What's in a blog? by Joan Haig

I usually trip headfirst into adventures, but before joining this Awfully Big one, I thought I should probably prepare. What exactly was I getting myself into? I mean, I know what a blog is, but what exactly is a blog? It sounds sticky.

Blogging history began in the 1980s with basic webpages that acted to log website activity and encourage user feedback. The term ‘weblog’ was first used in 1997 during the shift towards more journal-like usage of these webpages. One year later, Open Diary was launched providing space for regular personal updates to be shared and with a function inviting readers’ comments on content; the year after that the shortened term ‘blog’ was coined.

So, should I treat my ABBA blogpost as a monthly diary entry? Are blogs like diaries? Not according to sociologist José van Dijck who argues for important distinctions to be made. Diaries are private spaces; online journals, by design, are public and invite an audience, the presence of which will affect what, why and how things are recorded.

The physical performance of diary-writing, says van Dijck, produces a ‘material, “authentic” artefact, inscribed in time and on paper’. Digital memories, conversely, are revisable, unreliable, ‘mediated’. This reminds me of philosopher Jacques Derrida’s work, in which handwriting embodies meaning and emotion: that is, pen and paper produce different modes of thought from typewriters (and, we can assume, from laptops and tablets).

Blogs quite quickly became politicised, used as virtual megaphones and digital homing pigeons in political campaigns and crises around the world. Youth activist Malala Yousafzai anonymously blogged for the BBC; her journal-like entries provided an escape route for voices trapped in Taliban-controlled areas of Pakistan.

Though blogs can function as overtly political spaces, most don’t. According to an important piece (and when I say important piece, I mean cartoon) in The New Yorker, blogs can be broken down by function, as follows:

©Roz Chast, The New York Times

[Purely in order to fit into this pie chart, I should say that my debut novel Tiger Skin Rug is out with Cranachan Publishing and available online and from all good book shops, and my next book, Talking History, is coauthored with Joan Lennon and out with Templar next year.]

As well as being political and promotional platforms, blogs are also heavily monetised, being prime advertising spaces in what one study calls the ‘attention economy’. And the blogosphere is a crowded market these days, accommodating photologs, microblogs (social media-like beasts) and vlogs. Back in the Year 2000, there were around 30 blog sites on the Internet. Now there are around 500 million.

Apart from book blogs (which, along with indie bookshops, make the world go round), the blogs I’m drawn to are the ones that read a bit like essays. (Can you tell?) I was a fresh-faced first year at university when I got hooked on the essay form. Not writing the things - reading them. I love a good essay and access them mostly online, sometimes on blogsites. According to one technology historian, however, the blog version of an essay is not quite an essay, taking a more ‘informal, conversational, sometimes even off-color tone’. Some are so ‘off-color’ that digital do-gooders have devised a Code of Conduct for Bloggers.

That such a code exists supports the position taken by my favourite of the articles I came across. In ‘Chaos Theory as a Lens for Interpreting Blogging’, readers are assured that in the ‘apparent random and complex phenomenon’ of the blogosphere, there is, in fact, a sense of order. People within the sphere, the article explains, know what they are doing. Based on the evidence immediately before you, you may well beg to differ.

So, all this prepping leads me to conclude that a blog is not exactly a log, diary or essay. It’s not always political and only sometimes (not in my case) an income stream. I know what a blog post isn’t; I’m still not entirely sure what it is. And yet, I’ve managed to come to the end of my first one on this adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.joanhaigbooks.com and social media @joanhaigbooks

The Ten(ish) Commandments of Good Blogging - Kelly McCaughrain

A giant Pro of my Fellowship project to help schools set up creative writing clubs (by writing blog posts on the subject) is that I can work from home. This is a major plus if you a) quite like working alone and b) are in the midst of a Coronavirus epidemic.

A giant Con is that I’m now producing 2 blog posts a week, plus reviews on ABR, plus this monthly ABBA blog and when I sat down to write this, I discovered that the well is not, in fact, bottomless.

Couldn’t think of a thing to write about. Totally blogged-out.

So I thought I’d go meta and blog about blogging. Specifically, what several years of reading and writing blogs have taught me about producing a good blog post, in case any of you would like to join the lovely bloggers here at ABBA and give blogging a go!

