TheExpatWriter tells us why she blogs

Today, I am delighted to include a guestpost from another expat blogger, known as The Expat Writer, this time with hundreds of posts under her belt. Donna-Lane Nelson is a professional writer who has used blogging to help her raise her profile and sell books. Read on to find out why…

“My girlfriend was oohing and ahhing about the cheap prices for appliances, such as a coffee maker for $6.99.” That was my first blogging sentence on htheexpatwriter 11/28/94. Now it’s 1850+ posts and nine years later. Originally I started blogging to let my friends in different corners of the world know what I was doing, but then it took on other uses not in order of importance:

1. Venting when I was frustrated with politics
2. Warm up exercises for my writing
3. A reminder of all the wonderful things I experience
4. Sometimes to let the pain out for a hurtful moment (cheaper than a shrink)

Over the years, I’ve added photos, different fonts and colours, developed an Avatar with red hair and big glasses. She’s both younger and skinnier than I am. She has chased turkeys, rocked on a porch, played with a puppy and more.

Because my blog address is in the bio section of my published novels, I’ve picked up readers. I’ve had the blog addresses as part of my signature line on emails. I’m amazed when I look at the stats where some of my readers come from. Russia, Lebanon okay, but I don’t know anyone in Vietnam or Hong Kong.

Blogging implies certain responsibilities. I wouldn’t use it to embarrass friends, and often ask permission if I can blog shared experiences. My housemate, when something funny or interesting happens to us, will say, “Put it on your blog” or “That would make a good blog.”

Both my housemate viewsfromeverywhere and fiancé lovinglifeineurope now have their own blogs. In fact the other day, when I asked my fiancé a question he said, “You can read it on my blog.”

I developed a second blog, wisewordsonwriting, now inactive but still up, where I posted newsletters that went out to 2,500+ writers before it became a monthly column in an English writer’s magazine.

Just recently I’ve started a new blog flashfictionexercises where I post exercises I do with a writing friend. The postings are ten minute free-writes which I do not edit (except for typos) but add appropriate art work.

As a writer, I saw I have diarrhea of the fingers. I can’t not write: blogging is one writing outlet. I hope that what I say can move people, make them laugh, give them an experience or vicarious adventures that they might otherwise not have while satisfying my writing addiction.

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