Notes for Week Eight

Thank you all for your generosity, enthusiasm and excellent contributions over the past eight weeks—this session has been such a pleasure. Your final assignment is the blog post, "Between the gutter and the stars: thoughts on success in writing (and everything else)," by Kyran Pittman. Looking forward to seeing you all next week!

Notes for Week Seven

Congratulations to each of you for launching your blogs—a huge and cake-worthy milestone. But it's not all cake and glory. This week we will be investigating the business of blogging (i.e. the pleasures and perils of selling out). Please read "yes, Virginia, there is an agenda," by Bonnie Stewart, and I'd also recommend checking out "I cannot be that person: why the 'Queen of the Mommy Bloggers' had to quit" and "The anti-social media star," by Amy Verner.

And for those interested in such things, this piece on getting paid for online writing (and not getting paid for online writing) is worthwhile too.

Notes for Week Six

Our reading for next week is "Keeping An Eye on the World," from Shawna Lemay's blog, Calm Things. Please read this piece and come to class ready to talk about the various ways in which you're going to be keeping an eye on the world via your own blog.

A couple of other things? I wrote a post about blogrolls and the changing nature of the way we read blogs: you can read it here.

And regarding our conversation about selfies from last week, I bring you this lovely post in defence of selfies, by Marina Hasson, who was a student in this course last year. (Also, Marina is celebrating one year of blogging this week; just think, in 52 short weeks, that will be you!)

Looking forward to cake! And congratulations on launching your blogs, everybody!!

Notes for Week 5

Your assigned text for next week is a blog post by me, "Mary Pratt: On Blogging, and Preserving Light and Time."

1) What connections does this post suggest exist between Mary Pratt's painting and blogging?

2) What kind of inspiration can a blogger take away from observing Pratt's paintings?

3) What other artists/writers can we look to as anticipating the blogging form in their work? (Think about your own fields and interests in regards to this.) What other art forms can inform us in understanding the art of blogging, and how?

This week you will launch your own blog, and your first post will be about whatever you want! It's your blog after all. Though I ask that you avoid an introductory sort of post. Jump right in and get going straight away.

On one thing leading to another...

It was exactly a year ago now that an accidental book purchase (oops!) led to a completely accidental cake (double-oops!) and I was inspired to write a blog post I'm still really proud of and stand by. About the wonders (and desserts!) that transpire when one thing is allowed to lead to another. I hope you'll read it here. 

I'm grateful to all of you for giving so generously with your ideas and stories these last four weeks—thank you for all the inspiration

Notes for Week 4

1) Your next assignment (which will be your final on our class blog) will be to find a blog you admire in your blogosphere, and write a post about it. What works about the blog? Why does it resonate with you? What does this blogger do that you'd like to emulate in your own work? How can you do an original take on this blogger's approach? The challenge here will be making your post an interesting one in its right: take us readers by the hand and show us what you love.

2) Your assigned text for next week is "Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable", by Rebecca Solnit. Please come to class ready to discuss answers to the following questions:

• How might the ideas in Solnit's piece relate to blogging?
• For a blogger, where is the value in uncertainty?
•  What are your impressions of this essay? What parts of it resonated with you?

Notes for Week 3

1) For your next blog post, I want you to consciously go out of your comfort zone in some way and write about that experience. It can be a small thing—wearing a new pair of shoes, trying something unusual on a restaurant menu—or a big(ger) thing—venturing into a part of town you've never visited before. The point is not to be made uncomfortable as much as to try something new. Make this experience a story—a blog post, even!

2) Your assigned text for week 3 is "Why I'm Breaking Up With My Blog," by Tracey Chappell. Please read the post and come to class ready to answer the following questions:

• What does this piece have to tell us about the history of blogging? 
• What does Chappell have to tell us about how blogging can shape and enhance one's life?
• What of her blogging advice is useful to you?
• What have her challenges in blogging been? 
• Tracey Chappell died in May 2015. She's enormously missed by her family and her writing community. How does knowing about her death change the meaning of what she's written here? 

Notes in Preparation for Week 2

There will be no class next week, as we're breaking for Thanksgiving, but we meet again the week after that.

1) Your own first post (Show Us What You Love!) should be up on the class blog by Wednesday at midnight. Please come to our next class ready to give feedback on your classmates' blog pertaining to what works about each post and why.

