If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know most of the posts are about cooking, photography, books or gardening. Those are my favorite hobbies and what I enjoy writing about. I have never been a person who journals; I had a a little girl’s diary with a little gold lock on it (remember those) when I was a child, but most of the posts were about going to school or playing or something along those lines. I usually work through my problems in my head instead of writing them down, except to-do lists… I love to-do lists!
Anyway, back to writing. I started this blog almost two years ago and when I look at those old posts I realize that my writing has improved. I am still a long way from a good writer, but it is getting better. I guess I had better clarify by what I mean by “good writer”. My grammar and punctuation are usually good, but sometimes the content itself can be a little, I don’t know, dry. I read in a book years ago, that someone’s prose was not “prose-y” enough, meaning the writing was not very interesting. I want to continue to improve and grow in that area, and that has led to this post.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a blog post published somewhere that referenced a Wired magazine article about blogging. The title is “Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004”. Click here to read the article in full. The gist of the article is that blogging is dying because it has been taken over by big business. The article also contains a link to the Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and when I read the list, I realized what the writer was talking about, but (and this is a really big BUT) maybe what this particular writer is interested in is not what the “small” bloggers are blogging about. I wonder if he stopped to think about that. Even the blogs that I read that I consider BIG blogs are not on this list.
Also, I think there is a substantial difference between a “blog” and a “website”. Some pages that I read regularly started as blogs, such as The Pioneer Woman or Southern Plate, but in my opinion these pages are now actual websites with multiple pages, links and ads. I think the writer of this article is missing the big picture a little bit…small blogs DO still exist, they just may be harder to find and I think it has a lot to do with the subject matter you are searching for.
When I have searched for cooking or gardening blogs, there are many to choose from that are written by people just like you and me. They use the blog as a creative outlet or an online archive.
Also mentioned is how Twitter has kind of taken over where blogging left off. I don’t know about that since I don’t use Twitter. I have nothing against it, I have just not gotten “into it”. It is hard to post a recipe with multiple photos in 140 characters or less! :)
What does this post have to do about cooking or photography? Not much, but when I read that article, it actually made me a little mad. I know my little site is not on this article author’s radar, but it is on a few people’s. If they enjoy it, then I have done my part. I know I enjoy other “little” blogs that are still personal and relevant at the same time!
Picture Perfect Cooking 