Pretentious Blogging About Blogging Meme

Sharing is caring!

While slowly wading through my mostly-neglected-for-the-holidays feedreader, I saw a new Q&A meme over at High Latency Life.  After reading through Rivs's answers, I headed over to Tree of Life to read the answers of the creator of this meme.

I decided to partake, so here ya go.  There is no tagging, so anyone who wants to post their answers can do so, and those who don't won't feel guilty.

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?

This particular blog has been around for a little over a year now.  My very first adventures in blogging were back in college, several years ago, when I joined as a blogger at Sideshow's personal blog.  At that time we babbled about real life stuff, college adventures and the like.  It was full of sarcasm (hard to believe, I know) and was called “Brainfart.”

What made me start back then was just to join in on the fun after Sideshow and I started chatting online.  I think I might have shared some poetry at that time as well.  Later on, when I was roleplaying a lot in WoW, Sideshow set up another blog for me called “Life in RP.”  Unfortunately, I didn't stick with it and only posted the first couple parts of Aerissa's story.

At the end of 2008, our friend Deekow started a blog to chronicle his adventures and achievements.  (Unfortunately, we have outlasted him on the blogging endeavor.)  I started to get the itch to blog again and to work on Aerissa's story.  Sideshow had been maintaining his genealogy blog, but was very open to a gaming/music blog and thus, Sideshow & Syrana was born!

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

Easily 10 hours a week.  Easily.  This includes brainstorming, actual post writing, linkage, picking out/modifying visuals (one reason why not all my posts have them – it takes time!), reading other blogs, commenting, responding to comments, and twittering.

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?

I started writing short stories as a young child, later moving to poetry.  I have lots of unfinished stories I have started over the years, most of them complete crap.  In high school, I shared some of my poetry in class as well as used my own poems when I was competing in Forensics.  This was a breath of fresh air for most of my judges after hearing several readings of Edgar Allen Poe's “The Raven” at each competition.

So, mostly hobby writing.  For my job, I write care plans for clients and case notes.  While they are devoid of feeling and strictly factual, I exceed the standard for exceptional documentation skills.

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?

I come up with topics from conversations with Sideshow, guildies, on Twitter, other blog posts, comments, game experiences, thoughts/feelings, and dreams.  I am struck with ideas frequently while driving to/from work (I have a 30 minute commute each way), while in the shower, and other random times… like as I fall asleep.  Unfortunately, I am not able to keep track of all the ideas my brain fires off.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?

Honesty, definitely.  I never write to mislead anyone.  I try to stay away from using the blog as a place to rant and rave about work or guild drama.  Mainly I strive to write entertaining posts.  If they aren't entertaining then they should be, at the very least, mildly informative.  I am not opposed to writing about my opinions or playing devil's advocate and have done that a few times.

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?

I do almost all my writing at home – after work or on the weekends.  I don't get much downtime at work so I all my blog related activities (see question #2) are done during my non-working hours.  I strive for posting daily, but don't sweat it if I can't make it happen.  Most weeks readers can expect Sunday Screenshot, Tuesday RP, Friday Funnies, and Sims Saturday.

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

I have over 30 ideas drafted.  Most of my drafted ideas are saved on the blog, some scribbled on random notes on my desk, some are just locked away in my defunct brain, and occasionally I'll have ideas saved in Notes on my iPhone.  I don't scrap ideas frequently, but sometimes timing is a factor.  The longer it takes before I can get to an idea, it may not seem as relevant anymore and won't see the light of day.

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

I'm assuming we are excluding Sideshow and treating this question as though we're both passing the blog along….

Hands down: Samodean.

Honorable mentions that would be highly considered would be Fulguralis and Gnomeaggedon.

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Yeah, quite a few things.  My stress level at work has reduced from having this as an outlet, even if it isn't directly letting off work steam.  The amount of readers we have… never thought we'd be as read as we are now! I'm also surprised at how known we are throughout the blogging community.  <3

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

I touched on some general blogging goals I have for this next year in yesterday's post.  I'd like to continue being random and talking about games I'm playing and concerts I go to.  I'd love to see our readership continue to grow, because the interaction makes it all worth it… and makes me glad I'm rambling publicly rather than babbling to myself in a corner to my cats.

Sharing is caring!