A bit about my online experiences in regards to writing: I’m a first time blogger and a soon-to-be first time Tmblr-er and Twitter-er. In the past I’ve been timid about using social media to promote my own writing. When I had a story published this summer for a Fort Collins, CO literary news-rag I was tempted to write a Facebook post to promote it. In the end I chickened out. I think personality-wise it goes against my makeup.
But, now I’m here in an MFA program to write, to grow as a writer and to hopefully publish my writing. It would be foolish not to utilize these free resources, or at least learn as much as I can about them. I’m looking forward to learning about how contemporary authors are leveraging these available online platforms and figuring out to what degree, if any, I ought to utilize them for myself.
I think, too, that this blog offers a unique opportunity to define how my writing can fit into a blog. For one, already, I'm intimidated by this online publishing aspect. It feels awkward to be out here in this so-called blogosphere with no oversight, no editing, just my own instincts. For instance, it took me more than an hour to come up with a name for this blog, fearful that I would choose some tasteless title. I've seen so many amateur blogs, that at times I’ve written blogging off as “not real writing.” (Not counting blogs affiliated with established publications, although some of those can be shady too.) In my head, I’ve classified blogs as the place where housewives go to post their recipes for apple cobbler. The point being – even though I know it’s not true, I’ve developed a prejudice that bloggers write for themselves, or worse they write haphazardly for others. So as I sit here blogging today, I’ve come to this strange nexus where, beyond this class, I need to decide who my audience would be if I were to have a blog. So I suppose, my goal for myself in regards to this blog, is to find a blog voice.
A bit about my writing: In the past I’ve written about all types of things: city redevelopment, homelessness, janitors, archaeology, anarchists, public transportation, among others. However, I’ve only written about these topics for a small pointed audience, the general public of Fort Collins, Colorado. I’m hoping to continue writing about the many things that continually interest me, but I want to broaden my storytelling to have a national appeal.
(I'll be posting some samples of my writing, shortly.)
First of all, "Telltale" is genius—I wish I'd thought of it. So, you see, sometimes is PAYS to sit and think deliberately about what to name things. Fiction writers tell us names are terribly important—it's the first step toward characterizing publicly the people/things we're describing. Great class-discussion points w/r/t audience.
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