Blogging

Did you know that some people type up their blog posts in a word processor? Probably you did. After all, it is quite sensible, since it gives one the opportunity to save (much more nicely than just by saving a draft on Blogger), to edit, to see pretty stats, like word count and to generally write in a superior fashion.

I think it may have crossed my mind, briefly, once to do that. The strangest part of it is that on most of the sites I write at, I wouldn't even think of not using a word processor. Writing beautiful prose with an online tool (like, say, the Blogger posting interface) seems antithetical. Yet I continue to use this interface. I think it's because blogging's a particularly informal way of writing.

Bloggers who can't spell may be annoying, but are to be forgiven, especially if there writing is generally nice. Authors of fiction, essays and articles should learn to spell. I will probably boycott them if they don't. (Well, I might. It depends on the rest of their prose and how badly I want to hear what they have to say.)

If I were to write blog posts in my word processor, I think I'd try to enforce beautiful prose standards upon myself. I'd quite possibly want someone to edit my post, to check that I haven't used the word 'as' too many times in one paragraph. Blogging isn't like that, though (who would beta read a blog?). I think it's best if I don't try to perfect my posts.

It might be fun to occasionally write a particularly thought-out piece. I suppose I might not type a piece like that up while I'm online. I'll have to wait until I come across a deep enough idea, though. For now, it's fun just to write and to watch the words filling up the screen without doing too much editing. I think that might be what NaNoWriMo is meant to be like, but I don't seem capable of doing it with fiction.

I might even have to change my template. I like the one I have now, but if I write a decently long post, it seems to stretch eternally down the page. The narrow column is great for making a bit of mumbling look like it might be meaningful (from a distance at least), but I seem to be over the really-short-posts stage.

If I change my template, I might change the name and maybe even the URL as well. I like the name Arwen, but I don't get called that in real life or on the 'net any more. That's mostly because in the world of Lord of the Rings fanfic, calling oneself Arwen seems fairly unoriginal to me, so I don't do it. This blog isn't very pillow book-like any more anyway. I think I've changed, and maybe my blog needs to change to match.