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Like many bloggers, I have an about page. Unlike most bloggers, I sprinkle the basics with a few strange and bizarre facts. Things I feel you should know. Like that I was once attacked by an angry mob of mosquitoes in Senegal and that I can sing all the verses to that famous kids’ song, I’m a Little Pile of Tin, No One Knows What Shape I’m In.
Because these are the things that shape a person’s character.
And yet, from some of your recent questions, I feel I haven’t covered all the bases. So here they are, my brutally honest responses to stuff you’ve been asking me about.
7 Questions My About Page Doesn’t Answer
1. Why do you tell stories in your blog posts?
I can’t seem to help myself. I think it probably came from growing up in a story-centric family. Mama was a housekeeper, berry picker and scrounger of odd jobs, but she had a way with words. When I was eight, she won the $500 first prize in the National Bellas Hess Company jingle contest.
But it was her stories that made her legend. She told them slowly, with drama, stretching out the suspenseful scenes, with pauses in all the right places, until we were on the edge of our seats. If the story was too long or we had heard it before, Daddy would try to head her off at the pass and finish it for her. She would glare at him, her eyebrows a ‘V’, and say, ” I was getting to that part!” (Maybe that is why my posts tend to be on the long side.)
Though she never wrote any of them down, Mama taught me a lot about telling captivating stories, particularly how to paint colorful characters that people care about, get them into trouble, stir the pot with more complications, then get them out just in time to avoid a meltdown.
2. What’s the one thing that improved your blogging the most?
Having written just last April about 21 things I did to improve my blog, it’s tough to choose just one. But if you back me into a corner, I would have to say that it was finding myself, I mean my true blogger self. The one who ricochets from profound to slightly crazy. The one who loves to drive a point home with a story.
It was a matter of proudly claiming my voice and having enough confidence to write with it. That part did not come easily to me. But I’ve captured my voice and it’s not getting away from me again.
3. What’s up with the ‘Lee’ in your name?
For some reason, people seem to be surprised by and curious about my middle name. All through my childhood, I carried it around with great shame because I thought it was a boy’s name. But Daddy’s family grew up in the hills of West Virginia, where the tradition was to give kids—boys and girls— a ‘double name,’ thus there were lots of names like Jessie Lee, Billie Lee, and Jimmie Lee.
But the biggest reason I’m pulling out my middle name and dusting it off? There is already an established children’s book author named Judy Dunn and a woman with two memoirs under her belt who writes under the name of J. Lee Dunn. I want to carve out my own path and identity as an author.
I wrote a whole blog post once about the other Judy Dunn’s.
4. Why did it take breaking your wrist to venture out as an author?
My short answer: I am an incredibly slow learner.
The longer one: I was a single parent for many years and worked at jobs for a long time to pay the bills. Teacher. School principal. Marketing copywriter. Grants specialist. Manager at a global nonprofit organization. Newspaper reporter.
Once one of Mama’s friends asked her, “So what’s Judy doing these days?” Mama said, “She is writing.” The friend said, “Oh, that’s nice. But what does she do for a job?” That may sound familiar to some of you.
And fracturing my wrist in four places so I needed surgery and pain pills that made me dreamy? Well, it slowed down the breakneck speed my brain was operating at long enough so I could think.
A month after the accident, last July, Bob got me a bottle of Miracle Bubbles for my birthday. (Well, actually he got me more that that, but that was my favorite present.) He said, “Dream a little.” I sat around, holding the bubble wand with my good hand, blowing the biggest, most perfect bubbles I could. And I dreamed. When I turned to Bob and said, “All I want to do is write,” he said, “Well, then, why don’t you?”
Sometimes out of really simple things, like blowing bubbles, the most profound things emerge. And that was how it happened.
5. Do you ever worry about getting too personal on your blog?
Personally, I don’t. But if you are a psychotherapist looking for OCD clients and you blog about things like your obsessive need to line all the cat food cans up by flavor, with the picture of each Friskies cat facing out, well, that’s probably not a good idea.
On the other hand, someone like me, who tells personal stories on my blog about my compulsive, slightly neurotic self? Well, I’m blogging about writing and my journey to publishing my book, a memoir of my childhood, so quirky works for me.
6. Is blogging about everything in the world a good strategy?
From someone who changed her college major like a bazillion times (“Oh! Romance Languages!” “Oooh, political science would be fun!” “I’ve always wanted to be a newspaper reporter, so I think maybe Journalism!”), I get this. I really do. Choosing a niche can seem limiting.
