From Writers in the Storm:
Writers ask me what to blog about all the time.
Recently, I was brainstorming story background (world-building) ideas with a writer. We were having a lot of fun just playing with the story. She stopped and stared at her screen full of ideas. “These are all great blogging ideas!” Her gasp of surprise was delightful.
“Yep.”
“But … why didn’t I see this before?”
The answer is in that pesky word — blog — and in our subconscious understanding of what that means.
We imagine the movie Julie and Julia playing in our heads. Or maybe we think about a writer rambling on in a self-indulgent manner, and we self-sabotage our creative process.
Here’s the trick: each author’s blog should be as unique as the writer and their story.
Let’s re-define blog for writers
Merriam-Webster says:
Definition of blog
1 computers: a website that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks, videos, and photographs provided by the writer
also: the contents of such a site
2:a regular feature appearing as part of an online publication that typically relates to a particular topic and consists of articles and personal commentary by one or more authors
//a technology blog
— Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “blog,” accessed August 2, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog.
Blog is short for weblog.
Let’s focus on the second definition:
a regular feature appearing as part of an online publication that typically relates to a particular topic and consists of articles and personal commentary by one or more authors
Sounds a little like a magazine or newspaper column, right?
Think “Dear Abby” or any other feature article that you’ve loved to read over your lifetime. Yes, cartoons absolutely count. Why? Because cartoons tell a story. Like a serial radio drama, cartoons unveil a story slowly over time. Blogs can do the same thing.
. . . .
The #1 qualification for being a stellar blogger is that you need to have skill as a writer.
Link to the rest at Writers in the Storm