StandingWater Creations

Blog: simply, a web log, or an online journal or diary.

A personal blog is a unique thing. The blog should be unique to you, your personality, your interests, the things you want (and maybe feel) shared with the world. This does not mean things that are very private; it does mean the things you are passionate about.

I have a variety of blogs all with different purposes.

For example, there is In Order to Write. This blog is my take on various things I am specifically thinking about when it comes to writing and my various writing projects. I created In Order to Write as a means of fostering the communication of writing to a wider audience – one of the three things I feel are necessary to improve as a writer.

I also run StandingWater Creations (or sw-c.com) as a means of allowing family and friends, who are interested, an avenue into my life. This was a result of a move I made to the east coast (New Hampshire) and the sudden realization that I might not be able to make it on my own, have a cellphone, and be able to keep in better contact. StandingWater Creations was repurposed from a freelance technical and professional writing business to host my thoughts and is hosted through Jack’s server. Even though the origins of the site were to make money, the outcome, and the purpose of the site is as a grounds for my thoughts, the things that are happening to me, a gateway to other websites, etc. that specifically allows me to keep in touch with family and friends. The website holds no other purpose (and it is an important one) than that.

Recently, I started another blog (no link provided … yet) with the express purpose of seeking freelance or contract opportunities to assist others in setting up, maintaining, creating content for, and troubleshooting a specific piece of web software that I’ve bothered to learn, rather well, as well as code and database hacks. The outcome are, specifically, articles that are designed to 1) educate, 2) inform, 3) assist, and 4) attract business. Websites have to have some kind of value added to them - regardless of if they are personal or professional.

All of this means is that I have created a series of sites (to include project specific websites) that are to be used for individual specific purposes. When I sit down to write for In Order to Write, I am not thinking about StandingWater Creations or other websites. I am, first, thinking about writing, my creative writing, fiction, and how I am approaching material both theoretically and practically; and second, what would best help me, in its current form, build the content of the website so that it promotes the three part agenda I have set forth.

When I sit down (pretty much five times a week) to write entries for StandingWater Creations, my personal blog, I am not always thinking about writing; but rather, I am considering what is happening in my life, what I want people to know is going on, some level of communication or dialogue, and finally, how best to express what I think I should be writing in an interesting and personal manner. This consists of books, movies, television shows, personal events, politics, religion, thoughts, actions, marriage, my life, my wife, and the sundry things happening to (and around) me.

Most especially, though, the blog is a way for me to express how I feel about things that happen. Take a political figure. Sure, I can just speak my mind if someone brings up that person and asks my opinion. The problem with that approach is it opens a conversation; and honestly, I don’t care, most of the time, to get into a discussion (read argument) about someone. Most often, when starting a political conversation, the person starting it is following an agenda and I have learned that just stating my beliefs or understanding of an issue or politician is a trap for them to try and refute or counter my points. As a result, sometimes I want to share, and I am willing to listen, but I am not willing to really discuss what is going on.

That is a part of my personality.

When it comes to movies, you know, I watch a lot of movies. This does not mean that I am interested, or feel it necessary, to review every movie that I watch. I think, frankly, that is a rather poor use of my time. With that said, I do think that some movies are popular enough, or I am (or was) excited enough by them to tell the world what I thought. Across the Universe was one of those movies. I liked it. I thought other people might like it. Erin’s mother, Lisa, wanted to know what I thought, and I was planning to write something about it, anyway. The outcome, like many other movies, is that I wrote a review of the movie.

At the same time you get the review, you get what I thought.

Even a review of movies attaches itself to a theme. The theme is storytelling. I like to tell stories. I like to have people tell me stories. The better the story, the more enchanted I am by it and the more I want to talk about it. Stories are told through movies, books, television, the internet, people’s lives, orally, traditionally, and by the choices we each make in our lives. This is important to me. I like story. I like story so much that, when I deal with it and I find something that moves me, I need to share it. Sharing is necessary for me. That is one reason I blog. It is an imperative. That is why I started, as an aside, In Order to Write.

Sometimes, something changes in my life. Two summers ago, I decided to try acting. I wrote a lot about the acting experience. You haven’t read about that (with the exception of Erin and me going up the canyon to be featured extras in a movie we can no longer find information about) because I am no longer (or not at this time) experimenting with that. My life, right now, consists of work, writing, school, work, writing, and… oh, I am forgetting something… yeah, school. Throw in Erin (wife) and the time we spend together and you pretty much get what I am doing. When that changes, I guarantee you I will be writing about it.

What all of this equates to is that you have to like and enjoy and have a passion about what you are writing. When writing a technical document, knowledge (and ability to write) are two factors in the subject material, but actually being interested helps the process. When writing a paper for school, actually being interested in the take on the assigned subject helps write about the subject. This is why people who make academia their life have a very specific focus. For some, it is James Joyce and food. For others it is Emily Post and solitude. For others it might be the statistical anomaly of animals in the Saharan tundra.

The point is not what but rather your take.

If you are writing about movies, what is it about the movies that interests you?

If you are writing about politics, what is it about politics that interests you?

If you are writing about family, what is it about your family, or family, that interests you?

Believe it or not, the topic is less important than how you feel, what you think, what you’ve discovered, or how you got to the point you are at about that topic. Your expertise becomes a part of your experience, your education, and what you write. You can write about anything from ovarian cancer to the dominance of prostitutes in Times Square and as long as you have an opinion about it and are, in any way, informed about the subject material, you have something to write about.

Waiting for something to come along to spark your interest in creating a blog entry or in writing (in general) is less important than simply getting out there and writing about what you have going on around you, about what you know.

Sure, sure, this is generic, grade school advice about writing. I’ve just spent a lot of words telling you to write what you know and to pursue topics that mean something to you; but, really, that is the secret to successful, consistent, persistent, blog entries – and it’s the secret to writing in general. Write what you know and the rest will take care of itself.

If you are interested in writing a blog and don’t know what to pull from, honestly, the first hundred entries may feel like pulling teeth; but as you write you build the ability to write; and as you receive feedback, either orally or through e-mail and comments, you actually build the confidence to write. There is no other way to go about it. You have to do it in order to succeed at blogging. Any gimmick or shortcut is ultimately going to lead to a website that goes static, stale, and eventually dies because you’ve done nothing with it.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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