I must say, some bloggers have made the multiple topics thing a huge success. Just like Seinfeld was the ‘show about nothing,’ some bloggers write about everything. Yet, when you think about it, they are still attracting a niche audience: people who are interested in everything. With a unique voice, this can work.
Lori Gosselin over at Life, for Instance, is a perfect example. She describes her blog as “a gathering place where introspective people talk about the things that matter, about the thing we all have in common, life.” Could anything be less ‘nichified’ than that? And yet Lori has created a very interesting blog with a loyal readership and growing base of followers.
I really think it depends on your blog’s goal. If you are writing for yourself— and, if readers come along, that’s just icing on the cake— then you will probably write about what interests you on any given day. If you are blogging to get clients for your social media marketing business, you’d better stick to those topics most of the time. Because you want to build your credible expert status.
7. Are your favorite posts always the ones that get a truckload of comments from readers?
Surprisingly, no. And that has taught me two things:
1) It is okay to take risks and try different things. Those posts won’t always resonate with your readers, but they help you think in different ways, stretch parts of your brain that haven’t had a recent workout and help you generate even more ideas.
2) However, it also helped me understand the kinds of topics and ideas my readers are interested in and the ones they may say, “Meh,” to. If I am writing for my readers and not for myself, that is valuable information.
What about you?
Have you struggled with any of these questions?
Which things have you aced and which are you still working on?
Anything to add?
About the author
- More at
Dusk or dawn, step outside in the semi-swamp land of Florida and you will get attacked by angry mosquitoes….:). Actually, I was reading A Land Remembered and it’s about early Florida and free range cattle and how they drove them across the state to get them to port. One chapter had a part where a cow was attacked by angry mosquitoes and it killed him; yikes, I guess they can be mad as hell……….
I too got comfortable with my writing and found out how much I like it. Therefore, my site is more writing for myself and whatever I happen to have on my mind at any particular time; some resonates, some doesn’t.
I guess my ‘grand plan’ is just to keep doing what I’m doing for now and see where it takes me. As long as it’s fun, then I’m ‘all in.’
@bdorman264 Haha. Angry mosquitoes in Florida too, huh?
I will say, I’ve never had such an experience with mosquitoes as the one I had in Senegal. I had an overnight hotel stay in Dakar before heading out to one of the villages. Unbeknownst to me, my roommate, the college intern who was going to be spending the month with us for her “third world development experience,” checked in in the middle of the night. She later said to me all innocent and wide-eyed, “I opened the window because it was so hot in the room!”
In the middle of the night, I woke up to the singing of tiny voices. As I understand, mosquitoes sing as they are flying away, after they have sucked half the blood out of your body. In the morning, my face felt kind of funny. I had to squint and things looked blurry. I looked in the bathroom mirror and my face was puffy and my eyes were swollen almost completely shut. I looked like Elephant Woman! By the time the month was over and I had returned to L.A., an infectious diseases specialist finally confirmed that I had malaria. He was all excited because it was a strain he had never seen before. Me? Not so excited. Actually, I was quite sick. Probably more than you wanted to know, right?
@JudyDunn Intern; I.will.kill.you. That was a big yikes…….
@bdorman264 I was new to mosquito-land, too, but somehow, I had the sense to keep the windows closed. I think she felt really bad about it when she saw my face the next morning. That was probably punishment enough. : )
@JudyDunn Wow, that’s a horrible way to get malaria – hope you’re ok now, it can stay with you a lifetime if not properly treated!
@claudenougat I haven’t experienced any symptoms for years and years, so I’m hoping it’s all gone away—for good. When you worked for the United Nations (I am so jealous!), did you travel to third world countries? I loved that about my job of manager of writing services for World Vision.
I started my blog a little over a year ago, with one goal in mind: to stop the self-editor in me. You see, I was always thinking things like, “oh, everyone knows that”, or “somebody’s already said/written that” or “is this ‘politically’ correct” or…well, you get the picture.
I’m pleased to say: Mission Accomplished. I now write with ease and freedom, on topics that I believe will hit a chord and resonate with others. I write when my writing muse hits. I don’t have anything in the hopper. Inspiration hits me like lightning bolts (or maybe those are big mosquitos @bdorman264 ?)I love to write. I’m happy to have a small but engaged community. I’m at a juncture where I want to promote “what I do”/my services more, but I won’t allow my blog to become the sales pitch. Weaving that tapestry will be my next challenge. Cheers! Kaarina
@KDillabough @bdorman264 Blogging can get that mean little critic off your shoulder, that’s for sure. I think part of it is that you need to publish regularly. And the more you do it, the less power those demons have.
