One of the problems I consistently have, not just with blog writing, but journals generally is audience and coherence. What topics should go into a given blog or journal? What audience does one write to?

Recently, as it comes to blogs I realized that (1) a successful blog has to have a “theme” more or less. That is, it cannot be all over the place because readers need to know what to expect when they come to read the blog, even if the theme is an all over the place theme. For example, successful blogs I read deal with politics. But I get really annoyed when the blog departs from its main purpose. Other blogs I read focus are intended to be culture/comedy, which is why the Bachelor Recaps gets a hall pass when it departs from recaps of the Bachelor.

(2): a successful blog cannot be “forced.” In other words, entries cannot be nothing more than typing to, well, proverbially hear yourself type. I have noticed that some people try to be witty and they aren’t, which fails. Or some people write just because they feel like they have to but haven’t anything particularly interesting to say.

All these musing said, if it isn’t apparent, I am having a hard time defining the scope of my blog. Do I include family stuff (already decided that goes in another blog)? Canyoneering advnetures (another blog)? Religion? Politics? Crazy stuff that happens what seems like every minute of every day at work?

I suppose my ideas for audience will have to wait. But to tee it up, is one’s journal really a journal if you are writing for others to read? Can you really be honest in a journal if you are self-censoring to make yourself look good? If you aren’t self censoring, however, what is the point in keeping a journal if nobody is to read it?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 8:23 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.