With Spring Break upon us, we're nearly half done with our time together. Try not to cry. (Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.)So, much like our Commander-in-Chief (who won reelection by tens of votes), the duty falls to us to examine the state of our blogosphere. Ahem.
So, without further ado, I'd love you all to consider the following questions:
1.) What have I accomplished so far?
2.) Where do I see my blogs going?
3.) Is this getting easier, harder, neither, both?
4.) Am I coming up with new and different things to say each week? Is that necessary?
5.) What have I learned?
6.) Why should what I'm writing be a blog rather than something else?
Post your answers here!
8 comments:
Hey All,
Here are my answers:
1. For my individual blog, I've posted various bits of gaming news, previews, and reviews, as well as a review of a game that I recently played (and beat). I also did an off-topic post or two. I've incorporated images, videos, and links in almost all of my posts. For my collaborative blog, I've been working on our story - the one that I was tasked with creating. I've done my best to keep the story going, and to play off of, and continue, the sentiments posted by my groupmates. Finally, I've had a chance to do some graphic design on banners and various other images that I've used for both of my blogs - as well as developing and maintaining the layout of the collaborative blog.
2. In terms of my individual blog, I'm not really sure. Ultimately, I'd like to post more of my own previews, reviews, and whatnot. However, I'm not sure how much of that I can do - simply because of time. For the collaborative blog, I'm also not really sure. We've been talking about the idea of stopping this story (somehow) and starting up with a new one - one that's started by someone else. I'm up for this idea, but I'd like Nicole and/or Jeremy to decide, because I started the story, but I only want go with it as long as they do.
3. In terms of both of these blogs, it's only getting more difficult because the semester is getting busier and busier. Initially, it was really easy to post a lot because there wasn't much else that needed to get done. Now, however, it's so much harder to post multiple times a week, and so I find myself only posting once (albeit a large post). The collaborative blog continues to be fun simply because it is a completely-creative endeavor. My individual blog, however, is getting a little more difficult because, as I noted earlier, there's so much news coming every week, and I never feel like I'm covering enough.
4. Yes. This is necessary because I am posting news, previews, and reviews, which are constantly being updated and released. (Pretty straight-forward).
5. I've learned that keeping a blog takes real committment. I think that it can only be done consistently, and most successfully, when there's something unique and original being provided by the blogger, and that there's reciprocation from an audience. That's part of what bothers me the most about my own blog. I'm not really contributing a lot of original material for my blog - I'm really just reiterating material from various websites and including my comments. I feel like if my blog is going to succeed into the future, I'm going to need to retool it in order to provide more for my audience.
6. Besides the fact that it's required for the class, I feel like what I'm doing should be a blog because I personally believe that the Internet is a wonderful tool for giving and getting information (Wikipedia is a great example of this). Even though gaming-related material has been published through print media, I don't think that it has ever had such a wide reach as it does now through the major websites like IGN and GameSpot. If I can help to sift through that news and provide the most important bits, then I feel like I've done something to help gamers and gaming fans.
That's it - now back to Spring Break!
-Seth
Mine too!
1.) So far, I've put up weekly reviews and definitely narrowed my blog down to a film-related one. Anything that is personal on the blog is related to how I deal with, or interpret film, etc. I've had the chance to interact with comments and commenting and see how it affects (or doesn't affect) what I write.
2.) I definitely see this being a blog I continue after the class is up. It's fun to write every week and it's a great place to blurt out some ideas that I wouldn't regularly put in writing for an audience.
3.) I think it's getting easier. I find myself thinking of two or three topics a week, or writing over the five hundred words necessary a week.
4.) I think with a different film each week, things are always new, but I also just wrote about a book I bought related to film, so I think there is always room to discover new things to talk about.
5.) I'm learning how to interpret commenting -- why do some blogs get more attention than other blogs, why does my blog get recognized/overlooked/paid attention to/ignored and all of that. I'm learning how to write for a specific audience of internet goers who all want to be reading for a different reason.
6.) Blogging feels very in the moment -- a place for knee jerk reactions and first impressions, and then also a place where discussion sparks after that initial reaction. Blogging is the sort of writing that is always changing. Once a book, or an article is published in print, it usually isn't amended, but there is constant room for change in a blog, which also leads to the idea that there is an actual person behind the words. It's a personal sort of writing. It's startlingly alive in its own way, and that's why I feel like I should be writing these sort of things in a blog.
1. So far I have created and sustained my individual blog. I have been able to try different things both with my writing and with the visual look of my blog. With the collaborative blog, I have had my first chance to experience cooperative writing and experiment with that.
