Re: Weeknotes and “Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts?”
I guess one good thing about the JulyReply blogging event is that it has inspired me to write a bit more, even at the risk of becoming a Reply Guy™ of sorts. Two posts were published that are somewhat linked in nature, so why not reply to both at once?
First off, Michael Harley gets into the meta-weeds about types of blogging and how they're written on the virtual page. His post, "Bloggers, can we make better titles for our posts?" made the rounds last month, but it still has enough resonance to matter in July. He talks about the lack of creativity in the titles of weekly roundup posts, of which he's not a fan in the first place, then concludes that section of his post with the following:
This one probably is less write better titles and is more write better posts. I think many people use these posts as a writing tool to exercise their writing muscles. I'd suggest a better tool is the age-old favorite of writing blog posts about blogging, like I'm doing here.
From how I read Harley's entry, his main beef with roundup posts, or bucket posts as he calls them, is that they're a wasteful writing exercise when the better option is to write better posts (and also come up with better titles). My response is the old meme "¿Por qué no los dos?" There's no reason you can't use a bucket post as a way to exercise writing muscles, especially if you are a person who hasn't blogged for some time, or if your online output was limited to 140 characters for several years, or even both. I see no shame in using a structured format to become a more confident and skilled writer. Any sort of skill requires practice to enhance and improve, after all.
I have used a few different formats for my weekly update posts, with each change leading to what I hope is a shorter, punchier bucket post. Harley alludes to the issue of creativity with these roundup posts, and if so, I can say he's right about that point. Some of my earlier posts in this format would have been better served as separate blog entries, as they are long enough to become too tedious even for me. However, I don't think I would have reached this realization without going through the process of having a formulaic posting format, then running up against its limitations. I guess the photography adage of "learning the rules before you break them" could apply to writing blog posts.
On a related topic, V.H. Belvadi explains why he's not keen on the bucket post format, with three reasons that somewhat overlap with Harley's thinking:
First, ‘weeknotes’ replicate a journal. I write my personal diary fairly regularly and find ‘weeknotes’ to be a more private affair than anything I care to share online. Second, according to Maira, ‘weeknotes’ make for an ‘excuse to not write other posts’. I will defer to her judgement on this because I have never tried writing these. However, as with a journal, I can see how publishing pithy weekly roundups can take away the time and effort you might otherwise have put into publishing other writing. Third, and perhaps one I identify with the most: ‘I don’t feel [‘weeknotes’] are adding value to me or to anyone else.’ Indeed I would rather hear about your thoughts on that film you watched than just learn that you watched it.
I have personally never kept a journal or diary, though the closest I could say I came to that was my LiveJournal account from 2002-2012. The weeknotes format aligns with my old LJ writing mentality, so picking up this style wasn't a challenge for me on my new blog. As for the "excuse not to write other posts," I touched on that earlier, as this point has some validity for me. Personally, blogging about blogging is where I draw the line, as it's a slippery slope to arguing about angels on the heads of pins. It's too meta, too insular for my tastes--naturally, your mileage may vary (and yes, I know I'm getting meta in this post, but it's almost finished). And as for "adding value," I feel that writing or any other expressive activity doesn't need to be quantified with such nebulous terms. "Value" can mean anything and nothing, and it's just as subjective as the activity itself. If I put effort into the activity, it matters to me. That's my value, and it's fine if it's not yours.
My use of weeknotes has many purposes, all of which work for me: as a writing exercise; as a form of creative expression here and there; as a way to track interesting media I've encountered on screens or pages; or as a way to keep me motivated throughout the week. It's fine if you skip reading it, and it's fine if you want to read it. The interweb is large enough for either of these responses to have some validity. As for my weekly updates, though, I'll keep writing as long as the desire is there.