I love to write, too. I found that when I had the blog originally, as a voice for Cat’s Eye Marketing, it was very useful in promoting our services, but in a subtle way: For instance, at the end of a post, a couple of links to additional posts with a, “Here are some other free resources that might help you solve your problem. And for more comprehensive solutions, check out our [blank] page.” I agree, though. It is a delicate dance.
@JudyDunn @bdorman264 I like that subtlety and that dance:)
@KDillabough Good luck with that weaving project! Isn’t it fun when you face a new challenge?
@Lori Yes!
Great post, Judy! I think most bloggers really don’t hit the “sweet spot” of blogging until they allow their true selves to shine. Plus, it’s so much easier to write through writer’s block if you allow yourself freedom!
@annedreshfield And why is it so hard, I wonder, to find that “sweet spot”? I found in the beginning that I tried on a lot of different hats. Starting out, there were bloggers I greatly admired (for instance, Sonia Simone, when she had her Remarkable Communications blog, before she became crazy famous with the Copyblogger empire). She was (is) bright and talented and her sense of humor shone through in each post. I thought, that’s the kind of blog I want to have. So try, keep some pieces, discard others and eventually you end up with your own unique voice. But I agree. Getting rid of the fear (or allowing yourself freedom, as you say) is a huge part of finding your blogger self.
Hi Judy!
This is a great share and thanks so much for the shout-out! I’m honored and intrigued by your perspective of my blog. (It’s been nearly 2 years and it still feels cool to say “my blog”!) I never saw myself as not ‘nichified’ – I just recognized that I didn’t seem to FIT anywhere LOL
I really resonate with #s 2 and 7. Finding your voice is a VERY long process! I think I’ve found mine but I can’t be sure yet
# 7 I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s still not sure what will fly. Amend that: when I am most excited about what I wrote, I can be pretty sure it’s not going to fly! But I’m learning what will start conversation and what is just an outpouring of my thoughts. I’m still trying to find a mix that incorporates both, but time will tell if it can be achieved and if I can do it!
You really got me thinking. My brain is tired! I’m going to visit the others and go take a nap!
Lori
@Lori Haha. The noun niche becomes a verb, and now an adjective.
On #7, I hear that from a lot of people. “I loved writing this post but I got like two comments.” Or, sometimes I think readers don’t talk because they feel they don’t have anything to add. LOL. I try not to “cover” everything so I’m open to people adding new ideas or thoughts. Still, even when I do that, every once in a while a post just bombs. : )
Thanks for popping in for a visit, Lori. I really like the way you engage readers on your blog.
I rarely spend more than a few moments thinking about headlines and or topics that will resonate with people. I believe in building our communities around us. People will like my blog or they won’t.
Same as in real life. Some will like me and some will hate me- I am good with either. Ok, I prefer that people don’t hate me but that is just because I don’t want have to worry about them sticking a knife in my back.
Those days were bad, these are better.
And Jack, my friend, that is exactly what you are doing over at your blog: building a community. Whether one’s blog is generalized or niched, some will love it and some will hate it. So I’m with you there. Blogging is a strange and interesting animal.
Always love it when you stop by and share all that wisdom rolling around in your head. : )
As always, I enjoy your blog and you certainly have good ideas for posts that appeal to a lot of different people. Because it seems to me that to grow one’s blog, one needs to be interesting to an ever widening group of people, unless you’re happy with your usual bunch of friends…Which seems to be somewhat counterintuitive: the conventional wisdom is that for a blog to be successful (meaning attracting a big, steady audience), it has to be clearly placed in a niche and you the blogger need to appear as an expert in that niche, someone who adds (information) value for your readers…
Personally, I hate to be in a niche, I’m interested in all sorts of things, from politics to art to cooking to books to the e-tsunami in publishing…So I started blogging 2 years ago and couldn’t figure out how to put together my diverse interests into a coherent whole. Somebody suggested I start other blogs to cater to my different interests: one for cooking (to share my favorite recipes), one for writing (on which I published my flash fiction whenever a new story “hit” me) and keeping the main one for everything else (politics, publishing, art).
Guess what, the only blog that grew is the main one! The others are there, sitting sadly by the side (though anyone interested can easily go to them, I’ve linked them quite visibly to my main blog)…It’s just too much work to run 3 blogs!
Also too much blogging interferes with writing! I’d love to know how you handle that, your blogging and writing, because that’s a tough challenge in terms of personal management of the 24 hours we’ve got at our disposal every day (I wish I had 48 hours!)
