How I Started Blogging

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Recently, on her blog Queenie's Random Ramblings, Queenie wrote a post titled The True Meaning of Blog..., where she told how she got involved with blogging. It was an interesting story (even though it was through something unpleasant), and it said a lot about Queenie that she put her distrust aside, and opened up to us other bloggers. It was a heartening story.

Then, today, in the comments, Mother of Invention of Spilling Out said, "I was e-mailing a friend a lot and the things we exchanged were often philosophy nuggets of gold that he said were very bloglike and that I should have one."

Like many of us, she was a little unsure how it all worked to start with, and took a little while landing on her feet (though, if you go back over her earlier posts, they are as wonderful as the later posts), but now writes regularly and has lots of blogging friends.

While answering her comment, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't known that about her, and nor do I know how/why my other blogging friends came to it, and thought it would make for a variety of interesting stories. So, I'm going to start my very own meme (it's probably done before, but I haven't seen it, and anyhow I have no patience to wait fifty years until it reaches me!! :-D )



So, to the questions I'd like to ask of my friends and visitors:

How I Started Blogging

1. How/ why did you get sucked into the blogging whirlpool?
2. How long ago did you start?
3. Who introduced you?
4. Who was your very first visitor, and do you both still visit each other?
5. How has your blog changed from your first posts, and did you envisage it developing the way it has?
6. Have you any other blogs and, if so, what is their purpose?

The rules:

1. Answer the questions
2. Tag if you want, or leave it open for people to choose to do it or not ...however you feel comfortable.
3. Leave a comment on this post when you've done the meme,
4. Link back to this post, so people can see when and why it started

Seeing as I'm hoping others will do this meme, I'll put my own answers to start the ball rolling:

How/why did you get sucked into the blogging whirlpool?

Ah, this is an easy one. I wanted to write, and I wanted somewhere to write. I'd half-heartedly sent off my A 2 Z Monsters for Bed rhymes and had them rejected by a couple of publishers many years ago. I wasn't in the emotional state for rejections, so I simply 'didn't bother' any more. However, I continued writing bits and bobs... the start of a story here, a poem there - and then dumped them all into this bag under the stairs (the ones that escaped being curled into tight knots and lighting the fire, that is! :-D ).

When I was first told about blogging by one of my dates, I didn't really understand it, and thought it was only an online diary. But then, when given more explanation (see next question), I realised this could be a place to put my poetry and writings, and where I could maybe get feedback. Also, since we'd had a house fire earlier in year, it occurred to me that blogging could be like having an online 'safe' for my writing 'valuables' (not that they were valuable, but you know how your creations can be like little babies to you? and because they come from you it's like they're a part of you? Well, I kind of wanted a place to 'protect' what I wrote, just in case...

Who introduced you?

Blame that on my lovely, eldest son. He had his own blog, and he and his friends visited each other, and left comments on their ideas. One day, sitting at the computer, he turned round and said, 'You should have a blog' for your writing...you'd like it.' I've never looked back. Thanks J!

How long ago did you start?

October 2006 - I started with a poem titled Fireworks, which I'd actually had published (because it came in the top three of a competition)... I just looked back to it. Funny, that seems so long ago, but it was only 7 months!! How time flies! And how engrossed and enriched I have been, and am, by it. Not only have I made such wonderful blogging friends, who've been with me through some hard times (even if they didn't know it :-) ) Sometimes, just having someone there to reach out to can be enough. But, when they reach back and virtually hug you, it can carry you through anything.

Who was your very first visitor, and do you both still visit each other?

The very first visitor was actually that very same date that had first introduced me to the blogging world. He'd then immediately stopped blogging, and now has gone off to Spain. No, he doesn't still visit - we're still friends, but are 'moving on'.

The other first visitors were really just passing through. The first visitor who still visits is probably Kilroy of Gonzo Papers.

How has your blog changed from your first posts, and did you envisage it developing the way it has?

Well, I envisaged doing an occassional posting of a poem or something, but now there's sometimes a full-blown essay (eg last post :-D ), accompanied by not one photo, but a whole collection!

Not only has my expectations of blogging changed, and (as I said before) I feel I've got aquainted with some really wonderful folks, but also it has changed how I think and what I do in the non-blogging world [yes, there is one... it's called the 'real' world :-) ] For one thing, where I used grab my camera and rush outside when there's a spectacular sunset, now my camera's always hanging round my neck, and I just click. I also have taken more time to concentrate on looking at things in a way that people across the world might see it, so now see things in a 'new' light... it's even more wonderful than before :-)

Many have left comments of thanks for showing my little part of of the world, but it is me that should give thanks, my friends, for supporting and encouraging me in this... it's given a whole new meaning to what I once thought was 'known'.... and that in itself has given me a freshness in how I'm dealing with some of life problems (in that other 'real' world :-) )

How many blogs do you have? (seven)

Words that Flow - this one ! :-) which is my main blog, and where I tend to be most days, at some point or other

Poetry from Words that Flow - a seperate place to put my poems... I guess this is the blog I expected to have in the beginning, that isn't there at all at present (when was the last time I posted a poem?! :-S )

Sultana Fling - letting off steam about anything that makes me cross, and getting it out of the system, rather than stewing in it. Not very current :-)

Baring it all - the diary of the two months leading up to my head shave for Cancer Research UK (with the view of supporting my friend going through second Chemo) (up, but inactive, ie no new posts)

How to Link and Other Stuff- If I can do something, and someone wants help doing it, I put up a post... it's not hugely active, but occassionally I get round to doing something on it.

and lastly :-D

Heroines and Heroes (Bloggers' Poem) - my rhyming couplets about friends I meet in the blogosphere - I haven't done anything on it for absolutely ages, and there's a list of new friends I'd like to add a verse about, so I'll be coming back to this one shortly!!

(plus secret blog.... the one with the novel I wrote back in March :-) )

I'm going to be really naughty to start this moving, and simply tag anyone who reads this post!

You're tagged!!

Whose told 'How I started blogging' :

• Queenie at Queenies Random Ramblings
• That Frolicsome Kid at Soliloquies Exposed
• Mother of Invention in my comments (but if you want to elaborate, MOI?)
• Steve in my comments
  
• Sanni in a bigger post
• Goatman in my comments
• Akelamalu at Everything and Nothing (first official meme completer! :-) )
• Topchamp at Bad Jokes and Oven Chips (oh, and Gattina in Topchamp's comments)
• Turnbaby at And as the World Turns
  

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