Blogs

This week I researched the blogosphere for ideas and direction. I had hesitated to do this before because I did not want to be discouraged by finding blogs similar to what I had in mind, nor by the superior writing skills of those in the ether.

I have to admit, my research was not extensive. I devoted maybe two hours to it. However, I did find out a few interesting things. The most relevant one, as far as I'm concerned, was that in the personal blog category (where I fit) the quality of writing was good, but nothing to be afraid of. (Here I cannot overemphasize that I looked at very few blogs. I am sure there are amazing, overwhelmingly soaring personal blogs out there, I simply did not do enough hunting to uncover them. Why would I? I'm not comfortable enough with this blogging thing to tell more than five people, let alone compare myself to some closet Edith Wharton.)

I did find a blog that made me smack my head on the table. Mommy Needs Coffee. (mommyneedscoffee.com) I went to a blog she'd written about Stephanie Plum novels (Misbehaving, Plotting and Sneaking My Plums) because I am reading one now. Her blog was funny, personable and concise. I refused to read anymore lest I lose heart but I recommend it to anyone else.

I felt safer exploring the blogs that have a gimmick. I love gimmicks, but do not have one myself. Julie and Julia began as a gimmick blog (The Julie/Julia Project at salon.com). Julie would cook all the recipes in the Julia Child cookbook within one year.

One I discovered months ago and periodically visit is cakewrecks.blogspot.com. It consists mostly of pictures of disastrous baked goods. I think this one particularly resonates with me because I am not a dessert person. Sweet things do not appeal to me. Living in a society that practically worships perfectly prepared sumptuous confections I get a bit nauseated at the sheer number of food magazine covers and cooking shows devoted to baked goods. For heaven's sake, even my subscription to Cooking Light showcases desserts on its cover. How Cooking Light can even justify devoting any reporting space at all, let alone an entire section each month, to dessert is beyond me. But you get my drift. Pictures of horrible cakes cheer me up.

A new one I found while out exploring is called 365 Days of Decluttering (365daysofdecluttering.blogspot.com). The premise is that every day for a year you get rid of something. I loved the initial premise and I hoped to hear about some oddities and pitfalls that occurred, but it seems a very tame and sincere effort to rid the blogger's life of crap and to help you do the same. Another blog along similar lines is guynameddave (guynameddave.com). He has a 100 Thing Challenge. He is trying to reduce his life down to 100 personal possessions (underwear does not count).

If you would like a more thorough website for getting your life under control go to Flylady.net. Marla Cilley is Flylady and she is funny and warm. Her refrain of "BabySteps!", although I have not visited her site in over a year, still resounds in my mind. (It is also why I feel a blog with five maybe readers is better than no blog at all.)

Pet blogs seem to be a trend. I looked at a few. They contain many pictures and not much writing. I don't find these very appealing, although some people do have very cute pets. I love my two pets, Piper the Dog, and Raymond the Horse, but I am not sure they do enough interesting things to be able to write about them every week.

A final category I noticed had to do with the blogger's personal demographic. Gay man, black woman, disabled veteran, to name a few. I glanced at one or two of these and the blogs did not seem to be inherently different than the other blogs. I think the label is simply to make them stand out from the crowd. As a white middle-aged female I will not be going that route anytime soon.

So, my research did reveal some paths I could take with this and some different approaches to blogging. I will be including some posts about my pets, which I would have done anyway, but now I know that pictures are critical to the animal blogs. (This will entail my learning to download pictures from Laurence's camera to my blog. Do not expect anything anytime soon.) I will also try to carve out a unique demographic from my bland background (I am an eighth Native American, though you'd never know it, so there may be a hook there.) And a gimmick, I really, really, really want a gimmick.

Mostly, I will just write and try to entertain.

Note: If you click on "View My Complete Profile" you will find links to some of the blogs I mentioned.