@claudenougat Isn’t this blogging thing fun to try to figure out? What you say here is so perceptive, that your blog needs to be interesting to “an ever widening group of people.” One thing is that people come and go, so it’s good to have content that will pick up new subscribers for you. I don’t like the all or nothing advice on blogging (‘nichify’ or die, for instance). Because every blogger’s situation is a little different. That is interesting that your niched blogs didn’t take off and your “global” one is growing.
Blogging is a double-edged sword. It can interfere with writing but it also primes the well and makes my other writing come easier. On your time management question, you know, it’s a real challenge. What I finally figured out (I’m working with an editor now on the developmental structure of my memoir and have deadlines to get chapters to her), is that it works better for me to take a day or two and crank out several posts ahead of time, so I can schedule them and dive deep into my own writing again. I am one of those people who needs to immerse myself when I write: no distractions, no other piddly little tasks I have to stop and attend to. So I took a couple of days last week. Wrote three new posts for this blog and two guest posts I promised for other blogs. So, yes, time management is a huge issue. It never hit me quite this way until I moved to full-time author.
@JudyDunn Blogging IS fun and yet it helps to uncreack (is that a verb?) that writing hand, well you know what I mean, exercise it! But the time management thing drives me nuts! You’re very wise to plan ahead and divide the week in chunks, that’s something I have yet to learn how to do. Every morning I decide on a schedule, one hour of Internet then writing but of course it never works out that way! If I start on Internet I never stop before at least 3 or 4 hours!!!
So now I do something else: I force myself to write first thing in the morning and then at the end of the day when I’m tired I move on to Internet…which is just as well since I live in Europe, you guys over there on the other side of the pond, wake up six hours later, so that way I can catch you awake!
@claudenougat I feel your pain. I’m a news junkie and in a state of perpetual curiosity, so I have a hard time pulling the plug on social media and news sites. I find that just closing Safari is the safest bet for me. : )
Hi Judy! I’m so glad I dropped by today. Each time I do visit, I’m never disappointed. The day you blew bubbles to capture your dream was a gift to your community. Typically a blog that promises seven steps to something is informative and a bit dry. Yours was informative, descriptive and fun. Your gift of story telling is the sparkly gold thread that glitters throughout your post and it serves a unique purpose. It connects the factual with the fun and makes me want more. And I got all giggly excited when I saw you included one of my favorite friends, Lori as an amazing example of how one can nurture a community with skilled engagement and fascinating topics.
You are a talented artist!
Thanks Judy Lee
Claudia
@SocialMediaDDS Wow. I’m basking in a warm glow right now. Don’t think I’ve ever gotten a comment like this before. I love the fact that somewhere, someone is learning something and perhaps laughing at the same time. That is the ultimate compliment. : )
Thank you so much for affirming what I do here.
Your gift of story telling is the sparkly gold thread that glitters throughout your post. It was an interesting post.
Judy, there’s something obviously present in every post you write: YOU. So many people “hide” behind their writing, afraid to let their personality come through. I think that sort of writing is boring and impersonal. I used to be like that too, I think mainly because I hadn’t discovered my writing style. But practice, while it doesn’t always make perfect, it did help me to discover the writer in me. Now I write from the heart.
You sound like you have fun writing and blogging. It should be like that for everyone! I like how you throw in a weird post every now and then—it keeps things fresh, and for somebody with a short attention span, that’s a good thing.
Thanks for such an influential blog!
Sarah
@Sarah Payne I know exactly what you are saying here, Sarah. For me, it was a combination of not truly knowing what my voice sounded like and the fear that our marketing business clients wouldn’t want the personal stuff. I feel so much freer now that I have labeled myself as a writer/author.
Thanks so much for the affirmation. I so enjoy this space here and the people who choose to hang out with all of us. : )
I used to be like that too, I think mainly because I hadn’t discovered my writing style. But practice, while it doesn’t always make perfect, it did help me to discover the writer in me.
@susie07 Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Because I want to share something that could benefit for everyone. I mostly go for those informative stories. In that way, I can help others understand on a specific topic. That is what I believed.
Do people really ask these questions? i find that a bit strange..
@joostharmsen Strange? Haha. They are not all run-of-the-mill questions, but I thought they were interesting ones. Especially the questions I got about after I added my middle name to my blog and branding. People were just so used to “Judy Dunn.” Many of the others I have gotten in blogging workshops I teach. I thought I would just kill them all in one post. : )