One year of blogging, an interview with the author – week 52

Thematicallymeandering logo

I thought I would do I post in a question and answer style, just to make things more interesting for myself as the writing style has become tiresome of late.

So, why did you start and why have you continued to write?

 Thanks for the questions. I started writing, as I explain in my ‘About me page’ to practice the fundamentals of writing. I had been writing, and keeping it to myself, for three months before I considered making a blog.

The initial motivation was that I liked the idea of making a blog as a technical challenge, and getting feedback on my work from the writing community.

 I have continued to write because I am disciplined and I have come to enjoy the routine of doing so.

Are you sure? Did the idea of those superstar bloggers making lots of money by merely blogging not come into your decision at all?

I have always liked the idea of working for myself, and the idea of doing it via blogging is appealing. However, as someone who has a relatively high level of training with data and statistics. I know that this was not a feasible goal. As far as knowing how much this fantasy had an effect on me I cannot quantify.

Okay.

What were your expectations when starting out?

I didn’t really have any, I putting things out onto the internet and watching to see what happened. One year later I still don’t have any goals for the blog.

If you don’t have any goals for the blog then why continue?

It’s a habit at this point.

I see you have put out a lot of posts of, let’s be honest, average quality. Is this because you’re lazy, inept or have genuine contempt for the reader.

I definitely don’t have contempt for the reader. The quality, I think, is related to the amount of time I put into the posts. I have a lot of hobbies and interests. Writing and blogging is not always a top priority.

Let’s change direction a bit. What has been your favourite thing about blogging for this past year?

Interaction with people. I have had no bad interactions, and the vast majority have been pleasant, which is one of the reasons I had for starting a blog.

So you have a poor social life in the non-internet sphere and are trying to plug that hole with semi-anonymous people online?

No, you’re barking up the wrong tree there.

Okay, so what has been the worst thing about blogging?

I realised you can’t just write and expect people to read it, you have to go and get an audience, which is a bore.

Don’t you like marketing?

It is the worst thing! I think it should be a meritocracy.

But surely those who are the best at marketing are the ones who are the best bloggers?

Shut up.

I notice you have been nominated for many of these ‘Blogger awards’ by you fellow bloggers how do you feel about that?

They are pointless, so far I have not been able to turn the critical acclaim into financial gain. But I notice many of the greatest artists of all time have died in poverty.

Did you just compare yourself to a great artist?

I was taking an exaggerated, sarcastic, position for comedic effect. It apparently went over your head…

Do you find your snarky, sarcastic attitude is some kind of defence mechanism?

I like to think it is because I like that kind of humour.

Let’s get back on track.

Sorry

I’ll only ask a few more. As it says in your tag-line ‘Just your average PhD student trying to enhance their CV’, have you enhanced your CV?

Probably, because you can comfortably lie on your CV and make things sound much better than reality; however, it would depend on what I decide to do next as to how important my blog would be.

Would you recommend blogging to a friend?

Only if they wanted to get better at writing, or promote something online.

If you could start over again what would you do differently?

I could start again. I am not sure if I would do anything differently. I would probably track more statistics, just for the fun of it.

Also, I might have tried to make a site with WordPress.org: for the challenge. Perhaps I will in the future.

Do you have any concluding remarks?

Thanks to all of those that have commented on my posts and have helped me along the way. Thanks for all the love and support.

Author: Louis

Spend less than you earn, Invest the surplus, avoid debt. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

32 thoughts on “One year of blogging, an interview with the author – week 52”

  9. i have recently set up my blog for pretty much identical reasons as yours so I completely understand where you’re coming from. I have been doing creative writing for a couple of years but was not confident enough to put my words out there. This blog has really helped me overcome that and I’m happy I took the chance.

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    1. Hi, I think it is going okay, I am sure I will pass anyway, other than that I can’t really tell how it is going. I imagine a PhD in maths is extremely valuable in todays market! I know a few other PhDs that like to write novels it seems that the enjoyment of writing is a massive plus when trying to be a reasearcher.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. Loved this one! I agree about marketing being such a pain in the neck. I am an anonymous blogger too trying to wrap my head around how to get readers on this platform. Any tips from your personal experience would be highly appreciated.

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  18. Hey Louis nice interview. I hope the journalist’s questions weren’t too disturbing (LOL). Success is defined as an ability to predict the future. Then you can adapt easily. I’ll give you a hint in a private message if you’re interested! 🙂

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  22. I don’t follow many blogs. I tend to just focus on my own to be honest. I read about 4 of your posts, 2 of which were refection ones about blogging over your time. They were great reads, honest and vulnerable. I respect that. To be honest I was hesitant to follow because I didn’t want to come off as follow for follow garbage. That stuff doesn’t work. I noticed you liked one of my posts. In short, I’m here, following because I like your content. I hope you don’t follow me back. Not lying either. Nice post mate. Good luck with the PhD.

    Ivan, a real life PhD dropout.

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