The Serious Business of Writing Blog Articles

The following is content I edited and pasted here from one of my blogs. I decided that I might need to explain myself since most of my articles are silly, humorous, or otherwise facetious, and writing as a career is such a serious endeavor. I feel it's important for people to understand that though I jest, writing silly blogs is very serious business to me.

I'd also like to give food for thought to other authors who are considering keeping a blog. No, I'm not going to offer advice about using websites and blogs to make money or do marketing. I'll leave that to the people who are experts. What I do want to accomplish is to challenge you to think hard before jumping on the blogging bandwagon.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that I mostly write off-the-wall stuff. And if someone were to ask you what you thought my goal was for my blog, you might be hard-pressed to answer.

Umm, she needs an outlet for her insane thoughts? Oh, wait! Her blogs are a project they’ve given her as therapy at the Sanitarium for Weirdo Writers. Writing tongue-in-cheek blog articles are better than a lobotomy.

Ha! Read on.

The thing you need to understand about me is that I’m a person who is capable of serious thought. Oh, yes. Deep thought, even. I really do have more in my brain than swimming toilet rats and the Three Little Pigs.

One of the things I’m very serious about is my writing career. That’s why I have this website. And that’s why I blog.

Deciding to blog was a big decision for me. I'm one of those people who thinks hard and counts the cost before she agrees to do anything, so before I embarked upon blog writing, I set out to learn everything I could about the topic.  

First, I read books. I am the research queen, by the way. I read books about everything I do. Then I looked into what other writers had to say. I explored all my options.

I came to the conclusion that blogging is serious business.

The number one warning I read, and something I would love to stuff with excessive use of force into other blogger’s heads, is that blogging can be dangerous. Anyone with a blog should seriously consider what they’re posting before they push that publish button.

Ranting and raving might work for you if controversy is the focus of your job and your message, like people whose careers are built upon their political leanings. (Ann Coulter, for example.) However, for a fiction author, whose goal it is to sell books, cutting loose about controversial personal opinions and topics is not wise. The person you offend today just might be someone you need tomorrow. Like an editor.

I'd also like to add that sharing certain kinds of personal information isn't good, either. Does the whole world really need to know how offended you are at someone today? Unless there's a lesson involved in the experience that people can learn from, or it's told in an entertaining and hilarious way that pokes fun at you (not at someone else), that kind of blog entry could very well serve to make you look like an idiot. Is that how you want people to view you?

Remember that words live in peoples’ heads long after the computer screen goes black. Words said or written in haste often live to talk back.

So, with that warning, I’ll get down to the three things I believe require consideration before a person decides to have a blog.

The first is simply a basic knowledge of blogdom. What blog platform will you use? Where will you keep your blog? Your website? A secondary host?

Blogger.com is where most of my friends have their blogs. There are other options that I don't have room to go into here, but some basic web research will tell you where the services are. Initially, my blog was on Blogger. Blogger has a feature that allows you to have your blog appear on your website. For the first seven months of my blog, I did that and paid someone to make the blog look like the rest of my site.

Not everyone likes to have their blog on their website, but I saw it as an opportunity to keep my site from becoming static, thus keeping people returning on a regular basis.

After seven months on Blogger, I wanted to change the look of my website. That would have meant paying someone again to change the look of my blog to match my website. After consideration, I chose to host my own blog. I have the software and the time. For now, it works, although it is much more time consuming than using Blogger. Like, I have to manually make my own archives.

And the mention of time brings me to my next point.

Second, think about what a blog requires. Count the cost. It can’t be a spur of the moment decision, slapped together, with no thought about its purpose or the commitment involved.

Blogs take serious commitment. You must be prepared to post on a regular basis. If you don’t, people will stop visiting. That’s a simple fact of life. It would be like someone inviting you to their house, then you show up at their door only to discover they aren’t home. If that happened several times, you’d stop going.

Honestly, folks, I can't tell you how frustrating it is for me to go to someone's blog and see nothing new. . .after a week. . .two weeks. . .a month. Hey, I'm there to visit you. I'm serious enough about you to return time and time again. Open the door!

Blogs. Take. Time. T-I-M-E. Count it before you start. Some people might be surprised to discover that on some weeks, I spend up to three or four hours, maybe more, writing my two weekly blog articles, between research, preparation, writing, and editing.

WHAT? You probably just exclaimed. Just to write about septic tank monsters and moments of insanity? Yep. Granted, the research I do is probably something I would do anyway. I’m always on the look out for weird and goofy facts. But my silly blog articles are real work. Silliness has to flow well and be thoroughly edited, just as much as serious articles have to be.

But, why silly articles, you ask? That's my third point.

Third, a blog needs a purpose. An identity. A reason to be. A theme, if you will. Just having a blog because you want one. . .because it’s cool. . .because all the other authors do it. . .because you like to see your words on the computer screen. . .because you want everyone else to see your words on their computer screen. . .those are not good reasons or a purposes for a blog.

Most blogs that develop an audience of readers have a reason for being. Blog readers come to have expectations, and that's important to remember.

For instance, the purpose for the Keep Me In Suspense blog is to aid suspense and mystery writers. That’s our focus, and our articles are geared toward that. When someone visits our blog, they know what they’re going to find.

Lisa Harris has a blog called, Heart of Africa. She’s a missionary in Africa, as well as an award-winning author. On her blog, you’ll find really cool tidbits about her life there.

Cara Putnam is a lawyer and an author. Her blog, The Law, Books, and Life, is perfectly themed for her, with glimpses into her work.

At Write Time, Write Place, Kaye Dacus offers writers' tips from the knowledge she gained earning her master's degree in writing creative fiction.

The editors at my publisher, Barbour, have a blog called, The Edit Cafe. How perfect is that? They use it to offer us glimpses into their lives, as well as to provide updates and book reviews.

So, by now you're probably wondering about my blog. Does all that silliness have a reason for being? A purpose? You bet it does.

When I began planning my blog, I visited those of every author and editor and anybody else I could find. I noted what the trends were, what people were doing, and what blogs kept my interest—and why. Then I examined me. At what did I excel? What did I have to offer people that wasn’t already being done? What experiences or talents did I have that would be a solid foundation on which to base my own blog?

Sure, I could write about police procedure from my work at the police academy, but I was saving that for Keep Me In Suspense.

I had to think about it. I mean, it's not like I'm some big shot editor or multi-multi-multi-multi published person who can offer the world great wisdom from my wealth of writing experience.

So, I asked myself, what do I love to give to people in real life? That’s when I had an epiphany. I love to make people smile. If someone is down in the dumps and calls me, my first goal is to make them feel better. To help them laugh. To look at life and see the quirks and idiosyncrasies in the stupid, little things that happen. I firmly believe that laughter IS a gift from God. The more we laugh, the easier life is.

And then I realized that I often wrote the equivalent of blog articles on a regular basis, anyway. Quirky emails to friends about my experiences, weird news, or things that happen. Why not do the same for my blog?

My theme? Humor. My purpose? To make people laugh.

If I’ve done that, than I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. No, that isn't a guerilla marketing plan or a way to make money, but it is a way to help people. I'm all for that.

So, this article is my serious digression from my usual bloggish silliness and. . .

OH, WAIT!. . . . . I must stop writing now. My nurse has arrived and informed me that my writing hour is up. My next scheduled activity at the Sanitarium for Weirdo Writers is making wallets from duct tape. I’m really, really excited about that. They’ll make great Christmas gifts.

Ha Ha Ha!