• Facebook
  • Twitter

Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

  • Home
  • My Books
  • Essays
  • Contact
  • About Me

Finding Your Own Blogging Voice

By Anita Mathias

Finding Your Own Blogging Voice


I have been writing for a while and have definitely found my own distinctive writing voice. Blogging, on the other hand, was a different ball game–putting up your thoughts on the web, for friend and foe alike, raw, unprocessed, unedited. Wow!


How does one find the voice for that? Not too personal, not too boring, not too pompous or distant. Writing for unseen, anonymous readers.


I have been blogging for almost six months, with some success–top 20 in Wikio UK in both culture and literature, high ranks in technorati, and top blog sites. But I had not found my real voice, me. I was not sharing who I really was, just what I thought.





An accident helped me find my own blogging voice. I wrote a post of great interest to the large Christian community to which I belong. I had 1400 page views within a week, 852 of them unique page views (the rest were repeats because of the 60 or so comments.) 


And as always happens when you have a sudden spike in page views, most dropped off, but not all. My graph of page views was suddenly on another level.




I suddenly had a real audience–people I knew, whom I worshipped with every Sunday, and met mid-week every week. True, I did not know which individuals, but I suddenly felt I had real people reading my blogs, who somewhat knew me, and were interested in what I had to say.


There is nothing like that for finding one’s real writing or blogging voice.




I have now found my own distinctive blogging voice on two of my blogs, theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com and wanderingbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com. I still need to find my own voice, who I really am, on my third blog, a literary blog called thegoodbooksblog.blogspot.com.


I think of the pop psychology book popular when I was a teen, “Why am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am.” It goes on to say, “I am afraid to tell you who I am because you may not like who I am, and who I am is all I have.”


So, a truly good blog, a truly interesting one, is written by someone who is not afraid to tell you who she really is. 




Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious

More from my site

  • “All I have left is a nuclear bomb”“All I have left is a nuclear bomb”
  • Miracles in the Tsunami: a remarkable story from CNN.  Miracles in the Tsunami: a remarkable story from CNN.
  • The Things which Make me HappiestThe Things which Make me Happiest
  • Domesticity and Art               Domesticity and Art            
  • How many plagues does it take?How many plagues does it take?
Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter

Filed Under: Blogging, books_blog

« Previous Post
Next Post »

Comments

  1. Erin Owen says

    December 1, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    Sorry Anita for the delay in reply. Yes, we are in Egypt long-term. And about the *voice* issue, well, I think I've gotten a better handle of finding what my blog's voice is. I don't know if I still agree with what I said about choosing a niche = choosing a voice. I think expat bloggers tend to be more story-oriented than anything else so maybe that is true.

    And yes, I would agree that being too vulnerable on a blog isn't necessarily the way to go. You can reveal certain things about yourself but this doesn't mean you have to share EVERYTHING, right? Although at the same time it's important to be honest…

  2. Anita Mathias says

    October 6, 2010 at 10:17 pm

    Hello Erin,
    Blogging is actually great for finding one's own voice. Rules which have helped me–and as I said, I have not yet found my voice on this blog, though I have on theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com–don't be afraid to look ignorant or foolish or stupid; don't fear people's judgements; don't make yourself look better than you are (at least, don't do that too much), be honest. I don't think blogging is the place to be vulnerable about one's current dilemmas, since it is read by tout le monde. But it is a great place to take risks in style and subject matter, and say what one really thinks and feels.
    What are you doing in Egypt? Are you there long term?

  3. Erin Owen says

    October 6, 2010 at 10:09 pm

    I have been pondering this point myself, trying to determine if my blog is really representing me or just some version of myself. But when we choose a blog niche, we are also – in a sense – choosing a voice as well. Maybe it's because we have to compete with the others in our niche or maybe it's because we're trying to reach the larger audience or maybe it's simply because we don't know who we are yet (well, not in a blog-sense, that is).

    I'm working on it. From what I read, the only way to know is to keep writing, right? Everybody makes this look easy!

Sign Up and Get a Free eBook!

Sign up to be emailed my blog posts (one a week) and get the ebook of "Holy Ground," my account of working with Mother Teresa.

Join 668 Other Readers

Follow me on Twitter

Follow @anitamathias1

Anita Mathias: About Me

Anita Mathias

Read my blog on Facebook

My Books

Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

Wandering Between Two Worlds - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Francesco, Artist of Florence: The Man Who Gave Too Much

Francesco, Artist of Florence - Amazom.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

The Story of Dirk Willems

The Story of Dirk Willems - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk
Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  •  On Not Wasting a Desert Experience
  • A Mind of Life and Peace in the Middle of a Global Pandemic
  • On Yoga and Following Jesus
  • Silver and Gold Linings in the Storm Clouds of Coronavirus
  • Trust: A Message of Christmas
  • Life- Changing Journaling: A Gratitude Journal, and Habit-Tracker, with Food and Exercise Logs, Time Sheets, a Bullet Journal, Goal Sheets and a Planner
  • On Loving That Which Love You Back
  • “An Autobiography in Five Chapters” and Avoiding Habitual Holes  
  • Shining Faith in Action: Dirk Willems on the Ice
  • The Story of Dirk Willems: The Man who Died to Save His Enemy

Categories

What I’m Reading

Fierce Attachments: A Memoir
Vivian Gornick

Fierce Attachments  - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Wanderlust
Rebecca Solnit

Solnit --  Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
Kathleen Norris

KATHLEEN NORRIS --  Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96
Seamus Heaney

Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96 Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Archive by month

INSTAGRAM

Follow on Instagram

© 2022 Dreaming Beneath the Spires · All Rights Reserved. · Cookie Policy · Privacy Policy

»
«