So why do you blog?

From Chip's Blog: The Mechanic & The Muse

Here are seven reasons I joined the millions who communicate through a form that is part reverse diary, commonplace book and soapbox.


1. Blog items respond to a rapidly changing media landscape. I like the way blogging lets me tackle multiple topics in a day or through the week instead of focusing all my time and energy on one weekly column. It's the difference between being a beat specialist and a general assignment reporter. I can write on subjects that draw my attention. I've written about journalistic subjects and pointed readers to repositories of stories that represent best practices. But I've also written about fiction and memoir, two forms that are passions of mine. Like Cream, the '60's mega-group, sings, "I feel free."

2. When I blog, my standards are lowered, always a key element in producing writing that can be revised, even after it's published. A blog, by its very nature, is more informal than a column and less freighted with the expectations that a metro or sports column can impose. Blogging hasn't made me indifferent to revision or accuracy; it just makes the process of generating words less susceptible to the inner critic. In a recent radio interview, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins talked about his art, and it helped me understand why I like to blog.

"The real thrill is composition," Collins said. "To be kind of down on your hands and knees with the language at really close range in the midst of a poem that is carrying you in some direction that you can't foresee... It's that sense of ongoing discovery that makes composition really thrilling and that's the pleasure and that's why I write."

3. I'm my own editorial board. As a newspaper reporter, I was trained to keep my opinions out of my stories. In a blog, I can be as opinionated as I want. Case in point: my no-holds-barred reaction to the James Frey-Oprah's Book Club fiasco. I feel free to have an opinion and share it.

4. Change is vital. Wise editors realize that a reporter can burn out on a beat and so they switch their assignments, knowing that a fresh pair of eyes will benefit the writer and readers. They feel free.

5. Blogs are not new, but they're still on the leading edge of communication technology. I've always been an early adopter and I don't want to be left behind. In a time when reporters and editors are blogging on their news organization's Web site, I feel free to be part of this experiment.

6. Let's face it, a blog can also be a great marketing device. I've posted examples of my own writing, some published and others that have yet appeared in print, along with books I've written or co-authored with links that make online purchasing a snap. Like most writers, I harbor the dream that an agent or publisher may see commercial possibilities in my work.

7. To paraphrase Kafka: my blog is the ice-axe that broke the frozen sea within me. It has helped me find myself again as a reader and writer. It has set me free. Blogging is like having an office but also keeping a studio where you can experiment, take risks with your craft, and share your discoveries with others.

Some things won't change. I'll always be grateful for comments, questions, story suggestions, and most of all, your companionship.