At the workshop, the question arose as to how much time in a week should someone allocate to writing. I thought of addressing this here as it is a blogging 101 question.
Instead of giving the usual “it depends” let me put it this way. Think of a blog as a space a to take down notes. This would mean staying logged in through the day, and writing short posts whenever you feel inspired. People tend to forget the “journal” roots of a what was once called a web-log, and think too much about the “publishing” side of it. Log your thoughts twice of thrice a day, and chances are, if you are only journaling what you are passionate about, you’ll hit your stride in a couple of weeks. If you’re the kind who would prefer to log your thoughts remotely, there are some solutions –emailing your blog from your mobile phone, for instance is one of them. Only when you are satisfied with the content, should you hit the “publish” button.
Connected to hitting your stride, is finding your voice. What attitude would you bring to your journal? Are you a critic (there are millions of them out there,) a cynic, an analytical person, an objective voice, or a curator of information? The latter has been defined by Steve Rubel as selfless subject matter experts, sherpas and guides for a world facing information overload.