So here we go:

Blogs are for the readers, not the writers. If your blog is solely intended to keep your mother abreast of happenings in your allotment, then fine, write what you like. Your mother will be interested because she thinks you’re the bees knees. But if you want anyone else to read it, then there has to be something in it for them. You’re asking for their time (it may only be five minutes but is there anything more precious these days?) and in return you MUST give them something to take away. Useful advice, a link to something helpful, a new way of seeing the world, even just entertainment is fine but it had better be freaking hilarious. And unless you’re JK Rowling, ‘Here’s a new book of mine that you can buy!’ is not a good enough reason. 

 

Remember, the reader is ALWAYS going to be asking ‘What’s this got to do with me?’

Don’t scattergun. Do let people know your blog is there but don't annoy everyone. I do have a blog that is literally just a way for my mother to keep track of me when I’m off in my van, and when I put up a post I link to it on my Facebook page for my Friends to see because they love my little camper and seeing what she gets up to. But I don’t make these links Public and I don’t share them to the SCBWI or SASSIEs pages because no one would be interested. Likewise, I generally don’t link to my Writing posts on my Friends pages. 

Don’t go off topic. It’s perfectly acceptable to present attractive photos of your recent cooking triumphs, as long as there are recipes to accompany them and YOU’RE ON A COOKING BLOG. But if it’s a writing blog then you’re basically guilty of false advertising. If you want to blog about writing AND cooking, fine. But have different tabs on your blog so people can choose what to read.

Use images. Well-lit, relevant, in-focus ones. 

Blogs are not Tweets. They’re not throwaway, rambling streams of consciousness. They’re an example of your writing so make sure they reflect well on you. It’s as important to edit your blog posts as anything else you put out there. I can spend 3 hours writing a blog post (it takes a surprisingly long time to find all those memes) but I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting anything out there that I wasn’t completely happy with. TBH, I edit my Tweets too. And like the rest of your writing, your blog should have a voice, a tone, a style that is uniquely yours.

 

Be upfront. Give people an idea of what the post is about, either wherever you advertise the post, or in the title. Don’t think that if you make it unclear and mysterious people will click to find out. They won’t. They’ll just pass. You’re not aiming to lure in every single person in the world; the blog won’t be of interest or use to most of them. Be clear about what it’s about so those who are interested will visit and those who aren’t will thank you for not wasting their time.

Include your bio and links. Blogs may be for the reader but there’s also no point in writing brilliant posts if they’re not going to lead anyone to your other work. Especially if you’re writing them for free.

Be a good digital citizen. Credit people for their work. Make your blog typo-free and clearly formatted. If people comment, reply. Use your blog to champion the work of others. If you have something helpful to add, comment on the blogs of others. Don’t start fights in the comments sections – a blog can never be a PhD-length treatise on any subject and it’s always going to be subjective so you’re always going to get someone complaining that you didn’t cover every tiny aspect and perspective of the subject under discussion. Just thank them for their input and move on.

 

Be brief. I completely fail at this myself, but I try to be as concise as I can. I may have a lot to say but I edit my posts several times to ensure that I’m at least not repeating myself.

Don’t tangent. Don’t ramble off into something that could be a separate post. Your blog should have its own Elevator Pitch – you should be able to sum it up in one short sentence if you had to.

Don’t whinge. OK, I am a total whinge. And an inveterate ranter. But I try to keep my ranting to subjects that are career-related and might have relevance to readers.

Don’t blog if you don’t love it. I know we’re all supposed to have a social media presence etc these days but honestly, if you don’t actually LOVE blogging, your readers will know. And the lack-lustre posts of a bored, reluctant blogger who occasionally drags herself to the keyboard will not give the best impression of your writing. Your books are brilliant because you loved writing them. You wouldn’t want to read a book by someone who wasn’t wholly invested in writing it. Same with blogs.

Hope that’s useful. Do share your own tips for great blog posts!

Kelly McCaughrain is the author of the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year,

Flying Tips for Flightless Birds. 

She is the Children's Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland #CWFNI

She also blogs at The Blank Page

@KMcCaughrain