The introductory post for this series.
Chelsea Gir’sl endowments include breasts that are fake and spectacular, and a vocabulary as capacious as her good-natured ass. She writes at pretty dumb things. And today is her two year blogday.
When did you start blogging?
I started blogging almost exactly two years ago–my two year anniversary will be next week.
What do you like about blogging?
The best aspect of blogging for me is having an open forum for me to write about whatever I feel like writing about; this openness has allowed me to learn how to write with a kind of freedom I’ve never had before and with feedback from actual live humans. The other best aspects are that I’ve made contacts in the world of publishing and in my personal life. I have met people through blogging I’d never have met otherwise, whether it’s writers like Terry Teachout and Susie Bright or friends like you, like O, like Karl Elvis. Finally, I’ve started to make some money from blogging. It’s not a tremendous amount, but it’s something, and this money seriously helps. I feel like writing my pretty dumb things has created change for me in unforeseen ways. Not only have I become a better writer, but I have learned tremendous amounts about myself, met new people, and created the possibility of becoming a published author.
Is blogging a major or minor way of connecting to other people for you?
Both. I have friends I’ve met from blogging, I have professional connections I’ve made from blogging, but because of recent events, I’ve become much more reticent to meet new people through my blogging. Certainly, the connection I feel between my writing and people is a major part of my life. I enjoy the comments I get on posts, as long as they’re thoughtful and constructive, but the letters that people take the time to write to me mean even more. I am regularly gobsmacked that my writing touches people and that they care enough to tell me so. That, in and of itself, is major.
Where’s your blog? Do you use a free hosted service (Blogger,Wordpress, Livejournal, AOL, Google Pages, etc.) or do you have your own domain and web server?
I use Typepad. I am HTML-reduced, and it seemed the most user friendly.
What do you do to promote your blog or your writing (using tags in your post, blog roll, del.icio.us, Digg, Pingoat)?
I don’t promote my blog. I never really have, other than leaving comments on other people’s writing at the beginning of my blogging. I’ve been tremendously lucky to have garnered the readership I have considering that I don’t do much beyond a blog roll. I’m truculent and don’t play well with others, and I don’t know how to add tags. So I’m just really, really lucky.
