On Passion
Posted on July 7, 2008
Filed Under Creativity, Personal |
I have been thinking about my various blogging projects lately, and wondering if I have the passion to sustain them.
I enjoy writing. It is my passion. I cannot imagine a life in which I don’t write on at least a semi-regularly basis. This is a big part of why I got into blogging: it was an easy, albeit unprofitable, way of publishing my writing.
Unfortunately, I think I’ve chosen projects that I just don’t feel passionate about.
River City Writer is something that I was, originally, incredibly passionate about. Writing about Edmonton and trying to create a resource for people looking for information about the city’s arts and culture was important to me.
Now, while I’m still very fond of my city and its cultural landscape (as barren as it can appear if you don’t know where to look), I no longer feel a great desire to write about it. At least, I don’t feel a great desire to write about it explicitly in the form of a blog.
I still write about Edmonton a great deal in my poetry—usually more about the inhabitants of the city than about River City itself—but to explicitly write about, for example, the Fringe Festival, just isn’t interesting to me anymore (though, I do enjoy the Fringe).
As for Domestic Dog, well, I thought it was a good idea when I started. Hell, I still think it’s a good idea. I’ve never seen another blog like it, and I think it has (had?) the potential to become very popular. However, as good an idea as I think it is, I’m just not that interested in being a domestic maven and have far less desire to write about it than I originally thought.
Will I continue with these projects? I’m not sure. If I don’t continue with them, do the websites (or at least their domain names) have a future?
River City Writer is a good domain name (in my opinion), and could be re-worked into a portfolio website to showcase my writing or something along that line. Domestic Dog on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have much use other than in its current form, or as a website about dogs (a subject that I have next to zero interest in writing about).
Regardless of what I do with those blogs/websites, this blog will continue to exist in some form or another. And, I will continue to write on the web, it just might not be in the form of my River City Writer or Domestic Dog projects.
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7 Responses to “On Passion”
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re: River City Writer: why don’t you blog your poetry and things like that? Just because the site is about Edmonton doesn’t mean it has to be in the more traditionally defined mold of city writing (e.g. the Edmonton Journal). When you have no festivals to write about, write about that weird looking person you saw waiting for the bus.
A large part of the culture of any city is the stuff that happens behind the scenes. The stuff that doesn’t get covered in the newspaper because it isn’t a festival, restaurant, show, etc. Its just stuff.
Allan: That’s not a bad idea. Less “journalism,” more vignettes and storytelling. I think it’d be worth trying. I suppose, too, that there is a bit of a niche for this kind of writing (about Edmonton) that needs to be filled since Mike Gravel closed down StreetRag. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve never been able to sustain multiple blogs. That’s why I have just one, and I simply contribute to a few others. Even with the passion, it takes a lot of time and energy!
I like Allan’s suggestion…we (as in the community) can build a better Edmonton “blog” together by aggregating the best stuff from all over.
Yeah, the time and energy required to sustain multiple blogs is…a lot.
You could write a blog entry on how to get your blogging mojo/passion back.
There are some good ideas here in the comments - aggregating rss feeds from Edmonton blogs is a great one - look into magpie rss, or ask other aggregating blogs how they do it.
As for the ‘vignettes’, I think a great theme would be “River City Walker”. Go on walks around Edmonton and blog it. Seriously. Wear a funny hat, have a crazy cape, and build awarenessby being ‘that guy’ people point at and say ‘that’s the guy who blogs his walks! see his hat/cape/moustache/etc!”
LINK.
Well, I don’t know about the hat and cape bit, but that’s not a bad idea, Aaron. That’s definitely something I could incorporate into River City Writer
Yeah, I was reaching for ideas when it came to the cape and hat. But I think you get my drift.