{"id":1208,"date":"2001-09-30T15:56:15","date_gmt":"2001-09-30T20:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2001-09-30T15:56:15","modified_gmt":"2001-09-30T20:56:15","slug":"the_write_stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/30\/the_write_stuff.html","title":{"rendered":"The Write Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doyce inquires<\/a> (via an inquiry by Juli<\/a> — glad she’s back to trying to post regularly, I’ll have to put her in the link list) why people blog. Or, more particularly, why some people blog so much (cough), and others either shy away from the whole idea, or else start one, and then it quickly withers with that first (or maybe even second) post.<\/p>\n

I can’t speak for why folks don’t blog. But here’s why I do it.<\/p>\n

Actually, I think I tried answering this<\/a> shortly after I started doing bloggy stuff. Let’s see what I think now.<\/p>\n

  • I like to write. Well, as important, I like to talk. It’s cathartic. This is me talking. Do the math.<\/p>\n
  • I get a tremendous ego-boost from the idea that there are folks that read this. A few of them do so regularly (and God bless you for it). Yes, it’s ego. That people want to be in contact with me simply because I’m writing something they find funny, informative, interesting … what a rush. The closest to fame I’m ever likely to reach through any concerted effort on my part. Wow.<\/p>\n

    Yes, I am<\/i> that desperate for validation.<\/p>\n

    “Narcissus, is there someone else?”<\/p>\n

  • My memory is flaky. I can remember the lyrics to commercials I heard back in my youth. I can hum tunes from Saturday Morning Cartoons. I can reel off volumes of trivia about books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, games I’ve played. But something interesting that happened to me earlier this week? A good joke I heard? A profound thought I had on the way home from the office? A cool commercial I ran across? I might<\/i> remember it if you say something to me that reminds me of it. Ah, but if I put it in my blog — you, Gentle Reader, can read it at your convenience, and I can flush my memory for the next installment of comic book continuity to be downloaded this week.<\/p>\n

    Heck, this is a problem I have with people I see weekly. For those I see every several months … when asked what I’ve been up to, I tend to just drool a lot.<\/p>\n

    So there are three reasons. Which is the biggest? Which way is the wind blowing today? They all play a role pretty much every time I post here, albeit in different proportions.<\/p>\n

    Doyce nearly reached 2,000 hits this month. Cool.<\/p>\n

    I just started tracking stats (see the little “stats” box in the margin?) in the middle of this month. Since 14 September, I’ve had 363 hits.<\/p>\n

    Now, some of those were me actually posting (that’s a hit from Blogger.com), or me loading up my blog. That happens both at home and at work, so that might be 4 hits per day, based on the way Stats4You<\/a> works.<\/p>\n

    There are some indices I’ve registered with that occasionally ping me. That’s a few hits there.<\/p>\n

    Still, that’s pretty cool. <\/p>\n

    Last week I went ahead and registered my web site and\/or my blog there with various search engines. Yes, that’s another one of those ego things.<\/p>\n

    The only one that seems to have actually crawled through here is Google<\/a>, which has resulted in some hits already (including one from Wirtualna Polska<\/a>, which seems to be a multi-search site in Poland. Again, cool.). The most popular hits seem to be WTC-related stuff (duh) and, surprisingly, the Justice League cartoon.<\/p>\n

    So that’s enough about why<\/i>. That leaves how<\/i>. How is it that, with a day job, and a wife and daughter at home, I crank out so much here.<\/p>\n

    Well, like I said, I like to talk. This is me talking. Again, do the math.<\/p>\n

    The most common bit of advice that writers give to aspiring writers on the subject of “How do I learn how to write” is … write<\/i>. Write something every day. Because the more it becomes a habit, the more you’ll do it. More importantly, your mind will begin to think<\/i> in terms of writing.<\/p>\n

    I now find myself noticing things and thinking, “Hey, that would make a cool blog post.” Stuff that I might have forwarded on to one friend or another, now I blogpost. Things I hear on the radio, read on the news, or just encounter — I think in terms of communicating them, and so I do. I make the connection, then I make the time.<\/p>\n

    I don’t think it has anything to do with my leading a particularly interesting life. <\/p>\n

    It’s like the jingle: Just Do It.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Doyce inquires (via an inquiry by Juli — glad she’s back to trying to post regularly, I’ll have to put her in the link list) why people blog. Or, more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2679,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/18\/dodging_the_bul-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":1208,"position":0},"title":"Dodging the bullet","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 18-May-02 9:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite being in a crowd of rabid Star Wars viewers, playing a Star Wars RPG, which has just come out with a new rule book full of pictures and spoilers...","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3183,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/27\/saturday_at_78.html","url_meta":{"origin":1208,"position":1},"title":"Saturday at 78","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 27-Jul-02 8:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fairly busy Saturday here, focused mainly on helping Rey and Juli move into their new place (which is quite nice, and everyone should go visit them real soon). 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With Pictures!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Jul-17 10:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I need to share (or at least generate a link for myself) some cool pictures +Michael Williams did for the Dungeon World game +Doyce Testerman is running. The first three characters, left to right, are played by our household: Eduard Zitherhands the Bard (me), Torwin the Bold Fighter \/\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/10\/no-no-nothing-at-all-suspicious-going-on-here-nothing-to-see-move-along.html","url_meta":{"origin":1208,"position":4},"title":"No, no, nothing at all suspicious going on here, nothing to see, move along","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-May-17 12:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's all just a coincidence, I'm sure ...'Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in resources for the bureau\u2019s investigation into Russia\u2019s interference in the presidential election, according to four congressional officials, including Senator Richard J. 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