Thursday, May 05, 2011

Blog It

About to start tutoring a six-week course at Newcastle University on blogging. It's called Blog It (see what I did there? I'm what is commonly known as a wordsmith you know.) I'm doing the course with Oli Wood a computing whizz-kid which is fantastic because he can answer all the tough questions that make my eyes go round and round in opposite directions, and I can drift between the desks in an embroidered, burgundy-velvet cape saying things like "Your post might read better if you took it out of capital letters darlink."

Preparing the blogging course has made me re-engage which is good, and question whether I'm still a blogger which is bad. But I can't in all honesty call myself a blogger if I don't blog, and I do call myself a blogger so here I am blogging. Blog after me, I have been a bad girl in neglecting my blog.

I think I'll come up with some top tips on blogging. Academia is like that these days isn't it. Popular bite-sized culture. Tweet your essay. Poke your lecturer. "I'll facebook you" instead of "Fancy about a cup of Nescafe at mine? I'm completely out of milk by the way."

OK, so my first top tip for blogging: Only blog when you have something to say.

22 comments:

guineapigmum said...

I have a similar problem - call myself a blogger but I've not been blogging. So I'm trying to restart too. It's bit like the defunct art of letter writing I find - the less I blog, the less I can find to say and so the more... Oh you know what I mean. Good luck with the course!

Anonymous said...

This sounds interesting... I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say. After all, you introduced me to blogging back in 2007 which I am extremely grateful for. I definitely say "Blog It". And have fun tutoring the course; with the way social networking is going these days, it'll be a great success.

Take care,
CJ xx

billatbingley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
billatbingley said...

It's great to see that you have moved back into active blogging.

It's thanks to your blog that I started blogging. My early discovery of your "Wife in the North Blog" and your book really spurred me into action!

Have fun with your course and keep up the blogging!

Carolyn Jess-Cooke said...

Like billatbingley, it's because of YOU that I started blogging. Seriously. Now I love it.

Good luck with your course!
xx

Anonymous said...

Hello, I just read your book and I loved it, the french translation was actually pretty good, and I found myself laughing a lot ! Thanks for introducing me to the joys of the life in the North ! Tous à la campagne !

Suzy said...

I started my blog to showcase my scrapbooking but want to add more interesting posts. I have done an online blotting course so must now re read the notes as they gave hints and tips for better blogging and also technical advice. Best of luck and keep blotting. Yours is the only non craft blog I read.

Mya said...

Best of luck with the course - should be fun. And you will feel obliged to blog yourself, because your students will no doubt be checking up on you!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree. I've been wanting to get back into blogging for some time now but my old blog was really only relevant for an era in my life that is now over (GoneBackSouth). So off I go again with a new blog, now that I have something new to talk about :-)
Hope you enjoy giving the course, I look forward to reading about it.

merry weather said...

Excellent news!

Now about that embroidered burgundy velvet cape"...

*chuckle*

Anonymous said...

I agree with you when you say blog only when you have something to say....I ususlly blog when I have reached my elastic limit and I need to let off some steam...sorry for mixing my metaphors but you know what I mean....x

Emma Lee-Potter said...

I've missed your blog so feel really pleased you're back! Great news about the new book too. Also, any other tips on blogging would go down a treat.

Danmark said...

I have been looking out good information about this matter for some time and I got to say you put up provides me some general concept about my paper I'm going to write for my assignment. I would like copy some of your phrases right here and I hope you don't mind. Thanks. I'll reference your work of course. Thank you. Hold updating the great posts

Stay at home dad said...

I hear that!

Congratulations on the new book deal, btw...

It's a mysterious thing the writing of a novel. Other people always seem to be better at it than you are; and it isn't easy grasping the whisp of inspiration that is a narrative.

Don't give up, I'd say, but then I would...

Sahd

alfmcmalf said...

Ah a course on blogging. Then can I entreat you to encourage your students to take a look at this blog
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/ and learn from a master.

Whether or not you care about dogs - this is a blogger mastercraftsman for sure.

Amanda Hoynes said...

Hope your course goes well!

Tell your students about NE bloggers! Set up to improve, develop and promote blogs in the north east. It also has a linked in group and @NEbloggers on twitter

http://www.northeastbloggers.co.uk

Celtic Poet said...

I, too, started blogging due to your book/blog and so I think you can confidently call yourself a blogger even if it is, at times, intermittent...and mine is VERY intermittent, uninteresting and so not as sophisticated as yours. Good luck!

Livvy U. said...

Ok, then, 'I've been a bad girl in neglecting my blog', too.

Went back to it tonight after half a year away. Not sure whether I had anything to say which hasn't already been said, but I comfort myself that I said it with the words in a different order.

Which is often all we can hope for of any 'new' writing, really. Huge congrats on book deal. All as it should be.

Kath McGurl said...

Good to have you back!

I think a focussed blog is a good idea. My own stays tightly focused on writing fiction for women's magazines, though I do occasionally announce I'm off on holiday or have finished writing my novel or the like. But as your followers build up and your blog gets quoted in magazines and books the pressure's on to keep posting. I've found this hard as I'm no longer writing fiction for women's magazines myself, but - you know how it is, my public need me!

Ann in Saskatchewan said...

Only blog when you have something to say eh! Well I always have something to say so maybe I should have one. Mine would likely just be random thoughts, with the occasional profound one thrown in, with a bit of luck, and a lot of injected humour. Hope you enjoy the course ... at least you will enjoy swishing around in a velvet cloak (photo please!) and all that exercise will help get rid of the weight you have reportedly gained whilst writing your book. Not that I really believe that ... girls from the city don't ever gain weight and always look fabulous. Are you sure the scale didn't say 2 lbs?

Rachael said...

That sounds like a great course and I live in Newcastle too! Do you mind me asking how much it costs?Rx

wife in the north said...

re Rachael:Newcastle uni has all sorts of short courses on offer and they are very reasonable. Look it up on line. With blogging though just do it and do it and do it.