This week’s featured blogger is Scheherazade (nickname – “Sherry”) – a lawyer turned Writer/Coach. She has been blogging since March 2003. I have not been following her blog for too long, but I would say her blog Stay of Execution is an excellent example of a journal-style blog. Here is the text from the email interview. So much wisdom is there in these answers received so far, that I am thinking of summarizing them into a post. From next week on, I plan to ask about other topics. So for the last time, read on for the answers. Interestingly, Sherry says she does not ever suffer from the Blogger’s Block. 1. What motivates you to keep blogging?
I’ve written all of my life. I have a bookshelf full of paper journals. If I weren’t blogging, I’d still be recording my thoughts and feelings and observations in words. Blogging is a way to connect with people outside of my small geographic circle, through this practice of writing about my experience. 2. How do you identify the ideas that you post? Is there any secrets you can share?
I think of a weblog as a mosaic, made from fragments of daily experience. Each post is a small glimpse of where I am at the time — what I’m thinking about, what I just saw, what I’m worried about. For each post, I just try to be truthful and clear. I don’t worry about the overall effect, or about what I’m going to write about tomorrow or what I wrote about yesterday. I believe the overall effect of these small fragments linked together will be a glimpse of a life. Whether that’s interesting or worthwhile or not I’ll leave to my audience.
3. What methods do you employ to overcome the “Blogger’s Block”?
This question struck me as so strange that I wrote a
post about it. [Inserted the link to Sherry’s post. Makes for an interesting read including the comments. -Ed.] I don’t tend to get “Blogger’s Block.” Occasionally I feel tired or depressed, and I am afraid that the posts I compose in those moods won’t reflect very well on me. So I don’t always publish them. But I always have something to say. Sometimes, if I’ve been reading very good writing — Dickens, or poetry — I feel a bit of despair at my own clumsiness with words. I may never convey feelings or people as well as other writers. Still, I have my own experience to chronicle, and I just try to do my best. 4. What are your Top 5 Unsung Blogs ? (please include only those that are not in any Top 100/500 lists).
I like the
Blue Sloth, for his daily portraits of fatherhood. I like
Ever So Humble, for her sensibilities. I like
Topic Drift, for her humor. I like
Outer Life, for the quality of his writing and his thought. [Don’t miss Outer Life’s post –
The List – Hilarious is an understatement. -Ed.] I like
Unfogged, because of the community that shows up in the comments. 5. What are your current book recommendations ? (1 or 2 is sufficient).
6. Now that you have switched your career from lawyer to coach & writer, how does blogging help you?
I think blogging helps me be a better noticer. That helps in a lot of ways. I am sensitive to nuance and emotion, and to the small stories that play out in everyday moments, which helps me both as a writer and a coach.
