Forum / Blogging for Writers - A Grammar

Marcus Speh
Jun 13, 11:06am

I've blogged a lot in this life. I've written an essay published in "the view from here" today, entitled "Blogging for Writers - A Grammar". I'm posting this here because many of you have blogs, are trying to have blogs, keep at it, seem frustrated at times, but ever virtuous. Enjoy.

[<a href="http://www.viewfromheremagazine.com/2011/06/blogging-for-writers-grammar.html">Click here to get to the article & kindly leave a comment if you like.</a>]

<img src="http://blog.marcusspeh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/stein-writing.jpg" width="275"><br/><small>“A grammar has been called a list of what is to be done with it.”
–Gertrude Stein, How To Write (1931) </small>

James Lloyd Davis
Jun 13, 11:45am

Great stuff, Marcus.

Marcus Speh
Jun 14, 07:02am

thanks, jim. curious to hear what others think & especially what their experiences with blogging are. here or there.

Matt Potter
Jun 14, 12:52pm

Actually, I have a blog but rarely use it ... certainly not as a blog. But am intrigued that others do and successfully too ... how to good blogs and bloggers rise above the dross?

James Lloyd Davis
Jun 14, 01:06pm

"Blogging experience" is a chilling phrase. Like many people, I've had a blog, several in fact over the years, but neglected all of them to the point that I forgot I even had them. Some still exist out there, I'm sure ... beyond my reach ... adrift on a sea of electrons, like the Flying Dutchman.

"Web presence" is another chilling phrase, but an inevitablility for a writer, I think. In deference to that, I've even started a web site for "James Lloyd Davis." It's a work in progress, nothing special, but it's getting there (You can see it at: http://jameslloyddavis.com/ )

To explain ... all these years, I've been Jim Davis, J. Lloyd, Jay, Jimmy, James, JD, JLD, or simply Dave. Been called a lot of things, had nicknames and such, but the writer requires a "name." Call it what you will, but a writer's name has specific purpose, something you can use for a point of reference, a brand, if you will.

When you begin to think of yourself as a "writer" and not as a scribbler, hobbyist, or wannabe ... when you reach a point of confidence in yourself, such that you don't shy away from naming yourself as an author, your work is usually out there in fragments. Once, that meant "in print" exclusively, today that means, yes, "in print" still, but increasingly that means you have a "web presence" also ... and in the future? A web presence will be necessary, essential to any serious writer. To some, it becomes the means and the end of their writing. I suppose it's possible to be a writer entirely on the web and beyond the vehicle of normal literary work.

I suppose it's possible to be a writer and appear only upon your own blog. A writer writes and a reader reads. So if you write in a blog and someone reads it, as soon as someone reads it, your purpose as a writer is validated ... logically and by definition.

But I'm speaking and moving in a more traditional place, albeit one that is changing daily through the effects of emerging technology on the foundations of the literary world. I think of myself as a writer and try not to be religious in the definition of the term, but open (yes, that's the word ... open.)

A blog or a web site under a writer's name serves to pull together all the fragmented pieces of the writer's work into a solid, consistent point of reference, one that validates, enhances, or even expands the name of the writer according to his or her self-perception ... or, as it could be called, the brand.

Hardly an ego trip, it becomes the one place where the writer has control over a fragmented, widely dispersed body of work, a place where he or she can get a firm grip on the raison d'être, the core purpose and ethos of their work. If it's commercially motivated, it becomes the platform for such. If it's 'artistic' ... it becomes the soap box where purity can sound its siren call. If it's a healthy mix of art and self advertisement ... etc. Anyway, you, the writer, are supremely in charge of the brand, your name, your values on your blog or web site.

I say that it's not ego to have a brand ... an arguable point, but every artist needs one. Art is, ultimately, self expression. If we, as artists, were truly humble, perfectly and purely humble, we would be alone in the wilderness, chanting poems to the birds. But, no, we are writers. We write for readers. It's a communal process, no matter the motivation. If you write here on the internet, you are writing to be read ... but that's a whole 'nuther smoke.

Finally at ease with the idea that I am a writer, I am beginning to feel comfortable with the concepts, the implication that being a writer means having a name, a brand. I want to develop that name, shape it, advance it by whatever means necessary ... hence, I've established a web site, and having done so, I feel that I've finally transcended to a place beyond the 'blogging' word, a place where I am finally in control and serious about the purpose of having a name for which I am ultimately and utterly responsible for when it appears in a byline.

It's possible that 'James Lloyd Davis' is not the same person as James or JD. Doesn't matter, really. I am who I am and will always be. I'm a man, a changing, growing, actual man, mercurial in my emotions and moving as best I can through my circumstances.

But 'James Lloyd Davis' is the sum of my work as an artist, a writer. Maybe He is not me. Maybe He is the sum of universal perceptions among people who read what I've written. The perceptions of others are beyond my control, but with my web site, I can try to steer it in directions that serve my reasons for being 'James Lloyd Davis.'

If that makes sense ...?

Marcus Speh
Jun 14, 06:55pm

@matt - i think good blogs rise above the dross like everything else: by having something that readers cannot get anywhere else. content is king, we used to say, and i still it still is valid for the web world. (by implication, you don't need to be a techie to run a super-successful blog)

@james great mini essay, james, enjoyed it very much. your passion is palpable & inspiring as always. "web presence" will probably give way to part of an overall "presence" as less and less people will perceive the medium web as exceptional. the hardware (esp mobile access but also kindle etc) will take care of that.

i like your definitions, extensions (ego - artist - brand). related to this issue of multiple web personalities identified by you: i have long thought (and written about it <a href="http://blog.marcusspeh.com/?p=3386">elsewhere</a>) that ...
<blockquote>
...the person who writes; the person who reads; the person who comments on your writing; the person who sells something you wrote and the person who networks with others – these are four (or more) different people! it is crazy to ask of yourself to be more than one of these at once (or even at all)...
</blockquote>
... the consequence for me is to not only embrace technology (and blogs) but also resist the pressure to have to be good at performing all these tasks & be everything to everybody. there's a paradox at the centre of the modern artist. having said that, the paradox can only be straddled, like a good fence, with open eyes and an open mind.

Sam Rasnake
Jun 14, 09:07pm

Marvelous form, Marcus. Big yes. Interesting venue.

Darryl Price
Jun 14, 09:41pm

Once again you've hit the blog blog blog on the head with justv the right amount of restraint and malice. But for me as always it's the delight I get from the construction of your sentences that keeps me coming back for more. You are a true artist my friend but also a somewhat scientific observer of truth and folly--joined together so often by human nature itself. A joy to read in every way--and in every direction. Thanks for keeping on doing what you do so well.

Susan Tepper
Jun 14, 11:31pm

Dear Marcus, I found your posting very interesting. I had never really thought about the journalistic pov vs the writerly pov in blogging. I also didn't realize the extent to which folks are blogging, the numbers you mention are just staggering.
signed, Trevor

Marcus Speh
Jun 15, 10:15am

@darryl @susan thank you dear friends. blogging is but a sign of our most expansive times. the construction of sentences is but a means to an end. the proof as so often is in the proverbial pudding.

@trevor welcome to fictionaut, a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor#Etymology">large settlement</a>" of talented writers indeed. large hearts especially.
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