Monday, August 24, 2009

When Is A Blog A Blog?


After posting my first official 'Doing Work You Love' profile (on the delectable Belgian Chocolatier Piron), I sit back and wonder if it works in the blog format. Is it okay to do feature-style profiles in a blog? One friend remarked that my first 'DWYL' profile seemed like 'old school' journalism. "Is that the way you want to go?" She asked. "This seems like some serious reportage for a blog."

This got me thinking that profiling people who love their work is not really blogging. I mean, technically, a feature article is not what a blog should be.

Blog stands for web log. Log means a diary of sorts and diary means the author's stream of consciousness about his or her own experiences. If the writing is profiling other people, then does it become something other than a proper blog?

Another friend said, "Your blog can be anything you want it to be. It's your blog!" And she's right. Yet, in the same way that pizza and orange juice just don't go together -- the more I look at it -- a piece of journalistic writing just doesn't feel like it fits with a blog.

All I know is that I love capturing the heart and soul of a subject inspired to do the work he or she loves. This whole cyber-world has opened up the opportunity to put the kinds of feature stories I want to write out there... now the question is how to do it. What form will it take?

I'm thinking the answer is creating a 'Doing Work You Love' website where I can feature 'DWYL' stories and offer a link to my blog on the site. It may be easier said than done, but it's calling out as the next logical step.

Developing a full-fledged website feels like a huge leap. By the same token, making space for 'Doing Work You Love' profiles, via a dedicated website, will hopefully inspire me to want to fill that space.

So now it's a matter of learning how to create the website. I can't say enough about Apple in this regard. As a Mac user, the 'One-To-One' training sessions are invaluable. An incredibly smart and patient teacher spends an hour showing me the ropes on everything from how to manage my e-mails and photos to how to edit video. It looks like I'll be heading back for Website Building 101 (and, from what I can tell, it seems pretty easy!)

The work in progress continues. I'll keep you posted. Steady she goes!

Good work until the next...

Carolyn

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