A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.
~P. L. Travers
~P. L. Travers
I was thinking that I have not seen any advice on how to survive the other side of blogging. You see, some of my favorite bloggers have been posting less often of late, including myself. Some are observing Lent and some are just particularly busy in their real life and some may just not be in the mood to write. It is like an infectious illness putting the skids on my blog world and I may even be helping it along! My husband calls me a high maintenance woman, but I believe I am only high maintenance in my need for communication and if I feel cut off, I get...uh, moody, even needy.
It is no one's fault. I firmly believe happiness is a choice and I do not expect people to make me happy...but lately I have felt like my support group is...ungrouping. Yes, I know it is not a real word and to be honest these individuals are not in a real group, except in my little cyber world. I have come to realize that I handpicked a support group for my needs, but is it a small group and rather fragile. If just one is not posting for a few days, I feel unbalanced. If for more than a few, I feel the loss deeply of the people themselves, of course. However, I recognize there is this need that reading their blog fills in me also.
So, I have given this some thought and believe that I have a recipe for a good blogger's support group:
- Sharing faith. This is my top priority for the majority of blogs I read that they are written by Christians, but that is not to say that I would not be interested in a blog of a differing faith so I could learn about it in a personal way.
- Like interests or similar lifestyle. An obvious given! Everyone looks for people to whom she can relate.
- Enough differences in interests or lifestyle to be interesting but not irritating. Let's face it, there is enough peace-stealing conflict just in real life, so I do not need to add more purposely, however I do like hearing opinions that differ from my own and getting to know a person.
- A balance of blogs with deeper insights to challenge emotional and/or spiritual growth and those that are generally lighthearted and uplifting. Now this one is the most important to me personally. I need a balance in this because I am not the lighthearted and uplifting type—I know I am not shocking anyone with this confession—so I need that in my support group. On the other hand, I am more drawn to blogs that challenge me, so I tend to have more of them than the other.
- A good pinch of motivating and educating to spice it up. I need to know what others people are doing, reading, or learning to help me decide if that is something I would want to do, read, or learn, and maybe add to my own lifestyle. I also like learning in the way people teach people, not in a boring uninvolved textbook style, but with a person's own opinions on the matter. It makes it far more enjoyable and memorable for me.
- Inspirational in that they prompt me to write in turn. When I write "inspirational" I do not necessarily mean that pat-you-on-the-back kind nor that how-to-write kind, but something that motivates me to write, even if on an unrelated subject.
The thing that make it all worth the while is not to survive in Blogland but to thrive in it and that requires a balance with your real life too.
~ My Lord, thank you for the people You have brought into my life through their writing. I appreciate them all very much, very much indeed! ~
