On Blogging

[A "reprint" of an old post from June 23, 2000]

Little wonder that those bloggers who love writing have been struggling with the issue of the quality of writing in blogs. The blog is a new form of writing - new for the writer, new for the reader. From the writer's point of view, it is read upside down. From the reader's point of view, it is written upside down.

Think of the blog as a piece of literature. In the form in which it will be read, the writer begins with the end of the story (which will eventually disappear) and works toward the beginning of the story, which will never be reached unless the blog is abandoned.

One can imagine constructing a novel which would have this form (even to the disappearing ending?!), but it is hard to imagine writing it in that order - as the blog format demands one do. The narrative thread must be entirely conceived of before starting, with no chance for it to change and develop as the writer writes - or else the narrative thread is an independent and changing force, which gives the work a disconnected tone which will be unsettling to the reader accustomed to traditional literature which has a beginning, middle, and end.

This can be solved by treating the blog simply as short-short story; a series of unrelated mini-essays, or as snippets of conversation. The entries may be polished, but there will be little or no continuity from one to another, no development, and so there will be little depth to the writing.

But I'm thinking as a writer when I say that, a writer accustomed to being in control of my product. The blog as a form of literature is interactive - the reader has the choice of where to go, when to pursue or ignore links, and so the reader is in control of the product. Of course, readers have always been free to skip around in the book, or set it aside, or read alternate pages from dozens of books at once - but most readers of books don't do so. Most readers of blogs do.

Still thinking as a traditional writer in control of the product, there are intriguing metaphors in the blog. As in life, one encounters the most recent version of the individual, and (more readily than in life) has the opportunity to probe for the past versions which led up to this finished and changing product. As a novel, blogs (I realize one should think of the plural, not the singular) would be a mystery, or a psychological study.

So - consider a new novel form: written with links, so that the reader chooses the order in which to read. Every reading a new version of the story. The writer still in charge of the content, and challenged to create an entirely new form of narrative line, adaptable to being approached from many sides by the reader. Is somebody already doing this?)

Comments

[John Dyer]

Oh Yeah!