Blog Questions Challenge
Some blogging about blogging today, how meta…
Thanks to Jam for tagging me in this challenge, which was originally adapted by Kev Quirk from a bear blog question challenge by Ava.
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I started my first blog in 2009-ish when I was doing a masters degree and wanted somewhere to throw out ideas-in-progress, because I think best by writing. My interests then, as now, were in the intersections of spirituality and culture and the many blogs I’ve had since then have all tended to coalesce around the same theme, intentionally or otherwise. Well, except for the work ones I managed for various jobs, but they don’t count.
What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why did you choose it?
Currently I’m here on write.as, so I’m using the in-house platform because I honestly don’t have the skills to create or host my own site. I’m super impressed by folks who do, but I just need somewhere I can write and click “publish” and have the hard work done for me. Write.as specifically was recommended by my friend Diotima, who shared a free trial link with me which I enjoyed enough to sign up to the paid-for version.
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I’ve bounced around. I’m old enough to have had a LiveJournal, then was on Blogspot when that was the thing to do. I settled on Wordpress where I was for many years until I left after they went super corporate and started pushing AI into everything.
How do you write your posts?
That depends on the post. For my poetry blog I usually write in a notebook with a pen or pencil first, make a bunch of changes and then type it up. For here and my fiction blog, I write in a plain text file and upload it to my Proton Drive before editing and pasting it on here.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Ha, erm…rarely. I tried setting myself writing goals or a routine to help with inspiration but it turned it into a chore so now, whenever the mood hits. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a finished poem in my head and need to go write that down first thing. Fiction-wise, scenes kind of appear as I go – I write about characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon Age, so as I’m playing the games certain gaps become apparent or scenes feel incomplete, so I write them as they actually happened. General blogging…eh, I used to follow a lot of other blogs and what happened was we’d all end up posting about the same thing and it got a bit echo chamber so now I just post when I want. That was a waffley and non-committal answer I know.
Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer?
General blogging (posts like this) are just type, hit publish, done. Poems and fictions need editing and honestly, are often too raw emotionally to publish at first. I’m sitting on poems from years ago that I will share eventually, in some form.
What’s your favourite post on your blog?
On here, there’s not many to choose from yet, I yeeted and deleted all my old Wordpress ones in a fit of pique (all my words are straw) but I think my post about non-binary representation with Taash in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is quite nice. My favourite short scene so far is The Dance, and poem-wise, I think In Nomine Hekate has a certain (dark) charm.
Any future plans for the blog?
I’d like to post more regularly, but that would probably mean having a whole personality transplant so that’s not gonna happen. I guess my plan is to figure out what I want to write about in the first instance. I want to share more poems and some longer fictions so that will probably happen at some point too.
Who will participate next?
I don’t tend to tag people, but if anyone wants to join in, then go for it! I’d be interested in hearing from Dio and Robin, but absolutely zero pressure.