I Love Blogging: 'Completely Addictive'

This post is part of our I Love Blogging Valentine's Day celebration. In this post, daisy, our resident cocktail expert and serial non-dater, reveals why she loves blogging:

When you date guys who keep computer files titled "Lipsticks I'm Allergic to," drunkenly remove their American flag t-shirts in crowded bars, let you know they're dating someone else via their Facebook status, and tell you you're intimidating because you're funny, pretty, and, you know, "older," it's sort of your job to blog about it. At least that's what I tell myself; the guys in question might disagree...

When I first started blogging in the spring of 2005, I didn't know what I wanted my blog to be. I was supposed to be hard at work on my M.F.A. thesis, but found myself instead writing obsessive blog posts about Tom and Katie's burgeoning love life, my humbling part-time gig as a hostess, and, of course, inappropriate rants I've since deleted. (I had no idea if you linked to someone they could tell, which led to my first major blogging faux-pas. Ah, to be young and naïve and a blogger.)

But despite not having a central theme for my blog, I still found it to be completely addictive. My dream in life was to be a published writer, and suddenly I was! Sure, Blogger wasn't quite Random House (I've since moved to TypePad, of course), but all I had to do was type up a quick blurb, throw in a picture, and hit "Post" and it was out there for the world to read. Of course, that was part of the problem… all I had to do was type up a quick blurb, throw in a picture, and hit "Post" and it was out there for the world to read. I was quick to learn that the 3 a.m. blog posts after a night out at the bar were not the best idea. And by quick to learn, I mean, I finally stopped doing that sometime in late 2008. I wish I could say the same about my Twittering habit, but that's an issue for another day.

Truly though, I was mesmerized by the power of the blog. I did nothing to publicize it, and yet, people – strangers! – were finding it and leaving comments. And even better, they were coming back every time I posted something new. In fact, one of my most loyal readers to date became so after hitting "Next Blog." I was falling in love with blogging, but my attention was supposed to be elsewhere.

When I started blogging, I was in the middle of an intense three years dedicated to studying the craft of Creative Nonfiction writing. I spent every day struggling with plot, dialogue, scene, character development and structure, but what I grappled most with was the idea of "truth." If I wanted to be a successful nonfiction writer, I realized, I had to be brutally honest with myself and my readers. I had to create a contract with my readers that I was telling my version of the truth as honestly and fairly as possible, even when it meant sharing something difficult or embarrassing. My professors and classmates saw blogging as a joke and a distraction, but I knew better; I was spending hours every day writing the incredibly personal story about how I was locked up in a Mormon reform school when I was fifteen years old, but it was the few minutes I set aside each afternoon to blog that really taught me how to be honest and true to myself and my characters.

I consider myself lucky to be a blogger. Sure, I still dream of the big New York publisher and the book deal, but that won't give me the amazing community I've found through blogs. It is incredibly gratifying to write a story and have people immediately comment on it, but more than that, I feel I've developed some genuine friendships with people I would not otherwise have ever met. We share our lives – the good, the bad, and the completely ridiculous – through our blogs. We create and we connect and we do so in a way that people never dreamed would be possible.

So sure, if Random House comes knocking, I'm not going to turn them down, but in the meantime, I am incredibly privileged to be able to share my stories with a loyal audience who seem to agree:

If my life is going to continue on in this manner, we might as well all get a good laugh out of it.

Your turn: Tell us why do you love blogging?

Here's how:

Step 1 - Write a post about why you love blogging.

It can be a list of what you love, a story connected to your blog, a person you met through blogging, an opportunity that came your way... anything!

Step 2 - Add a badge and link it to the I Love Blogging post:

Right-click and Save As... (Mac users Ctrl + click, Save as...)

URL for the post is http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/i-love-blogging.html

     

Step 3 - Tag 5 Friends

At the end of the post, tag five fellow bloggers to write their own 'I Love Blogging' posts. 

Step 4 - Let Us Know!

Let us know about your post so we can link to it - post your link in the comments on the I Love Blogging post.

Alright!

daisy barringer is a Communications Editorial Manager for the Marketing Solutions team at Six Apart. She does much of her writing in 140 character snippets on Twitter but saves the juicy stuff for her blog, oopsie daisy.You can also find her on Vox, snowboarding in Tahoe, or enjoying a good glass of wine pretty much anywhere.

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