Monday, August 24, 2009

Some Random Thought about Blogging

Your posts will always be read more than your poems.

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Your post needs to be as current as humanly possible. Show proof of that newness: a stupid idea, maybe two, or even the entire post. Leave in typos. Your blog should never be news that stays news. That should be left for the poems.

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Time is different when you keep a blog. You either feel like you’re writing each post seconds a part or that your next post took so long, you should stop. Mostly, though, you experience both feelings at the same time. This tension is what keeps a blog going.

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A poet should never post his own poems on his blog. He doesn’t need to remind everyone that he is a poet. That’s why people are reading his blog.

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Writing nice things about poems yields less hits. Writing bad things about poems yields less hits. Writing bad things about poets yields the most hits.

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It is unethical to post on your blog writing you published in another magazine. There never needs to be two of the same things in this world.

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The posts on your blog are confirmation of your own mortality. Once they stop, there won’t be a eulogy. People will move onto another blog.

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Stop being depressed about the number of reviews your book received. Keep a blog. You’ll always receive critical comments. Someone will always be offended.

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If you’re reading someone else’s blog, don’t conceal where you’re reading it from. Even if you’re visiting the blog more than once a day. The writer feels good when someone may be a fan. Or a detractor. All he really wants, like any other writer, is for someone to read his words.

5 comments:

  1. Great thoughts, though when I read "Your posts will always be read more than your poems" a part of me dies...but I know you are so right.

    thanks for these.

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  2. How many hits do meta-narratives about blogs get? Is it hits or comments that you crave? I crave comments. Is it a shame or a joy that people would rather fight about people or po-biz than the actual poems. It seems that for the most part, we're all pretty generous when it comes to someone's actual poems. Are there truly comtemptible poems out there? Ones that we can't even imagine the intention, if not the execution, is good?

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  3. Contemptible. See. Now 3 comments even though one was just me again, correcting a typo. Still looks good though, for you. Not so much for me.

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  4. Nik,

    You're only allowed one comment per post. Unless you have great pecs. I was never breastfed.

    For me, it's not the number of hits. It's not comments. What makes me most happy: if a few people, spent a minute looking at a post. That's all that really matters. People have busy lives.

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