The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it.

According to Typealyzer.com, this blog is an ISTJ. I, however, fluctuate between INFJ, INFP, and INTJ. This might have sometihng to do with the fact I’m right on the line for three of the four scales. It really just depends on what I’m focused on. Any way you slice it, though, I’m a definite introvert.

I’ve decided to tackle two of Lorelle on WordPress’ blogging challenges at the same time and talk about why I blog and maybe a little bit of how I blog

Lorelle’s first challenge is to describe blogging. Sounds simple enough. Except we aren’t allowed to say, “Blogging is typing thoughts on a topic into a text editor that will post those thoughts onto website via the blogging engine of your choice.” I’m fine with that, actually, because it really doesn’t describe what I’m doing right now. Honestly, blogging is about writing about something important to you. It’s thinking about what you’re reading or doing and writing about it. It’s about finding a cool bit of information and preserving it for future reference. It’s  about exploring a favorite hobby, or learning about something new. Occasionally, it’s even about actually teaching.

Simply put, blogging is what you bring to it. If you bring to it a thirst for knowledge, then you’ll come away having learned something. If you bring to it a desire to understand something better, you’ll walk away with a new insight into that topic. If you bring to it a desire to just get your thoughts down somewhere, you’ll find a sense of rejuvenation. If you bring to it a desire for instant fame…well…you’ll either find yourself receiving a level of notoriety you didn’t want, or you’ll burn out quickly when you realize it’s not that simple.

The cool part about being a blogger is that you get to combine a wide array of skills, skills I happen to enjoy using. You get to read and do some research while you’re either fact-checking or diving deeper into something. You get to write. You can choose to learn as you hand code your HTML or LaTex into your posts. If you aren’t super shy like me, you can hold conversations in your comments and build relationships with like-minded people. You get to explore, not only the topic, but yourself as well. What is this topic? Why is it important to me?

Lorelle’s second challenge is to describe what you need for blogging. I’m a pretty lightweight blogger. My job and my schedule pretty much leave me blogging at home, so I type away on my stationary laptop. I do keep a notebook on me at work for those flashes of inspiration. Other than that, I use Google Reader and EverNote to find interesting information or inspiration and start organizing resources. I’m a fairly simple blogger, I guess.

Late last week as I was catching up on reading my aggregator, I found myself removing a blog I’d been waffling on for some time. What put me over the edge is that this writer (Nope, that’s seriously her profession.) went off on a LiveJournal user for scraping her blog to a LiveJournal and attributing it back to the writer. When everything shook out, it turned out that the LiveJournal user had created a syndication account at LiveJournal for the writer’s blog and was reading it through the feed. The way LiveJournal handles feed syndication is that the feed is given a public account. The feed’s page itself contains dates and headlines of posts, but when the feed shows up on the user’s Friends page, it shows as much of the feed as the originating blog syndicates out.

The writer was completely incensed that her blog was available in this public feed that anyone could read. As far as she is concerned, only the person who subscribes should be able to read the feed. All right, fine. That’s a valid complaint. She could just ask LiveJournal to remove the feed. They’re fairly good about that sort of thing. But she was screaming because people could learn about her blog from somewhere. That just flies in the face of the blog as conversational media, as a means of getting your ideas out there.

Needless to say, this self-proclaimed expert on blogging lost a lot of credibility.

It made me wonder why she even blogs at all, except that she feels she’s doing the web a great service. Of course, that then forced me to think about why I blog, or write at all for that matter.

The simple answer to that is: because I simply can’t stop myself. I’ve always written. I’ve only found one writing form I don’t enjoy writing, and that is poetry. (That’s not true. I’m not terribly wild about memoir or essay writing, either.)

I write fiction because I have fun weaving stories, experimenting with characters and situations. I write fan fiction for the exact same reason, except I want to explore putting established characters into unexpected situations. I write flash fiction and graphic novel scripts because I want to explore the challenge those art forms provide.

