Blogging takes a lot more dedication. When I was gifted with the Kenning blog I did immediately try and find a "formula" of sorts because frankly, when you are told to write "whatever you want to write, it doesn't even have to be about poetry" a) that opens up the field far too wide, and b) it's not exactly the best course for a blog attached to a literary journal to not address similar items to the journal.

I still use the "three poems" formula, I call it my "schtick," but even relatively early on I started branching out - mostly including news or popular events that I thought poet-readers would be interested in. Now I generally have a pattern: a post about three poems that cluster around a topic, then something else - interview, news, opinion - then three poems again.

I was talking to a fiction writer who said she couldn't sustain blogging, but that part of this was the fact that if she had an hour to write, she felt she should be using it for her work, not for blogging about her work. I explained that for me I use the Kenning Blog to force me to consume large amounts of poetry and maintain an awareness of what's going on in the "indie" or small-press poetry world. I know both of those things are important, but it's easier to underline their necessity when I have (admittedly self-imposed) deadlines.

Don't be fooled. That Kenning blog is as much for my own benefit and education as any of my readers'. It's really nice when it's read and discussed and I love that, but if no one read it I'd still be gaining a lot from the experience.

I don't think I could blog casually, like about my life and stuff. Some people really take to it, but in a way I have always felt it's a way to garner attention to yourself. Who really wants to read about my day-to-day mundanities?