Raising a Baby Blog: What Does Your Blog Want to Be When It Grows Up?

photo by lou & magoo

Now that it’s public information that Chuck chose this blog to be the inaugural “blog club blog,” I can talk about the challenges and the rush that came with these high expectations.

The timing of this all was really quite auspicious. At the end of October I took a week-long road trip, during which I was largely disconnected. It actually felt great to be without the laptop, the e-mail, the Google Reader…and the list goes on. I loved not feeling like I had to respond to every e-mail or read every new blog post and news item. Best of all, taking a break from the constant stream of the internet gave me the chance to honestly reassess where I was going with my blog, my freelance work, and my creative writing.

We’ll skip chatting about the second two for today, but I’d like to let you in on my rethinking process for the blog. So curl up while I tell you the story of a little blog that came into this world long, long ago — on July 28th, 2008.

Introducing Baby Blog, 7lbs, 4 oz.

The blog was called Essential Prose. It looked pretty good for a newborn, but it needed an identity — a personality. Friends and family came by, of course, and they already knew where it was coming from, but to strangers it was little more than a cryptic first and last name.

I had created the blog to complement my freelance writing business, because that was apparently what freelance writers were supposed to do to establish their “online presence.” You know, the way a married couple in the suburbs has 2.4 kids to establish their family as a “real” one.

Problem was, I couldn’t decide what to talk about. How to nurture it. I had played with other people’s blogs, and my own personal blog, but this time people I didn’t yet know would be reading. Ideally, anyway. I had a hard time acting like an expert in writing, so I decided to be blunt about my figuring-it-out-as-I-go status. I would let readers watch and join as I explored creative and freelance writing.

I declared in my first post that I would soon publish my writing goals. I figured I could take advantage of this public platform to hold myself accountable for my writing, and hopefully rouse the curiosity of some other writers and bloggers. And actually, it worked. I said I was gonna spit out 750 words per day to keep this baby alive, and I did. Even though I had only 15 or 20 readers a day, I had made a public promise.

Interestingly, when I stopped recording my daily word count in my agenda (to post on this blog), I slowly started falling out of the routine. My blog started getting distracted too, but I was still excited about it. The teenager had emerged, overwhelmed with possibilities and thus declaring to-hell-with-it-all, I’m going to sit in bed and smoke a joint. Dabbling here and there, getting some of the chores done, but those big life questions? Those can wait. Besides, it still looked pretty healthy. Wrote some really interesting articles, and some really mediocre ones — but I couldn’t quite figure out what made the difference.

Surviving Blog Adolescence

Fast forward to that week-long vacation. Sitting in a café, no laptop at my side, I pulled out one of my notebooks. Time for a full check-up — a blog reevaluation. This nonchalant youngster needed a swift kick in the butt. I therefore turned to the mighty mind map, and here’s what came out.

OK, I confess. What came out was messier, and it lacked the pizzazz provided by my 12-pack of colored pencils. But I want to impress you guys a little, so I whipped up this fancy version for you. After the pondering, the mind-mapping, and the coffee, I realized that allowing my voice — my candid, natural voice — to escape was that little spark plug I needed. The best posts I had written let my personality, my vulnerability, and slices of my life peek through. I was talking about things that mattered to me, not things I felt I should talk about.

The bloggers I love reading do just that. They wax philosophical about the things that get them fired up, and they do it in their own voice. Some of you saw my current Top 5 bloggers in Chuck’s interview — check them out and you’ll see what I mean. Look at Havi, read Naomi. Look at my friend Tobey who uses so few words, but inevitably keeps me coming back for more.

I feel like I know them all (well, I do know Tobey in “real life,” but you know what I’m getting at).

All Grown Up and Ready to Leave the Nest

When Chuck asked me to be the first blogger for this experiment, I knew it was time to take that mind map and make some changes happen. I brainstormed post ideas, wrote a couple posts that I was excited about, and redesigned the blog. I was determined to build a community, inviting people in by being open about myself and my ideas.

Well, the prospect of a few hundred readers sure kicked my ass into gear. I realized that once again, my blog was serving to hold me accountable — I said I was gonna deliver, and now a few hundred people would be the judge of that.

So, many of you have arrived at the revamped Essential Prose. Very many of you. (Coming from a modest village of 20 subscribers, this new crowd is a metropolis to me!). This whole project sounded to me like a wonderful opportunity for conversation, and on Monday, you proved me right. I read your comments, commented back, sent some e-mails, tweeted, and I also stood back and let you run the conversation.

I’m still working out all the different ways to cultivate this blog. But ultimately, I want people to come here to read my perspective, tell me theirs, and bounce ideas off each other. I don’t want the podium of authority — rather, I want to offer a springboard for thought, play devil’s advocate, or just throw some questions out there. Tell you what works for me, and hear what you think.

So here’s my question today. What do you want your blog to do? Or, if you’re not a blogger, what do you seek from your favorite blogs?

There are so many possible directions for any blog, so I’m curious to see what newfangled, crazy ideas you’ve got.

Add your comments below, or click the title of this post if no comment form is visible!

If you enjoy this blog, I invite you to subscribe by e-mail or by RSS reader (links are near the top of the sidebar).

Tagged as: blogs, brainstorming, creative, goals, ideas, mind map