2. Individual blog: I plan to keep my individual blog not tied to a specific topic. I will probably continue to put a lot of creative fiction on it but allow myself space for other stuff. Collaborative blog: Not sure. I am ready to start a new story but not sure how to send the current one.
3. Not easier. Initially everything was new and there was a lot to try. I don't want to say that I am losing my initial creative exuberance but as time moves on and I get involved with trying to plan my life after graduation time for blogging seems to get lost.
4. Um... What is new and different? Sort of yes, sort of no. Sometimes I feel creative and sometimes I don't. I am not sure how fiction speaks to people in terms of "new and different" so that makes it difficult to qualify the aforementioned.
5. Blogging takes a lot of time. Sometimes that time seems well invested, sometimes it doesn't. I feel as though my blog is not really "getting out there." It feels as though I am writing for no one but myself. That makes me think that posting on a blog is very self-serving. So what necessitates this desire to publish in the blogosphere?
6. That is kind what I was asking with my previous question. (See number 5.) I am not sure of this. Good question, Leslie.
1) So far I have accomplished actually setting up a blog and posting on a regular basis (except last week doesn’t count!), and, by having my own blog, I have gotten into the habit of reading and actually commenting on others’ blogs.
2) I see my personal blog staying as a personal blog—mostly because I don’t have time for something specific at this point in my life; however, since I now have plans of major travel after graduating this May, I think that a blog will be a great way to post pictures, thoughts, and ideas in a much more personal and entertaining way than emails. This way I can keep in touch with people (as long as I can find an Internet connection).
3) This is an awkward time to answer this question because I have taken a week off. Midterms are always a tricky part of the semester, but I can say that I did enjoy blogging every week up until this point. Hopefully my “senioritis” won’t kick in too much, and I’ll be able to stick to writing about things that are on my mind. I’m sure I won’t run out of material.
4) I’ve noticed that I’ve been referencing back to previous posts a lot lately, which has worked out in a really neat way for myself. Maybe my blog does have some sort of unspoken theme—it’s not “me,” but I guess it is the person that I want to be on the Internet (it’s whatever “Ludakristi” is thinking).
5) I’ve learned that it’s easier to talk about something else other than yourself. My personal blog is interesting to me in the fact that I don’t know if anyone actually reads it outside of class. It’s been half a semester and I still haven’t really given out my link. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t think I have anything interesting to say, or if it would be easier if it weren’t as personal. If it does turn into a travel blog, I’ll just have to hope that my friends and family don’t read too far back (haha).
6) What I am writing should be a blog rather than someone else because blogs tend to feel more laid back. I’m not writing something that I want published in a hard-copy. My blog can range from journalistic to political to socially aware to theoretically critical… but whatever. Nothing is set in stone. Having my current ideas written down means just that: these ideas are right of the moment. I don’t have to worry about changing them. Plus, I can look back and laugh at how I looked at things as a 21-year-old some day. Sweet.
1.) I've been able to keep up with my weekly entries very easily. I seem to have a lot to talk about from week to week. I talk a lot about my personal feelings on what's going on around me. I've mentioned movies, tv shows, traveling home, traveling abroad, basically just snippets of my life. I use lots of pictures, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I finally figured out how to use youtube, which I think adds a lot of fun to the page. My friend told me it's one of her favorite procrastination tools, which basically tells me that I've achieved quite a lot so far.
2.) I think the group has decided to try to be a little more serious with some of our entries in the collaborative blog, but for my personal blog I like to keep things more lighthearted. I think if I try to be too serious I could dangerously veer into overly angsty. I'm not afraid to bring up things that are upsetting me, but I try not to dwell. I would like to include some more movie reviews, and commentary on some of the more absurd things I've witnessed over the next few weeks. I do plan on keeping this blog up after the course ends, so hopefully I'm laying the groundwork for a fully functioning, successful blog.
3.) I think the easiness of writing for my blog changes from week to week. Sometimes I cannot wait to get to my computer and write, and other times I have to force myself to say something, anything, to start the words flowing. This past week I had a few things to talk about, but I just did not feel inspired to write AT ALL.
4.) I try not to talk about the same thing week in and week out. While I love recapping nights out with my friends, I know that we get very repetive at times, so I try to limit those postings to only distinctive stories. I think I've managed to write a different topic week in and week out without having to try too hard.
5.) I've learned that it takes a while to build readers, that I spend WAY too much time looking at other blogs, and that writing in my blog can be a great way to get my creative juices flowing so I can work on other pieces. I also find I've learned a lot about my classmates through their blogs. And I've also learned that I need to find an audience, because they're not going to just stumble upon my blog randomly.
