This is the second part of a two-part response to Bookseller Chick’s excellent post Writer as Blogger, Blogger as Writer. For the first part, see my post Reading Blogs.

Next Question:

What do you expect from your own blogging?

I expect from my own blogging the same things I expect from others: good writing, interesting content, and good design. Of these three, interesting content gives me the most trouble.

The first problem is that I find myself infinitely interesting. I have to be careful in my blogging not to ramble on at length about things so narrow in scope they interest only me. It’s that whole “Who drives content?” question. In my blogs, I do. Too much, if I want to keep an audience. So that’s something I’m working to improve. Posts like this one, which are parts of larger conversations, are a strong step in that direction.

The other issue I have with content is updating regularly but not too frequently. When I am in the midst of my obsession with a topic, I’ll post to that blog daily or several times a day. As obsession fades, I post less and less frequently, eventually stopping altogether. This is what happened with my crochet blog, my health and fitness blog, my video game blog, my fashion blog, and my publicly visible personal blog. My friends-only personal livejournal is very rarely neglected: my fascination with my self hasn’t faded yet.

Which brings us to the last question:

Why do you blog?

I started lectitans first because slayground (Little Willow of Bildungsroman fame) is a rockstar. She was promoting readergirlz, and I latched on to the notion immediately. In order to be a part of that larger community, I wanted a place to keep track of my own musings on reading. And so we have lectitans.

I then started paying attention to the blogs linked from readergirlz, and the larger conversations about books in which I saw slayground participating. I thought, “These are my people. I want to be a part of that.” So I am reading other book blogs, and engaging in conversation with other book bloggers. Yes, folks, it’s all about community.

I chose LiveJournal as my publishing platform because it is proven as a platform I’ll use consistently. My personal journal is on LiveJournal, and I’ve been updating it nearly daily for five years. Quite a few friends came over from my personal journal, giving me a built in audience. I also enjoy using the LiveJournal friends page as an RSS aggregator, but wanted a separate ID to use for my book-related reads.

I’m not concerned about running out of content for lectitans. Reading is an obsession I’ve had for twenty two years. I’m excited to be finding new book friends, both real in the form of other bloggers and imagined in the form of characters I wouldn’t be aware of without reading other blogs. I look forward to a long and exciting career as a book blogger.