Hello, why are we doing this? (A Can I Help You special)
Now that we’re back up and running, here’s a Comment from the yesterday which I’ll deal with as best I can. It happens to be relevant to this general enterprise.
Bonjour Mr Watson, i’m at uni and i’m required to do a blog…WHAT THE F?! where do i start and why does anyone care what i have to say? i’m just a northerner living in London…nobody gives a shit…anyway i digress, i typed in “comedy blogs” to get some ideas and you’re one of my faves so gave you a click, can you ‘elp? p.s you walked past me at Paddington station and you’re taller than expected, congrats on the height!
Firstly, thanks for your kind thoughts re: my height. Pretty much exactly six foot, but I let myself down by slouching. People are regularly surprised by my relatively impressive stature, when they meet me in the flesh or at any rate when I walk past them, which is something I do quite a lot in the course of my attempts to get between different parts of the world.
What is the point of a blog, you ask? Like these modern paintings which look a bit like they’ve been done by a baby but turn out to be acclaimed as genius, the value of a blog is only really measured by the readers. Not necessarily the number of readers – we all know there are lots of people out there paying attention to the Kardashians RIGHT NOW when they could be thinking about, say, Jarvis Cocker instead – but the impact that it has upon those readers. A blog which entertains and informs four people is well worth doing. One of the curious truths of the internet age is that, basically, everything is worth doing in the sense that it has a chance of amusing/provoking/enlightening someone, somewhere, thanks to the peculiar lottery of search engines and the passing on of web memes and all the rest of it. (The only exception to this is LOLcats. I’m pretty sure there is no point at all in them. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, don’t google it.)
Being ‘required’ to write a blog for uni, though, seems rather odd, in the same way it would be odd to force someone to keep a diary. I can only assume you are on some sort of creative writing/new media course and they’re keen to be modern. My only advice really would be to choose one thing that interests you, and write even a tiny bit about it. Whoever you are, whatever you are, you will see one thing a day that’s worth commenting on. You see someone being rude on the way to uni? Or a funny hat? Or hear an odd expression? Or watch a TV show that’s surprisingly great/awful? Basically any thought you register is potential blog fodder.
With any other form of publishing you’d have to self-censor, you’d have to try and have some continuity of subject within each blog, and from one to the next; for example, if I suddenly broke off from this to announce that last weekend’s ‘Sherlock’ was one of the most amazing televisual experiences I’ve ever had, it would seem like poor structuring in most other formats. I mean, I never even touched on it till then. But that’s the freedom a blog gives you. You really can just ramble.
Like many of the other new channels of communication the internet has given us, blogs are disposable and probably a bit silly. But life itself is rather silly, when you consider how it ends and what comes afterwards, so, hey. You might as well write something, Rachel (I think the commenter was called Rachel, but I might be getting confused because almost everyone who reads this IS called Rachel). And if you do, I’ll put a link up here.
This was the first in a new series of Can I Help You, the popular feature where I deal with readers’ enquiries/problems, but from now on I’m only ever going to do one per blog. So it’s the ideal forum if you have an issue that’s absolutely not time-sensitive and doesn’t require any specialist knowledge whatsoever.
The title ‘Hello, why are we doing this?’ is what my comedian colleague/friend Sam Simmons had as his Twitter ‘bio’ when he first signed up to it. For me it sums up the most sensible standpoint one can have about Twitter/the internet/most human projects: I don’t really understand why I’m doing this, but on we go.
Tomorrow: gig news/TV news/trying to find purpose etc.
Posted by Madeleine on January 19, 2012
I also had to do a blog for uni, for a music course which pretty much confirmed my suspicion that I’m terrible at blogging. Twitter on the other hand, I love and through it I have met and spoken to some of my favourite writers and comedians.
It’s much easier to come up with a funny or interesting sentence than 1000 gripping/hilarious words.
So maybe that would be good for people who’re concerned about full on blogging. And twitter really only has one rule (that literally no one sticks to): Don’t be inane.