I write nonfiction because I’m a teacher at my core. I blog to record my own thoughts on things, or to record links. Occasionally, I even blog to make others aware of something. Other people find this information useful, so I’m glad to share it. I write how-to articles to help people when I can’t physically teach it to them, and now I share them online to make them available to a wider audience. I write statements of procedure or technical pieces for my work because I want my coworkers to have access to what I know, even if I’m at home with a major stomach flu.

I write to entertain, to share information. Sometimes, I write for myself, but if someone asks, I’ll share it with them. I write to reach out, to make new friends. For me, writing isn’t about the props. It’s about the resulting community, the chance to meet others who just can’t stop themselves from writing.

Why do you write?

I guess this week’s accidental theme is being authentic. On Monday, I was thinking about leading authentically. Today, I’m thinking about blogging authentically.

Living online, I think it’s easy to forget that this kind of communication carries a certain skepticism from the readership. Who is this person really? Do they really live what they say? Are they honestly trying to reach me, or are they focused on reaching the search engines?

The internet has such a bad reputation brought about by those who use it as a stage, a place to test out new personalities, to test out ways to gain what they want through not entirely kosher ways that it places a great burden on those of us who do exist on the internet the exact same way we exist in real life to have to fight to prove our own authenticity.

What’s even more fun is that a number of teenagers, that group of people trying to find themselves, to figure out who they are going to be through the early stages of adulthood, are online showing off that growth. They’re being normal kids- posting emotional rants, attacking each other for being different, sharing pictures they find silly, but we would find stupid (Sometimes, I really wish my students wouldn’t feel compared to share these pictures with me.)- but they’re also trying to share their journey. They’re trying to share their writings, their art, their personal expressions as they navigate the same troubled teen years we all had to pull ourself through.

For us, our teenage growth isn’t on display for the world to see. We are sharing our adult lives. For these kids, those teenage experiences that they share with the world through the internet will be available to haunt them until someone finally figures out how to clear all ghosts from the internet.

What this means, and the linked post on blogging authentically is just the tip of the iceberg, is that it’s okay to share your life, to share your struggles. Someone may benefit from seeing how you handled a challenging period of your life, and it may in turn help them through their own struggles. But it’s best to be discreet in sharing your life, and to be yourself even online. You never know who’s looking, and you never know when you’re going to run into your online persona in your offline life.

When you live in harmony, these two personas not conflicting, it makes your life simpler, and people actually appreciate your honesty.

I wrestle with this constantly.

I’ve been blogging for four years next month. I’ve saved up interesting links to share. I’ve talked about my personal and professional life. I’ve covered hobbies and situations that just make no sense to me.

Am I writer?

Those who are paid to write, not blog, would say that I’m really not. I put words together. I self-publish them to a self-owned space.

Oddly enough, my technical writer friends and other bloggers all would say that because I do those things, because I organize my thoughts and commit them to some media, I am actually a writer. I may not be a terribly good one half the time, but I’m still a writer who takes a chance by sharing her thoughts in a semi-permanent way.

I’m even blogging a book these days, and I’m still not sure whether or not I’m a writer.

I think Troy is right. This one’s academic, and going to be debated for a long time.

I’ve been blogging for what is rapidly approaching three years now. (It might actually be four. I need to drag out the timeline to be sure…) In an interview I gave earlier this year, I was asked if I felt I’d changed as a blogger. To be honest, I’m not sure.

It’s hard to say what demonstrates growth as a blogger. I’ve definitely noticed trends in my blogging, and when I haven’t liked where a trend was leading me, I’ve changed my blogging behavior. Even now, my blogging behavior is morphing to accommodate using Performancing.

In a way, I guess that’s why this post on being a better blogger really spoke to me. The analogy is perfect, because blogging really is something of a way of life, just like practicing a sport or a musical instrument.

To become better, you have to practice, to submerse yourself in the surrounding culture and make it a part of who you are. I’m still working on that second part, but I think it’s a part of defeating my hermit behavior.