Write:
This week, use your journal to record your ideas about what makes a good blog, in preparation for Assessment 3.
- Read at least two or three posts on different literary blog sites (a list of recommended sites is below, but if you have a preferred literary blog site, please use that).
- Make some notes on what worked well on the articles you read – what made them engaging to read?
- What do you think are the characteristics of a good literary blog?
- Record your ideas on how a post on a blog is different to an article in a newspaper. How do they treat authorial authority differently? Could the blog be understood as a quintessentially postmodern form of writing?
Some literary blog sites to consider are:
- http://literaryminded.wordpress.com/ (Literary Minded)
- http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr/index.php (A Pair of Ragged Claws)
- http://meanjin.com.au/blog (The Meanjin Blog)
- http://overland.org.au/blogs/ (Overland Blogs)
- http://blogs.radionational.net.au/bookshow/ (ABC's Book Show Blog)
- http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog (The Monthly Blog)
- http://www.killyourdarlingsjournal.com/blog/ (Kill Your Darlings Blog)
- http://wheelercentre.com/dailies (The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas Blog)
I've skimmed through most of the blog sites, so here are my thoughts.
I find what worked well in the articles was when they intermingled personal experience with fact and/or trivia.
One of my personal favourites was the blog from http://blogs.radionational.net.au/bookshow/, which spoke about the history of our bookstores such as Dymocks and Angus & Robertson. The fact that history was interwoven into the blog as well as future plans of the writer really made this an entertaining read.
So for me, I'd say the characteristics of a blog would be a combination of things. Personal thoughts provided they remain objective along with facts and history that led to the writer's personal thoughts, as well as their plans for the future in relation to the topic.
A post on a blog is different to a newspaper article as it has a lot more of the writer's personal thoughts woven into it, it's not all about the news of the topic. For this reason, authorial identity is usually visible through most of the blog, with the writer's own opinion in the blog, authorial identity doesn't get lost.
The blog can be understood as a quintessentially postmodern form of writing as it does share a lot of basic fact, but with the writer's own thoughts weaved into it, it invites discussion from the reader.
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