Posted by Rachel on January 18, 2012
Bloody hell, there’s tons of us. We may need nicknames…
Posted by Suzanne aka Senior Watsonian on January 18, 2012
I am confused … either that or I am seeing treble … or should that read trouble …
HELP!!!
I am going to have a lie down …
Posted by Rachel on January 18, 2012
I AM SPARTACUS
Posted by Rachel on January 18, 2012
I AM RACHEL
Posted by Rachel on January 18, 2012
I am Rachel.
Posted by Mr Ydir on January 18, 2012
Hello,
I am a regular reader and sometime contributor, so I hope you don’t mind me posting under an assumed name, the reasons for which will be might be made clearer when you read on.
As a coincidence I posted my first ever blog yesterday (17/01/12) and I plan on making it a regular feature of my life.
I have been inspired by this blog, and a desire to make the world a better place!
It is of course early days but I plan to develop the site (which was actually started by a nice American chap called Dusty who has given me access to his site and agreed to work with me to develop it) and I also plan on developing my split personality. I have the twitter, facebook and e-mail accounts oh and google plus one not sure what it is or how it works but it looks like it could be fun.
Initially I want to highlight and thank people who are doing a fantastic job, by telling them and the world you’re doing it right. I plan to write a daily blog about the people I meet in my life that go that extra mile and make the world a better place to live in. I will also be looking out for stories that I feel someone should say keep up the good work you’re doing it right. I also hope that people will send me their own examples and make use of the hashtag #YDIR. I am thinking of a bit like an expanded version of the good deed feed that you can read in the metro.
I have lots of ideas, to expand YDIR some a bit mad some a bit more sensible. I have considered making use the increasing number of empty shops and setting up for a week or a few days with a laptop and sign outside stating “How can I help?” which looking again at the title of the blog is remarkable similar…. Anyway I figure that with the internet and a bit of thought I can offer at least a small titbit of useful advice that help them make their life better and perhaps they will also be inspired to make their little bit of the world a better as well.
Right well I have already gone way over my lunchbreak so I better get back to the day job
Mr Ydir
Posted by lisan66 on January 18, 2012
Links to people’s blogs? That way we can all read them! I don’t blog, just because I’m too self-concious about what people think of me….even if those people are faceless strangers from the internet. And I’d be doubly afraid that someone that I know would find it and then try and talk to me about it. Maybe I’ll do a private blog…can I do that? Like a diary with a lock, but one that’s online so that my rents/sisters can’t find it….
And good luck with writing the blog! And I’ve started reading Zoe’s, and it’s really good
Posted by Andrew on January 18, 2012
Josh’s last paragraph, which he seems to be saying is not advice but which certainly looks like it, is very good. Don’t force it, that’s what I’d say.
I started my blog because people kept telling me I should write. After writing it sporadically for several years, I’ve come to the conclusions that a) I can’t, or at least not as well as I’d like to, and b) if I can, then given the dearth of activity on it it’s clearly not in a way that any of the people who told me that like to read.
Posted by Josh (the conceited one) on January 18, 2012
One of my housemates has to do a blog for her course. It’s photography, go figure. (That’s not a phrase I’d usually use, but I got told today that I managed to pull off “Oh my god, that is SOO last year” so anything is possible.
I’m not sure I should really give advice, seeing as my usual tactic for blogs is to start a lot of them and then get bored of them. I just revived my music blog from an accidental hiatus of over a year. When I say revived, I mean restyled. Mind you, I seem to spend more of my time designing blogs than I do writing, another reason not to listen to me (although it could be a good place to start).
Speaking of my music blog, I got a terrible surprise when I saw loads of traffic pouring in, only increasing as the year-long-hiatus went on. Thousands of people had visited my blog. After analysis though, I can reveal that if you want to achieve this effect, just fill your blog with album art and people will find it on google image searches. Not what I was aiming for.
But, if I did have advice, it would be to find a line between having no pressure to write – when you won’t – and too high pressure – when you’ll start to resent it. Don’t be too strict about what to write, or you’ll sacrafice perfectly good blogs for no reason, and don’t be too unfocussed, or you’ll run out of ideas.
