your requisite “what am I doing here?” post
by Tanya
Fellow bloggers and readers:
How did you come to develop your tone and theme in your blog? More importantly, do you feel a personal blog should have a particular theme, or should the blogger reserve the right to write about whatever they want? Is there an obligation for consistency in a personal blog?
I feel that I’ve somehow set a theme for this to be about all things gastronomical and domestic, but that wasn’t really my intention. True, I love to cook and nest, but I also don’t want to have my blog be some precious cozy thing.
One of my favorite thing about keeping an online journal in the past has been the option to write down stream of consciousness thoughts, discuss current events, share impressions on pop and art culture. I want to write about Anselm Kiefer and how his paintings make me think of ancient hermits and the Atacama desert; I want to gush about Stephin Merritt and how delightful “Strange Powers” is; I want to post bajillion pictures of my roommate’s dog. But I’ve not felt like it somehow… fits in. So I haven’t. I probably would need to get rid of this damned teacup logo (what I mean by precious). I could post these thoughts somewhere like Facebook or Tumblr, but those are not the best platforms for blogging, plus I want to have zero question about owning the content.
Do I rename my blog completely and head in another direction? Do I stick to writing about what goes on in the kitchen? Do I keep it as is and write whatever I want? Do I even owe an explanation for either path?
One thing I was contemplating is keeping all the food related blog posts as a separate section, only occasionally updated with recipes and cookbooks reviews, and then creating a main blog notebook for the more frequent updates that I’ve been mainly keeping on Tumblr. The emphasis would be on my day to day thoughts, with friends being alerted to any time I post a new recipe. Or would that be too disorganized? One of my favorite bloggers, Luxirare, recently reorganized the site in a similar way. It took a little while to figure out the structure, but now there is more content from her and I have a feeling she is able to share even more than previously.
Answer my questions for me, Internet! That’s what you’re here for!
I’ve been struggling with this issue for some time as I’ve previously shared. My vote is keep the name and reorg the content and truly move in and make this a multifaceted journal home.
Xo
Thanks, Erika. What’s the direction you’d like to take your blog, ideally?
Gosh! When I hear “stay for tea”, I think delicious goodies and confections and stories and gossips and salon-style talk of what’s going on in the world/film & literature critiques and reviews/recounts of travels and adventures (or whatever ladies talk about in a salon style setting, I truthfully do not know) and flouncy bonnets and dainty gloves. That’s more or less what you’ve got here!
I say pooh-pooh to themes and write about whatever your heart desires; after all it is your space and you only have yourself to answer to.
Heh, minus the flouncy bonnets, I’m all for it. (Not really a fan of flounce). So I may just need to think a little more about structuring my blog/site, and maybe a slightly more clean redesign. Thanks, Mlle. Ghoul :)