Blogger or Columnist

I really don’t care what you call me because I’m really not sure what to call myself.

Until recently I wasn’t referred to as anything because no one was referring to me at all. Now that a few people are, I’m not going to complain. Still, I find it curious that folks identify me as a blogger and my writing style as that of a blogger. I think my writing style is more of that of a columnist, since that’s where I really got my start.

The first 100,000 words or so of mine that were published were in the form of 800 to 1,000 word columns. For better or worse, writing my column “Travelin’ Light” taught me to write. And during the learning process the restricted space of a column and the personal form of column writing forced me to write shorter and more conversational sentences.

I think that the style of “Where Am I Wearing?” the book more closely reflects my column writing than my blogging. First off, there aren’t any photos of my cat or random rants about Mrs. Butterworth’s boobs in the book. While my columns, and in turn WAIW? the book, are rather informal, they are nowhere near as informal as the blog you are reading right now.

Don’t misread me here, I’m not saying that status as a blogger is any more or less grand that that of a columnist. I just think they are different forms, or at least my approach to them is different.

In fact, I’m proud to be a blogger. Especially after reading Why I Blog in the Atlantic Monthly by renowned blogger Andrew Sullivan. He somewhat addresses the column vs. blogging comparison and speculates what blogging could mean to journalism. In it he writes:

The blogosphere may, in fact, be the least veiled of any forum in which a writer dares to express himself. Even the most careful and self-aware blogger will reveal more about himself than he wants to in a few unguarded sentences and publish them before he has the sense to hit Delete. The wise panic that can paralyze a writer—the fear that he will be exposed, undone, humiliated—is not available to a blogger. You can’t have blogger’s block. You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality. The faux intimacy of the Web experience, the closeness of the e-mail and the instant message, seeps through. You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment. When readers of my blog bump into me in person, they invariably address me as Andrew. Print readers don’t do that. It’s Mr. Sullivan to them.

Andrew begins the piece with a fascinating etymology of “log.”

A ship’s log owes its name to a small wooden board, often weighted with lead, that was for centuries attached to a line and thrown over the stern. The weight of the log would keep it in the same place in the water, like a provisional anchor, while the ship moved away. By measuring the length of line used up in a set period of time, mariners could calculate the speed of their journey (the rope itself was marked by equidistant “knots” for easy measurement). As a ship’s voyage progressed, the course came to be marked down in a book that was called a log.

So am I blogger or a columnist or a writer or a journalist?

In the words of the great sailing philosopher Popeye: “I am what I am.”

 
2 comments
Eva says:

I believe that should be, I yam what I yam…

I go with writer, myself. Nice and vague. For some reason I feel like a fraud calling myself a journalist. Possibly an issue I should deal with.

Great quote from Andrew, by the by.

pictures says:

Please let me know if you’re looking for a article writer for your weblog. You have some really great posts and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some content for your blog in exchange for a link back to
mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Many thanks!

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