{"id":33872,"date":"2013-02-05T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T18:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33872"},"modified":"2013-02-05T10:44:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T16:44:26","slug":"on-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=33872","title":{"rendered":"On Blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaac Morehouse has a piece on his blog about the top ten benefits of regular blogging<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(The keen-eyed observer will note that Morehouse’s blog has had gaps of 3-11 months over its five year run – but the article is so good I don’t care):<\/p>\n

1. Self Discipline \u2013 Like all disciplines, it makes you a better person; more in control of your schedule and habits. It is empowering to do something on a regular basis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For one reason or another, getting up at 5:30 nearly every morning to write has become just a part of life.<\/p>\n

2. Self Translation \u2013 You hold a set of beliefs and ideas about the world. You may not even know exactly what they are, but they exist. Blogging helps you translate those ideas into a form that you and others can use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the time I’ve been writing this blog, this has been true. \u00a0When I started writing\u00a0Shot In The Dark<\/em>, I was a conservative, and a modestly well-read one – but still, much of what I believed was unformed and squishy, and there were huge gaps in what I knew.<\/p>\n

And both are still true, to some degree. \u00a0But much less so than before I started.<\/p>\n

3. Self Education \u2013 You have no idea how much you know, or how capable you are of understanding and explaining things. Once you start blogging, you\u2019ll be surprised to discover what a genius you are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, maybe not “genius” – but I’ve learned a lot about a couple of issues – education, Astro-Turf groups and so on – that I’d never have had occasion to learn otherwise.<\/p>\n

4. Observation \u2013 Every day you are taking in loads of sensory information. You see news clips, billboards, emails, people; you hear music, talk, etc. When you start to blog you learn to find meaning in the things your senses take in, and find story lines. You learn to observe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And – this was cool – eventually you start finding the unexpected, hidden storylines. \u00a0That’s kinda fun.<\/p>\n

5. Humor \u2013 The things noted above are often hilarious, you just don\u2019t always realize it at the time. Regular blogging helps you recreate experiences you\u2019ve had, which often reveals their hilariousness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll get back to you on that one.<\/p>\n

6. Writing \u2013 Blogging ain\u2019t great literature, but it can be. Any kind of writing regularly will improve your skills. Blogging will especially help you learn to be more concise and interesting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Would that it were always true. \u00a0Or even true more often.<\/p>\n

Still, I’ve seen examples of people who genuinely did improve as writers over time.<\/p>\n

7. Self Knowledge \u2013 You may not know your area(s) of interest and expertise \u2013 regular blogging will help you discover what you are interested in and good at as you begin to see patterns and reoccurring themes in your posts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Writing this blog has certainly opened up some interests I’d never have had otherwise.<\/p>\n

8. Experimentation \u2013 Blogging allows you to be a pundit on any issue. You can comment on things you normally don\u2019t have time or knowledge for. You are allowed to speculate and think out loud on a blog in ways that more formal media do not allow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heh .<\/p>\n

9. Crash-testing \u2013 Blogging regularly will inevitably produce some pretty good writing. Blogging every day will help you get all kinds of stuff out, and then look back and see if any of it is worthy of refinement and publication elsewhere. It\u2019s a great testing ground for ideas, themes, articles, outlines, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wouldn’t say it’s “inevitable” – but that’s very true.<\/p>\n

And for me, it’s the best “show prep” there is. \u00a0The traditional rule of thumb in talk radio is “spend an hour of show prep for every hour you’re on the air”. \u00a0But in a typical week I’ll spend 5-10 hours writing, most of it about stuff I want to talk about on the air. \u00a0I don’t\u00a0like<\/em>\u00a0to walk into the studio, sit down and start broadcasting cold – but I can.<\/p>\n

10. Archiving \u2013 Regular blogging for just a year can result in hundreds of articles on hundreds of topics. You will develop an archive of your thoughts and a record of how they\u2019ve evolved over time. When someone asks for your opinion on an issue you won\u2019t have to start from scratch. You can send them a link to that time you expressed it so well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is, of course, a two-edged sword. \u00a0After a long time writing, you generate a\u00a0lot<\/em>\u00a0of material. \u00a0It’s hard to keep track of it all. \u00a0Sorting it into categories and adding tags helps; a decent search engine (thanks, WordPress!) helps too.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Morehouse’s post on the one hand tells me things I’ve known for a while, and on the other hand codifies them in a handy “Top Ten”-style format for convenience.<\/p>\n

After all that, it’s almost anticlimactic to say that today is this blog’s 11th birthday. \u00a0The yearly anniversaries up through ten were kind of a big deal – but after 11 years, writing this blog is more or less a part of life’s rhythm to me.<\/p>\n

I started this blog thinking I’d be happy if I got five readers a week. \u00a0My daily audience is into four digits now, and has been there since about 2004, which never fails to astound me.<\/p>\n

Anyway – thanks for stopping by all these years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaac Morehouse has a piece on his blog about the top ten benefits of regular blogging. (The keen-eyed observer will note that Morehouse’s blog has had gaps of 3-11 months over its five year run – but the article is so good I don’t care): 1. Self Discipline \u2013 Like all disciplines, it makes you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekery","category-mitch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33874,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33872\/revisions\/33874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}