2) Your assigned text for Week 2 is "Why the Future of Blogging Starts Now", by Navneet Alang. Please come to class ready to discuss the article and ready to answer the following questions about it:

How are blogs different from other kinds of social media? What can a blog do that other forms of social media can't?
What are the advantages and disadvantages (from the point of view of the blogger) of admitting that blogging is "small"?
"So the future of the blog is neither death nor triumph"—how does this point fit into the conversation about blogging we've been having already?
How does this article change or clarify any ideas you have about your own future in blogging

3) Your next assignment will be to write about something particular to your neighbourhood—a restaurant review, a profile of a person or a place. The reason for this approach is to keep on looking outward, to encourage a variety of responses (because you all like in different places), and to remember the connection between blogging and engaging with the world around you. Please come to our next class with an idea and be ready to begin writing this post.

Be curious, ask questions, and keep your mind open to learning new things

Welcome to The Art of Blogging.

"The revolutionary potential of blogs is found in a shift away from more traditional journalistic principles of objectivity, replaced instead by the insistence on an authorial stance replete with biases and subjectivities." --May Friedman, Mommyblogging and the Changing Face of Motherhood

We will meet Monday evenings from 6:30-9:00. Please bring a laptop computer (or similar device for accessing the internet and composing blog posts).

Assignments: Assignments constitute 25% of your mark. Each week, your assignment will be read an assigned text on blogging, and also to read your classmates' blog posts.

Portfolio: Your portfolio constitutes 50% of your mark, and comprises 8 blog posts (4 on a class blog, and 4 on your own blog) for which you will be given class time to create. If not completed in class, you can finish your blog posts at home, but they must be posted no later than midnight on the Wednesday following our class.

Participation: Participation constitutes 25% of your mark. Please come to class each week ready to discuss that week's assigned text and having read your classmates' blogs. No blog is an island and community is a huge part of why blogging works, so your participation is essential.

Workshop Tips: 

• Please be courteous to your classmates and have your blog posts up in time in order that we have plenty of time to read them. 
• You will not necessarily be the intended audience for each blog post. Let this not be your point of departure for criticism. Show some imagination and empathy. But our discussions will  also benefit from many points of view. 
• Blogging is inherently personal and often political, but we must maintain professional boundaries in a class like this. As we examine the art of blogging together, please refrain from posting content that might be upsetting to others.
• Similarly, please refrain from critiquing your classmates' work for any content you find disagreeable. See previous point about intended audiences. We're more interested in how content is presented than evaluating the content itself. 
• All of these points are to make our classroom a safe and comfortable space for everybody. If you have concerns about anything presented in your classmates' work, please speak to me after class. I welcome all your feedback. 
• Please be respectful and considerate of each other, spend as much time listening as you do sharing, be curious, ask questions, and keep your mind open to learning new things from everyone. 

Being curious about the world

"Beginning with early ruminations on the politics of identity and throughout my career, I have discovered that being curious about the world meant that I could not be complacent about my discoveries. I had to be involved to understand them on my own terms. It was the the work that proved whether or not I understood. Yet it a challenging responsibility to answer one's questions publicly. It has been both fulfilling and difficult." --Suzy Lake, "Introducing Suzy Lake"

A Step-by-Step Guide to Modifying Images

Step 1: Upload your image to Blogger, and add it to your post. The image will default to centre-aligned. 

Step 2: Select your image by clicking on it once. A pop-up menu will appear.

Step 3: You can use this menu to change the size of your image and its alignment, and also to add a caption. 

Step 4: For example, select LEFT alignment to move the images and wrap the text around it. 

Step 5: Or you could make it bigger and align it right. 

Tip: Revisit my Blogger How-To's (which were emailed to you) for an explanation of what all the buttons mean on the Blogger "Create Post" menu. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Inserting Links

TIP: Click on the images for a larger view.

Step 1: Compose your text. 

Step 2: In another window, highlight the URL of the site you wish to link to. Copy the URL. 

Step 3: Highlight the text in your blog post in which your link will appear

Step 4: With your text highlighted, click on LINK in the menu above your post. 

Step 5: A pop-up menu will appear. Paste the copied URL into the text box. (It's advisable to select "Open this link in a new window" so that your reader remains on your page. ) Select OK. 

Step 6: You did it! The link is embedded in your text. (A pop-up menu opens up briefly allowing you to make any edits to your link, and to double check that you've posted the correct one.)