How Do You Blog?
I’ve been blogging a lot more lately, mostly because I have the time to do so. I’ve also been reading a lot more blogs recently, again, because I have the time to do so. One thing I noticed with the blogs I subscribe to and read via Google Reader is that most people don’t blog until late afternoon/early evening. Personally, I blog whenever something hits me. I may be reading something on the net and find it interesting so I post about it so my readers can see it too. An example would be yesterday’s post on ” Brain Differences In Liberals and Conservatives.” I saw it, I wanted more people to see it, and less than five minutes later I published it. This was done early morning, before 9:00. It seems most of my posts of late have been written early in the day, I’d say 90% of them have been published before lunch.
Another habit of mine is that if I see something and want to talk about it, I may make a post about it shortly after I see it. I don’t want to sit there and think about it too long. I do this with a lot of news articles. Since I wasn’t the one writing the article and only offer brief commentary, it is very easy to publish it quickly. Posts that are more personal, I will mull over for a bit. Sometimes it may sit in draft status for several hours before I decide to publish it. On the other hand, I’m a fan of saying what I have to say quickly and publishing it as soon as possible. This doesn’t just go for blogging, but any kind of writing. I feel that I’m more clear and honest when I say what I want to say without reading it over and over and criticizing my every word. I don’t know. Just something I was thinking about. What about you? How do you blog? Do you post in the mornings or in the afternoons or evenings? Do you write something and publish it without really thinking about it or are you one to read it over and over going over every word with a fine-tooth comb?
(By the way, this post was written and published in 6 minutes)
I’ve been making a concerted effort to write more long-form posts, which generally require a little more preparation from me. Of course, I write most of my posts the same way I wrote papers in college: almost all of it is written in one draft, and subsequent upon reviews I only make modest edits.
I don’t often do the “quick links” types of posts. If I read something interesting, I’ll generally send a link to the source article by email to the folks who I think would appreciate it. Your recent brain differences post is an example: I sent the link by email, rather than posting about it myself.
My wife uses her blog more like I’ve seen people using twitter: quick, spur-of-the-moment posts about a fleeting thought or feeling. She’ll go days without posting anything, and then have a flurry of two- or three-sentence posts.
She uses her blog as more of a personal journal, which she uses to reflect back upon herself at some later date (she often reviews old posts, to compare / contrast then and now). The fact that she can use her blog to allow friends to keep up with her, or know how she’s feeling, is a nice side effect.
I use my blog more as a conduit to communicate with people. I blog primarily to share stuff with others. The fact that I can reflect back upon stuff I’d previously written is a convenient side effect.