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Explaining your blogging passion

  1. maidiebike
    Member

    Had an eureka moment earlier today:

    A store employee at where I was ordering a sofa, was asking me about blogging and why I do it. She was curious. Since she was a paid writer before let go.

    Whereas my job isn't blogging, although involves some business writing (no not marketing. More on manuals, instructional materials, business reports), but I do it more to "help out" or feed my passion.

    That's the way how I explained it. How do you explain your blogging passion/obsession to others? :)

    The blog I need help with is cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com.

  2. timethief
    Member

    I don't. I just blog on.

  3. momfog
    Member

    I try to avoid the subject. The word "blog" still icks me out even though I'm absolutely addicted to writing mine. Besides, if they don't write them or read them, they probably won't get it anyway. I didn't before I started.

  4. teamoyeniyi
    Member

    I don't either. Fellow bloggers never ask, I try to keep work and home separate so colleagues do not know (unless they have found it and not mentioned it to me) and my daughter has her own so she isn't likely to ask either (she recommended it in the first place). Other friends just sort of know that for me it is therapy right now.

  5. timethief
    Member

    @maidiebike
    When momfog said: "I try to avoid the subject." I realized I try to avoid the subject too. I have discussed blogging with 2 very close friends and even shown them my blogs. They aren't interested in blogging at all.

  6. agadudes
    Member

    I just want some place to let the overflow of my thinking to go. I have tendencies to think about a lot of things and so many of things that actually matter get lost in the cluster. So I try to put everything that I consider important thoughts into my blogs before I loose them.

  7. agadudes
    Member

    I just want some place to let the overflow of my thinking to go. I have tendencies to think about a lot of things and so many of things that actually matter get lost in the cluster. So I try to put everything that I consider important thoughts into my blogs before I loose them.

  8. tltcl
    Member

    I can't help but mention my blog even though I can tell some people think I may be a geek or some sort of radical. People seem to be more curious the longer they know me.

  9. zenmaiden
    Member

    I'm always excited about and thinking of my blog so I often mention it to others. But it gets tiring after a while, always seeing the dumfounded blank looks as I try to explain what is a blog. Even tried to get others on fire for starting their own blogs. But in the end I just hand them a business card with my web blog on it. That always brings a smile to their face even if they never visit. (when they say they will)

  10. ulaysha
    Member

    Do you know in Harry Potter (books and movie), there's that scene where Dumbledore puts a wand to his head and all his thoughts are magically emptied from his head in a silver stream and he pours it for later retrieval in a magic basin? That's how blogging feels for me.

    But I also found, surprisingly, that it does feel like an achievement everytime I finish a post - hence its becoming a bit of an obsession.

  11. ulaysha
    Member

    Oops. Sorry. I don't talk about it - my past experience of writing, which has been published (just a few bits here and there) is that its very embarassing for family and friends to read it.

  12. momfog
    Member

    @ulaysha I know exactly what you mean. I have publicized this blog on facebook and now I find it stifles me somewhat. I have a "persona" I have to live up to. That sounds like I'm living a lie, but that's not what I mean. To family and friends, I'm "THIS" but inside I'm also "THAT," which I don't really want to unleash on them all at once. Am I making any sense? Sometimes I think about starting another blog for the "THAT" part of myself and not mentioning it to anyone I know (well, maybe a select few who would get where I'm coming from.)

    I'm seriously messed up, right? :-)

  13. maidiebike
    Member

    "Do you know in Harry Potter (books and movie), there's that scene where Dumbledore puts a wand to his head and all his thoughts are magically emptied from his head in a silver stream and he pours it for later retrieval in a magic basin? "

    Ulashya: What a great metaphor. (I haven't read Harry Potter nor seen a movie in its entirety.)

    My closest friends know I blog since I send them my blog links and highlight certain things. I think some family members look at something occasionally. That's ok. As long as they know there's a part of me that's not a secret, that's sitting on the Internet. Blogging is not surprising to them because I've always enjoyed writing and dealing with photos/visuals since I was young. It's just an extension of lifelong interests/natural abilities.

