...except after "C"

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - it's a really stupid thing to want to do."
--Elvis Costello, in an interview by Timothy White entitled "A Man out of Time Beats the Clock." Musician magazine No. 60 (October 1983), p. 52.

I'm wondering what opinion Elvis Costello might have on Blogging About Blogging?

I've seen multiple posts on this around my typical haunts, and I wanted to reflect on my own blogging practices. Specifically, why do I blog? I can think of several personal benefits to blogging.

When I write and publish about something, it helps me to be disciplined in how I think through issues. I used to cut a lot of grass, and when you're walking behind a lawnmower for 3-6 hours a day, you can do a lot of thinking. I wrote several novels, developed dozens of screenplays, designed countless buildings, and composed and arranged hundreds of songs in my landscaping years - all in my head. However, if I was put to task to capture those ideas on paper or to work them out in a formal process for someone to review, I'm not sure how many of them would come to fruition. At any given time, I probably have six or seven partially developed posts in my blogger dashboard, all waiting to be honed into something worthy of an audience. Some of them are merely a link to some website or blog somewhere with the germ of an idea. Others are random quotes that I heard during the week or little anecdotes that I felt I might want to comment on. Many never make it to the point where I'm willing to hit that bright orange "Publish Post" button, and others I end up disappointed that I did. In the end, I believe it has been a good exercise in organizing my thoughts into a consumable product.

Besides the ability to put structure to my ideas, blogging also gives me the opportunity to practice the craft of writing. As a student in grad school, the majority of my grades have been based on papers that I have written. I have to give a substantial amount of credit to my proofreader, Jean, who does a consistency check on everything I turn in. Almost nothing gets by her. However, as the sole editor of my blog, I am responsible for all the content published, and therefore am constantly checking my facts, checking my references, checking my grammar, checking my links, checking my spelling, checking my wording... all in an effort to provide a high-quality product worthy of your time and interest.

The third benefit I receive from blogging is that it gives me good conversation starters. Often I will have some observation or experience that if I don't capture it in writing, I will likely forget about it. Blogging puts those things out there as fodder for future discussion. Several times I have received emails from friends whom I haven't connected with in some time, and rather than try to provide a lengthy response about how I am doing, what I am doing, etc, I will point them to the blog and tell them if you want to follow my random thoughts, feel free to partake.

A final personal benefit that comes to mind is that I have a platform in which to vent. Somehow, when the guys fire up their mowers, edgers, trimmers, and chainsaws at seven-blessed-thirty in the morning and I lack the fortitude to walk out there in my jammies to give them a piece of my mind about prematurely waking up my children it makes me feel better to blog about it. I know the last thing that you want to hear is my personal rant, but I appreciate the idea that somewhere, someone is listening, and perhaps even sympathizing with me.

One area in which I expected to, but have not reaped enormous benefit in blogging, was in the comments. As I reflect on this, I wonder why am I such a "comment-whore"? Come on, admit it... I will stoop to ridiculous levels to get more people to comment on my blog. Some of my tactics: linking to high-profile blogs to attract "backwash", offering "prizes" (i.e. bribes) for correct answers to inane questions, commenting on other people's blogs to stimulate reciprocation, priming the pump with my own comments... just to name a few. Do I merely crave attention? Do I find some sort of satisfaction in confirmation that others are reading what I write? That's probably partly true, but I believe there is something more. I had high hopes of the blog being a forum for dialogue, a veritable carnival of ideas. I wished for iron to sharpen iron - to garner dissenting opinions and different perspectives.

Now I won't go so far as to say that my dreams have been crushed. After all, there have been 179 comments since going public again six months and 121 posts ago. I suppose an average of greater than one comment per post is nothing to sneeze at. It certainly blows away my prior efforts (I think there were about 3 comments in the 18 months that I blogged up until the beginning of the 2005 fall semester, when I took the blog private for an exercise in my graduate studies). But I think I could count on just my two hands the number of unique commenters during that time (not in the sense that what you had to say wasn't fresh, but in the sense of different individuals) and roughly 3 people from outside my immediate geographical and social circle.

So I'm still looking for that perfect post - you know, the one that grabs the attention of a wide audience and compels them to weigh in with their opinion, forward a link to all of their friends, and draws a crowd of curious onlookers who will then be addicted to come back on a regular basis to see what the next topic for discussion is. I'm guessing this is not that post. So enough blogging about blogging. Tomorrow, tune in for Canada vs. Iraq in the World Cup of Grammar-Challenged Reformed Pentecostal Midget Lawn Bowling...
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