Posted by Rachel on January 17, 2012
I fucking LOVE LOLcats.
Posted by Lydia on January 17, 2012
I think I probably should have read this before finding out that DLA is going. The internet tried it’s hardest with that one and failed.
Blogging is fun. You should do it. I highly recommend any method of recording your life, because looking back on it is very funny. I started keeping a diary when I was about eight, and I love looking back on stuff through it.
Sherlock was amazing. SO AMAZING. Watching it made me feel like most other television programs should immediately give up and stop wasting my time.
Posted by amycool on January 17, 2012
It’s splendid to have you back Mark. Evidently I missed yesterday’s as I was busy watching Michael Madsen on TV. I never thought I would ever watch an episode of CBB on Channel 5 but Mr Blonde has drawn me in.
I digress. The one thing I know for sure about me, is that if I begin a diary/blog, I will at some point, quite early on, forget to write it and give up. Until the next one. However, I got a 5 year diary for Christmas, and I feel a moral pressure to keep writing or I will effectively be throwing the gift back into my sister’s shocked face. I was good at diary writing as a teen because I had so much angst and nobody to tell about it, but now my diary entries are things like, sorted out the direct debit for the water bill and I made roast veg tartlets for tea (Jan 5th). Perhaps if next year I’m going through trauma it will be nice to see how mundane life is now.
Posted by Zoe Fell on January 17, 2012
I decided to embark on doing a daily blog at the beginning of 2012, and, so far, it seems to have been pretty successful.
The point is, I enjoy writing my blogs, they’re actually pretty cathartic at times. And if people read them, and even better, enjoy them, then that’s fantastic. I write each of my posts with a reader in mind, but it actually doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get any views at all.
Blog about your day, maybe. I promise, it;s worth it. Plus, when you’re older you can look back and see where you were in your life, which I think is actually quite lovely.
Good luck, Rachel!
x
Posted by Megan on January 17, 2012
I’ve been blogging every day since October 24, usually in the morning while having my first (of many) coffees of the day.
I mostly follow what Mark says above, but as my readership is comparatively minute (somewhere between 25 and 60 views a day, normally, with very few commenters), I don’t often take them into consideration; I’m usually just mining my brain (or grasping at straws) to clear my head before I start my day. Or, like today, I just get ridiculous and end up with far more readers than I usually do by 3pm on a Tuesday because of strangers’ Google searches.
Most of my ideas start with an observation, though, as Mark says. Those entries are much better than the navel-gazing, low self-esteem ones (of which I’ve written a few). Or, if you’re more into photography, you can take a photo every now and again and explain its importance or meaning. The possibilities are actually (and clichéfully) endless. Good luck, Rachy!
Posted by Misha on January 17, 2012
I’ve been blogging absentmindedly for a good 3 years now, and using livejournal (yes, really) for nearly 6. Scary.
Blogs are fun though, you can use them to do things, or not. And no-one can stop you.
In Watson news, I saw your DVD in the supermarket today and did a little pleased happy dance to myself. I often feel like a pleased big sister in this respect, despite being the same age as the twins. Logic, I do not.
Posted by Tim Buckle on January 17, 2012
When I started my blog in 2010 I didn’t think I would stick at it. How wrong I was. I blog once week about what has happened that week to me. I even find myself making notes of things during the week so I remember to put them in the blog on a Sunday.
Blogging is great and Mark is correct (I know he always is, but even more so) just ramble on.
Everyone should blog
Posted by Rachael on January 17, 2012
Rach(a)el’s are going to take over the world, this
Blog is just the starting point!
Posted by Alice on January 17, 2012
Starting a blog is a bit daunting if you don’t know where you’re going with it. I started mine a year and a half ago as a kind of online diary, a way of noting my experience of a new city. A couple of friends go are native to bristol have looked over it and enjoyed seeing their home town through an enthusiastic outsider’s eyes. In a few months it turned into a food blog and I’m on my way to being happy with it, but the whole thing was quite a slow process.
Anyway, all you can do is start. Photos are always nice.
Posted by Ingrid on January 17, 2012