  14. timethief
    Member

    @maidiebike
    "I haven't read Harry Potter" - I recommend that you do. :)

  15. yourdailybailey
    Member

    For me its not as much explaining my "blogging passion," as it is explaining my "dog passion." My dog is the absolute center of my life. People who know me well understand that, however those who don't know me well may think it is strange that I have a blog devoted to my dog.

    However on the other hand, my blog is as much, if not more, about my photography than it is about my writing and stories about Bailey. I have a passion for pet photography, and this blog (and my subsequent 365 project) forces me to practice daily. I feel like I have already massively improved after just a month of the project. It is a confidence builder for me. People tell me often that I should consider making my pet photography more than just a hobby. I don't have that same confidence in my work, so my blog allows me to practice and gain confidence, while getting feedback and encouragement from others. I blog more for me, as I do for others.

  16. maidiebike
    Member

    I'm not a pet person at all since I never grew up with pets nor had a pet later. But your dog is cute. It sort of reminds me of my partner's mother's dog from awhile ago.

    The dog gives you bit of a laundry line to hang daily stories. :)

    I should add that most likely my close friends and family are probably relieved I am blogging and putting up pretty pics, considering the drastic things that have happened in life over the past 5 months or so. To them, it's a window into part of my brain and heart and they want to see at least part of it functioning well.

    I don't blog everyday or even every week. But I do tend my blog gardens and check on them daily. :)

  17. maidiebike
    Member

    I even suggested a blog sort of contest at work, as a fundraiser.

    We'll see that idea goes. It it's kicked into the digital trash can, that's fine too.

    You have to realize: in my profession, blogging is seen as a basic skill to add to one's resume, onto other more complex skills on content management. It also is a way to gauge again folks in my profession, how to write for a target audience, either niche or mixed, general audience.

  18. utopiaonstrings
    Member

    Not so much a bloggin passion as to keep my writing up. Blogging is the new age tech style diary, isn't it?

  19. teamoyeniyi
    Member

    Interesting thought - I NEVER kept a diary - you know, aren't all teenage girls supposed to express all their angst in a diary? I never did. Maybe I'm just catching up now!

  20. ulaysha
    Member

    Someone once told me 'only good girls keep diairies. Bad girls don't have the time.' Seriously though, this whole thing about whether it is a 'diary' of sorts is interesting - because diaries aren't usually meant for other people to read - whereas a blog obviously is - so where are the boundaries? EG: a friend of mine writes a personal detailing all the intricacies and intimacies of her marriage & the rest of the circle are all going, 'too much info.' Its fine to confide over coffee with the girls or a fewCosmopolitans (a drink I detest) as the case may be - but on a blog there should be boundaries? What do you think?

    @momfog + @maidiebike: I get the bit of this and a bit of that thing. Right now I want my bit of 'that' to be just for me - but I try and make sure that whatever I write, if friends or family do read it someday, it will not be out of integrity with who I am and I will not be embarassed by it. But right now, I don't want to be discussing the virtues (or not) of my posts over dinner - so they're out the loop.

  21. pattikuche
    Member

    Thank you so much for this interesting thread, I love every comment. Fortunately I do
    not have to explain my blogging because no-one has ever asked. This doesn't worry me at all because it leaves me with the space to be free with what I wish to express - although I have to admit I can't do "personal, friends and family" which, in another way, is also liberating for me.
    Blogging has also given me a sense of structure, discipline and fresh air. Have fun everyone!

  22. megumiwasframed
    Member

    Basically, what utopiaonstrings said. It's writing that I love, not blogging per-se.

  23. teamoyeniyi
    Member

    @ulaysha - so you're saying I was a bad girl then? Hehehe - you could be right, but my lips are sealed!

  24. passionate4pikes
    Member

    I have such a rare chance to photograph and share knowledge about the nature around me. This fuels me on but I also love to write and post.

  25. maidiebike
    Member

    Passionate, you seem to have alot of knowledge about your niche area. That's great. Good photos too!

    Having one's own blog(s) makes it convenient to explain something or refer to it when talking about a subject that I have written already.

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