into writing about my Best Bad Ideas, parenting faux pas and redneck tendencies one to three times a week (depending on the height of the guilt wave that washes over me).   But it’s also spurred my writing output by bringing in more work.  Which, by the way, is way easier than cold calling and sending out resumes and writing samples.  WAY EASIER. 

People can get on my blog, read a few posts and say man, this lady is a complete buffoon who dramatizes everything and makes poor decisions….WE’RE LOOKING FOR A DRAMATIC BUFFOON WITH A LOT OF SCARS!  And they contact me.  Seriously, that has to be the biggest and best surprise of this adventure.  I can get my voice out there and occasionally someone likes it.  I’ve also met a ton of cool people through the blog.

That totally makes up for the not-so-cool- surprises of blogging.  What? There’s a downside to blogging?  Darn skippy, there is!  Is that even a phrase…darn skippy?   If not, it should be. 

For example, a few of my posts like Little Shredder, and Whistler 2010 have incited some incendiary responses about my parenting.  Some readers have taken my irreverent writing style to mean that I don’t value the life of my child or the importance of the job of parenting.  I can’t think of a worse insult.  And to that I say, SIT ON IT POTSIE!   Because clearly, these people don’t know me. 

Another surprise has been unintentional audiences.   I usually write without thinking about who will read it because, in the grand scheme of things, this blog has a pretty small following.  I write mainly to amuse myself.  And then I find out that my blog was mentioned in an article of the Wenatchee World and a whole new batch of people just found out I HURT MY KNEE WHILE PEEING.  That’s not embarrassing.  At all.

Not to say I don’t love the unexpected visitors that come from re-posts – because I DO.  Re-posts are akin to finding a unicorn in my front yard, delicately holding a basket of conversation hearts in its teeth.   And the conversation hearts are for ME.

For the most part, this blogging thing is a riot, as long as I continue to not take myself seriously.  Oh, and I like conversation hearts.  Did I mention those?  Yeah.