More Monday Thoughts on Blogging and Kidlit

We had such a fantastic conversation in the comments after my post entitled "Rekindling My Love for Blogging" that I wanted to reproduce some of those comments here, in the hopes of sparking more discussion--because I really think it's an important subject to think about, the whole "why we blog" question. It's informative, for me anyway, to read what others think, and inspiring to find out more about why others gravitated toward blogging and why they are still doing it, and whether their motivations for doing so have changed over the years. Here in the kidlit world, things do tend to change quickly--genres, cover design trends, and so forth. And of course things change in the technology world faster than you can say "Google owns my soul." But as readers and writers ourselves, not to mention being a sort of buffer between the content-creators and the content-consumers, what is our role and how is it changing? How can we keep our enthusiasm going?

I don't have any answers (if you know me, this is no surprise. I am much better at asking questions than answering them) but the responses to my prior post generated some intriguing food for thought, not to mention sparking some new blogging-related ideas. Here are some of those responses:

• Gail Gauthier said that starting some new features has really helped her regain momentum for blogging. Also, she said: "I have come to think of blogging as short-term nonfiction or flash nonfiction. I'm interested in essay writing, so I feel blogging enhances that aspect of my writing." At the same time, though, she's not sure many of the writers she knows have much interest in blogging--I find that intriguing, since it is such a direct way of connecting with people through informal writing.
• Melissa Wiley talked about going back to the original roots of why she started blogging in the first place--something that really resonated. Another thing she said that resonated: "One light bulb that went off for me is that I'm most interested in talking about a book WHILE I'M READING IT. Once I'm finished, writing about it can feel like homework, and anyway, I'm already on to the next book. But in the middle of a book, I'm dying for conversation. I realized I'm kind of a social reader in that I long for discussion with other people who are reading or have read the same book." So now I'm thinking about how I can channel my "while I'm reading" enthusiasm to this blog.
• Adrienne's feelings about the situation really paralleled my own, too: "It got so I couldn't do book reviews anymore, for a lot of the reasons you all have mentioned--feeling overwhelmed and feeling obligated. I also found that publishing a book my own self made it impossible for me to be as critical as I perhaps should be." She also echoed my sentiments about finding it hard sometimes to keep up with all the activity in the kidlitosphere. "I wish I could keep up with everything I want to...but I can't. I've been making an effort to sit a little easier with that knowledge."

That's a really important point, to me--of course, it entails figuring out what I think is a realistic goal for participation and activity in the first place, but also forgiving myself when I deviate from that.

So, back to you: what WERE your original motivations for blogging? Do you think they've changed? Are your feelings about it different now? Let's continue the discussion!