I've been thinking about authors I love and author blogs I love, and how surprisingly little overlap there seems to be between the two
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My list matches yours so closely that I could copy the entire post over into my blog and have it stand for my own reaction.
I've also been contemplating how many seem to feel that a cult of personality is the way to go-the assumption that they and their daily life are so fascinating that they "owe" their eager readers a post at day, at least, and that includes data on "What I'm wearing right now," and "here's a poll on which of my journals you'd like to see excerpted, and the paypal donate button below is for your vote."
I've said this before (possibly even to you), but I think your journal is just the perfect mix of thoughtful insights, audience participation/interaction, and a vivid sense of your individual personality. And that latter comes through even though you seldom talk about your daily life, family, or other personal details (and if you do, it's because they're relevant to the topic you're discussing).
And just to prove my point, your post today about Women in Fantasy was terrific. I'm going to go over there and Track it right now. :D
One of my current author blogs is also an artist (in fact, he was an artist and the writing thing apparently just happened) and I absolutely love his art posts -- things he's working on for future books or just random art from the past.
In general, I think I agree with you, although I think the tone of the political posts plays a great part in whether or not I can tolerate those posts by an author, no matter how frequent they post about politics. For example, Neil Gaiman (who I'm not even a fan of) tends to be very thoughtful about his political posts and he's also very limited in the political topic he blogs about (censorship). I quite like reading his political posts. On the other hand, when Tamora Pierce posts about politics, I tend to cringe because her tone is so ... abrasive. Even if I agree with her (which I frequently do), I still wince at the tone.
Is this D.M. Cornish's Monster Blog Tattoo you're talking about? Because I heart his art posts too. And if not, then there are two artist-turned-authors out there who have great blogs. :)
Actually, it's James A. Owens, author of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series, livejournal (coppervale. It's probably the art that appeals to me most in that series, although I find the books entertaining as well.
Most of my f-list is authors or aspiring authors, but that isn't an ongoing consideration.
I like to comment on other people's blogs. In fact, if I find myself not commenting for a long time, I think about unfriending. I run into situations where I don't have time to keep up with the f-list, I feel I have to trim it.
But something I may start doing: I may start dreaming up questions. I find many of my comments are responses to something a blogger asks.
Yeah, commenting is big. I don't necessarily always have time or energy to comment, but I like to feel that I could, or would want to, at least once in a while. If the blogger seems merely to be talking to the mirror and leaves me no real opening or hook for my own comments, I tend to get bored and wander off fairly quickly.
Like: part of a community, responds (at least in general terms) to comments; otherwise, I wonder why I'm bothering to reply and therefore read, if the author doesn't want to interact with the community at large
( ... )
Most of my criteria overlap with yours except for these two: -Entry after entry describing little or nothing but what they did that day, usually in mind-numbing detail ("So I got up and had breakfast, and then I took the dog out for a walk, and then I came home and cleaned the toilet...")
- At least 50% of the posts are about their pets and/or their children. Sorry, I like kids and animals as much as the next person, but I am really not that interested.
For the first one, if they lead interesting lives--if they're doing something other than just routine stuff--and write about them in interesting ways, it doesn't bother me.
For the second, I always figure that if children or pets or whatever are that important to them, it makes sense to talk about them a lot. And in the end if I skim through a post or two, no one will ever know.
If people's daily lives are interesting, or if they write about them (or their children/pets for that matter) in a clever, humorous or otherwise creative way, I enjoy that. So I'm definitely not ruling those topics out completely.
But the kind of blogs I'm talking about are just routine recitations of "what I/my dog/my kids did today", with no particular creative or humorous slant to make them palatable. As though the author thinks his or her life is so inherently interesting just by virtue of the fact that They Are An Author, that they don't have to put any effort into tailoring their blog to their audience.
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I've also been contemplating how many seem to feel that a cult of personality is the way to go-the assumption that they and their daily life are so fascinating that they "owe" their eager readers a post at day, at least, and that includes data on "What I'm wearing right now," and "here's a poll on which of my journals you'd like to see excerpted, and the paypal donate button below is for your vote."
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First, the final point on the list of things that will make me drop an author's blog:
- They write incredibly long, rambling posts with terrible formatting, and never use cut tags.
And to respond to my own question about author blogs I particularly enjoy:
- sartorias is my author-blogging hero(ine).
I've said this before (possibly even to you), but I think your journal is just the perfect mix of thoughtful insights, audience participation/interaction, and a vivid sense of your individual personality. And that latter comes through even though you seldom talk about your daily life, family, or other personal details (and if you do, it's because they're relevant to the topic you're discussing).
And just to prove my point, your post today about Women in Fantasy was terrific. I'm going to go over there and Track it right now. :D
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Jump in and talk about books!
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In general, I think I agree with you, although I think the tone of the political posts plays a great part in whether or not I can tolerate those posts by an author, no matter how frequent they post about politics. For example, Neil Gaiman (who I'm not even a fan of) tends to be very thoughtful about his political posts and he's also very limited in the political topic he blogs about (censorship). I quite like reading his political posts. On the other hand, when Tamora Pierce posts about politics, I tend to cringe because her tone is so ... abrasive. Even if I agree with her (which I frequently do), I still wince at the tone.
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And DM Cornish has a blog? Hummmm, must go read.
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I like to comment on other people's blogs. In fact, if I find myself not commenting for a long time, I think about unfriending. I run into situations where I don't have time to keep up with the f-list, I feel I have to trim it.
But something I may start doing: I may start dreaming up questions. I find many of my comments are responses to something a blogger asks.
Reply
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-Entry after entry describing little or nothing but what they did that day, usually in mind-numbing detail ("So I got up and had breakfast, and then I took the dog out for a walk, and then I came home and cleaned the toilet...")
- At least 50% of the posts are about their pets and/or their children. Sorry, I like kids and animals as much as the next person, but I am really not that interested.
For the first one, if they lead interesting lives--if they're doing something other than just routine stuff--and write about them in interesting ways, it doesn't bother me.
For the second, I always figure that if children or pets or whatever are that important to them, it makes sense to talk about them a lot. And in the end if I skim through a post or two, no one will ever know.
Reply
But the kind of blogs I'm talking about are just routine recitations of "what I/my dog/my kids did today", with no particular creative or humorous slant to make them palatable. As though the author thinks his or her life is so inherently interesting just by virtue of the fact that They Are An Author, that they don't have to put any effort into tailoring their blog to their audience.
Reply
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