Blog conferences are my element. I can't even pretend to be cool about it. I love them.
We spend so much time sending our voices out into this seemingly empty space, often having no idea if we are being heard, frequently feeling as though we are spinning our wheels, reassuring ourselves that we do it for us (!) alone... but secretly knowing that we would love for someone to reply.
Just a simple "I hear ya." An eye rolling, "Oh, you have no idea, I am so with you." It doesn't take much.
That is what I adore about blog conferences. Suddenly, warmingly, it becomes clear that damnit! someone did read that post I wrote last month that no one commented on but that was leaking my heart out everywhere! What you thought was met by crickets now slips up to you from behind, places a tentative hand on your shoulder and says, "Real quick, I just wanted to say that I loved that post last month where your heart leaked out everywhere. I was so with you on that one."
Aaaahhhhh. You are there.
BlissDom is an annual blog conference, hell, writing conference I attended this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by the magazine Blissfully Domestic and the PR-meets-bloggers-sans-headaches organization One2One Network. I helped Mrs Fussypants, its founder, organize the dress rehearsal version of BlissDom '08 and was thrilled to lend Alli a hand this year.
And by "lend a hand," I mean insisting that I have a mic in said hand the entire time, regardless of whether I was actually on the current panel or not. Ahem. Officially, I was mic-wrangling the audience questions when I wasn't being a panel speaker, but yeah, somehow my voice kept getting amplified from within that audience, um, a lot.
(psst... I don't have totally stolen flickr pictures, yet, so I'm illustrating with the logos from this weekend's sponsors. Without them, such fabulous events would not be possible, but without our support, their interest would not be present.)
Needless to say, I love blog conferences and apparently also their proclivity to include voice amplification devices. Because, as Alli pointed out in our "branding" panel, I am wordy.
Speaking of branding, I sort of allude to my loquaciousness in my blog banner, though, so don't say I didn't warn you...
That being said, I have a lot to write about BlissDom and the people I met, the things I heard, the ideas I was floated. But for the sake of brevity (har har), I'm going to focus today on one recurring bit of feedback from the weekend:
I. just. want. to. write.
This sentiment was repeated in both the Apprentice track (new bloggers) and the Maven track (experienced bloggers). After being doused with truly valuable tips and stories, a handful of bloggers would exit with a bit of a pout and say,
"But this isn't fair. My writing should be enough."
"I don't want to have to learn the tech stuff!"
"I don't want to have to learn social media!"
"I don't have the time or the money!"
"Why can't people just come to me?"
Okay, that last one was never said to me, but that is essentially what was being said. It all boiled down to, "It's not fair. My writing is strong and should be enough."
But enough for what? Enough for the millions of blog readers to locate and identify and devote the benefit of their doubt to your blog, which is one in millions?
In essence, we are slipping our books into the shelves at Barnes and Noble and saying, "Yes, the cover is plain blue with only my title centered on the front, no excerpts on the back, and no one knows I wrote it because I just brought it from home... but yes, everyone here should single it out on the shelf and buy it. Because it's damn good."
Don't judge my book by its cover, right?
I know it isn't fair. Our writing should be enough. But when you have millions of voices saying that their writing should be enough, what are our poor readers to do?
I am your poor reader and as much as I would love to give every single blog out there five minutes of my time, I won't lie to you and say that I'm not encouraged by a blog banner (book cover) that hints at something interesting inside. I won't pretend that I don't value the opinions of the people I follow on twitter when they tell me to check out a particular post. I won't deny that I do click on links from the blogs I already read to blogs they tell me I might like.
I don't care if you are popular. I just want to read something good. But I have to find it first.
That's one of the reasons we devote our precious time and money to attend blog conferences. We want to do better by our blogs. Our writing deserves it. Our writing deserves to be read. There is nothing wrong with that.
Ain't no shame in this game.
But knowing how to play the game does not have to mean selling out or enlisting in the army of compromise. It doesn't have to mean slapping on that uniform and joining the masses of the outstretched hand droning "Give me."
You can still have soul.
Yet... wouldn't it be nice to feel other souls pass through every now and then? To share their journeys and experiences as you share yours?
You can still have soul and be successful.
Having an audience, the numbers lurking in my stats that represent that audience... those are souls passing through, leaving faint hints of their presence, leaving wisps of their being as they absorb a bit of my own.
If Joyful Girl by Ani DiFranco was my anthem before BlogHer last year, then All These Things That I've Done by The Killers
Now turn up the music (subscribers click through! and turn it up loud!) and think about it. Then leave a wisp of your soul in the comments.
I got soul but I'm not a soldier. What about you?
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't
I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I wanna mean it from the back of my broken hand
Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no
Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out
And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The gold-hearted boy I used to be
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Over and in, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on
Want to hear my Branding panel (with Alli, To Think is To Create, and Liz Strauss from SOB) or any of the sessions you missed at BlissDom? You can buy transcripts and audio and join the discussion from home.
(PS- As soon as I get my voice back, I'll record all of the new audioblogs. Hang in there.)
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