Tag Archives: blogs

Last Friday Jen at Redhead Ranting wrote a post about the blogs she hates that got me thinking about the blogs I like and don’t like, and also my blog, especially how I’m still trying to find my voice.

Blogs I like

In short, I like blogs whose authors have their own distinctive voice (or at least are trying to find their own voice, which I believe is what I’m trying to do; I don’t know if I’ve found yet, but I’m still working on it).What that means, though, is a little harder to pin down, but all I know is when I see such a blog, I know it and either immediately love it or see a spark there of something greater (sometimes unfortunately that spark burns out).

I also do like blogs that might be pigeonholed into a category such as “cat” blog or “book” blog or “humor” blog, but only if they transcend those categorizations because of posts that can’t be pigeonholed, or because of posts in which the authors question why they are doing what they are doing, for example, why they’re reading such and such a book, or invite a true dialogue with their readers.

Blogs I don’t like

In short, I don’t like blogs who only participate in memes and blogs whose authors only provide regurgitated photos with none of their own thoughts interjected into the posts.

Trying to find my voice

For myself, I started with a “running” blog, then went to a “book” blog (first on Vox and then here at WordPress.com), a “spiritual” blog, a “humor” blog, an “anything-goes” blog, an “anything-goes” blog with others, and so on and so forth. However, in the end, I’ve learned that I don’t fit comfortably into any of those “themes” even though I might touch on all of those themes during my writing. I’ve also learned that I have two voices, one serious, which I speak with this moniker, unfinished person, and one not so serious, which I speak through his alter ego, unfinished rambler. Somewhere in between them is the real me.

I also have participated, and still do participate, in memes. Among memes in which I’ve participated, a couple of which I continue to be a member, are Musing Mondays, Teaser Tuesdays, It’s Tuesday’s Where Are You?, Tuesday Thingers, Booking Through Thursdays, Friday Finds, Weekly Geeks, The Sunday Salon and Sleeping with Bread. However, I’ve learned that, in my opinion, while such groups are good when you’re first starting to blog, especially for meeting others, after you get going, you should have enough thoughts of your own to propel your blog. You shouldn’t have to rely on memes to undergird your blog.

I am sure this is a subject to which I will return in the future, but for now I’ll leave you with a link to a post that Jen mentioned in her post from Sheila at The Ad Master that talks about blogging trends and how not to become a boring statistic…

…and a video, of course: