The making of a blog

I just love “behind the scenes” stories.  It probably started back in my Mr. Rogers days when he would show little clips like ‘how the mail gets delivered’ or ‘how crayons are made’.  It makes me appreciate how much goes in to things we do not pay much attention to.  This fascination developed into a devotion to ‘Up close and personal’ sessions during the Olympics and in recent years re-watching the LOTR appendices almost as much as the films.

So I thought it might be interesting to talk about what goes into a blog post.  Blogs are funny things because they are this mix of personal musings and public publication.  It may not be obvious, but I put quite a bit of thought into the blog topic (although, admittedly, not as much into the actual writing and editing).

A new post usually starts off as a bunch of small observations I have made over the past few days.  I walk a lot (to and from school, into town to shop, down the road for coffees, etc) so I have a lot of time to both observe what is happening around me and to reflect on those observations.  Quite honestly, it feels a bit like the beginning of a Seinfeld comedy routine “What’s the deal with people getting on a bus?  Do they all have to ask the bus driver  if the weather is cold enough out there?…”  From there 1 or 2 will stand out as both having a universal appeal as a narrative and some sort of lesson or moral.  Again, as I am walking, I will start “writing” the blog in my head – fleshing out concepts and thinking of a witty title.  However, by the time I actually sit down to type it up I often find that my story isn’t nearly as interesting as it was in my head and that is surely due to the fact that I have forgotten all of the witty bits.  So in an attempt to put pen to paper (obviously figuratively – no pens or paper went into the making of this blog), I just start writing.

Unfortunately, the review process is not as rigorous as the A level journals and after a quick preview I post it.  However, there have been occasions that I have not published the post and they are sitting in drafts waiting to either be edited (which probably won’t happen) or deleted (which probably should happen).  It is funny because I always had this idea that small things were more difficult to write, like a poem is harder than an essay because you have to choose your words so carefully.  However, in this case I find blogging much more difficult than micro-blogging.  I think it is because this feels more permanent while Twittering has a very ephemeral quality (and honestly even with the word count limitation – I don’t choose my Tweet words particularly carefully).

So whatever the reasons or the results, that is the Behind the Music: the making of Fa’s Blog.  Oops I forgot to include the sudden rise to fame, the equally sudden fall caused by addictions to sex/drugs and the where-are-they-now bits….