We came in a day early specifically for the blogging class. It was SRO - I found a place on the side where I could sit fairly comfortably and still catch a glimpse now and then of the presenters. I say SRO - the room held over 1,000 people!
The people around me were novices and so I felt quite proud of myself. They had heard of blogging, but it seemed too foreign to them still. Kind of like me back in April....
The panel consisted of Linda Davis from eastern Connecticut and Duncan Fremlin from Toronto, both RE/MAX agents of longstanding. Each has been blogging well over a year but they approached it differently. Linda spends a couple hours a day (when she said this a collective groan went up from the audience) and works apparently several blogs. She has reached the point where people e-mail her when something happens in her area. She used the example of a modular home falling off a truck on one of the major highways; she got four e-mails on that!
Duncan , she says, is a better natural writer. He said he spends about fifteen minutes a day just cataloging what he does. He has earned great praise for his charity work, and his blog reflects that. He sees blogging as a communications tool where Linda uses it for listing and selling purposes primarily. Both agree that it's an incredible way to introduce yourself to the public. Just as in creative writing, you show, not tell, who you are.
I felt a greater affinity with Duncan. He said that he had originally started blogging with well-crafted essays that he wrote and re-wrote. As he moved into his voice, he realized that just talking and writing worked best for him. The polish would be there without the extra effort and it was more fun.
When he said that I felt freed. I could just write. I remember getting my first computer back in 1993 and discovering that I could write as fast as I could think. The laboriousness of typing or writing longhand was gone. I felt liberated and began writing and writing just because I could. I had that same "aha!" moment at the conference.
I also got ideas upon ideas from this short class. Only an hour, but what to blog became apparent. Nothing momentous, just a sense of what my subject matter could be, and will be in the following weeks and months. Hang on for the ride!
Check them out:
Linda Davis' blog: www.homewithlinda.com or www.blog.ctrelocation.com
Duncan Fremlin's blog: www.duncansblog.com