6.) I think as a journal the blog content doesn't dig deep enough into my life. I've got a journal, that I've actually written in less since starting to blog, that has much more personal thoughts, that wouldn't work for various reasons on the internet. I've also dabbled in blogging before, and find it's a great way to voice my many opinions, stories, thoughts, etc. to the world, even if it's not necessarily being read. It's nice to have a public outlet, that people can come across, in a way it makes the world a little smaller, while a journal helps you escape into your own private world.
1.) What have I accomplished so far?
One of my goals when I started the blog was to use it as a motivational tool to keep me writing creatively. In the aspect, I've found having a blog and a loose sort-of deadline has helped me give myself time to write. I haven't posted everything I've done this semester, but I can definitely see an increase in production.
2.) Where do I see my blogs going?
I think I might start a personal blog. Who knows? After this semester, I think that my running blog will continue to be active as a sort of electronic archive of my writing. It's a good backup.
3.) Is this getting easier, harder, neither, both?
It's the same, I guess, overall. When I'm really loaded down with projects and my studies, I find it harder to write and there's less time to accomplish it. That's how it is with everything though.
4.) Am I coming up with new and different things to say each week? Is that necessary?
I'm trying to experiment with different genres, perspectives, etc... Of course, it's necessary for me to come up with new and different things. Otherwise, there's no point in continuing if I'm just rewriting each week's piece.
5.) What have I learned?
Difficult question! I guess that I really don't care about audience.
6.) Why should what I'm writing be a blog rather than something else?
Maybe it shouldn't be? I enjoy the blogger program and its filled in a gap that not having Office on my computer -- thank you MacCrash 2007 -- made.
1. I've definitely been able to write about a variety of topics in a variety of styles. This was a goal, since it keeps everyone on edge. How will he be writing this time, as a tired old man or a cynical used car salesman? Or both????
2. The blog is heading toward more solemn waters, perhaps, though like I say, the tone will vary with the earth's rotation. I'll keep it going as long as I have something to write about.
3. Slightly harder, right now. Not only am I busier now than I was at the beginning of the semester, but I like to make each post distinct. Which brings me to
4. So far, yes, I am saying new, unheard-of things that are revolutionizing the world and bringing in a golden age of prosperity and peace. While perhaps not technically necessary to have a good blog, I can't imagine limiting my own blog to only one subject. While perhaps that would be an exercise in self-discipline, that is not the reason I want to write a blog in the first place.
5. I've learned that having readers is a good motivation to write, and it also makes it more time-consuming, because I'm more conscious of how it will look when it is done.
6. It's a blog because frankly, nothing I write is polished enough for a full-blown website. If I sat down and wrote the best thing I could, and it took hours and hours and I threw my soul into it, then people would think "isn't this a bit too classy for a blog?" Which I think gets at an unspoken definition of a blog. There's something off-the-cuff and informal about their contents. Most people blog as a hobby in their spare time, and do something else as their main jobs. Because doing your best work on a blog is like dedicating your life to crossword puzzles. It's fun, it's good practice, but ultimately, it doesn't pay the bills.
1. I believe I've begun to establish a source and sort-of inspiration for writing poker articles, some reflective, some comical. It seems as I may have turned a few heads towards the subject as well, which is good. Gaining a readership is most important to me at this stage.
2. Collaborative blog is for fun, I'm pretty certain it will be dead once this class is over. A good memory of my last few months here, but nothing more.
My personal blog is something I want to be a launching pad for stories and ideas that will get me a writing career. That was the purpose of it all along. If I ever become a pro, I'd convert it into a more personal poker blog with trip reports, tournament summaries, etc.
3. Neither really. I don't see myself getting writer's block anytime soon. I'm glad there is not some strict format on things we have to write about in this class, because that'd just limit creativity and not allow people to express themselves individually in my opinion.
4. I believe I am, and though it shouldn't be necessary per se, it's a good idea to keep things fresh. If I just wrote about playing No-Limit Hold'em tournaments, people would stop giving a crap after awhile due to oversaturation. But if I move from beating old people out of money to transvestites, pig's feet, or drunken poker antics, well, it's a curveball that people will take a swing at.
5. That it's good to have people outside your target audience giving a crap about your writing once in awhile. I never think of "converting" anyone, but nothing wrong with that either.
6. Well, I'm aiming to make some of these posts into articles and stories to publish through poker magazines, but having it in blog form is a decent way of saving these things instead of on my computer, though I run the risk of someone stealing them. The blog is just a way to keep track of things for now.
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