Liebster Award Continued: Thoughts on Blogging

Last week I wrote about how honored I was to receive the Liebster Award for worthwhile blogs with fewer than 200 followers.

This week I have chosen bloggers I am nominating for the Liebster Award. They are all blogs by writers. They all have interesting points-of-view and are well worth getting to know.

In no particular order, they are:

• Michelle Ziegler for Michelle Ziegler
• Karen Wojcik Berner for Bibliographic Blather
• Carol Hedges for I Write, I Sleep, I try to Resist Cake
• Julija Sukys for Writing. Life.
• Lisa R. for Poet Teacher Seeks World
• Deborah Swift for The Riddle of Writing
• Edith Lagraziana for Edith's Miscellany
• Suzy Henderson for  Suzy Henderson: Writer and Blogger at Lowfell Writer's Place
• Elisabeth Kinsey for Reading Like a Writer: On the Hunt for a Sublime Sentence

As I said last week, there are responsibilities attached to this award. Each honored blogger must:

• Thank the one who nominated him/her and leave a link to the nominator's blog.
• Display the Liebster Award button on their website.
• Answer 11 questions which I will pose.
• List 11 random facts about themselves.
• Nominate 11 deserving bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.
• Inform the winners on their blog without leaving a link to his/her own blog.

Here are the questions I want each winner to answer:

1. Why did you begin blogging?
2. How long have you been a writer?
3. What is your favorite blog besides your own?
4. Where do you do your best thinking?
5. Where do you do your best writing?
6. How do you handle writer's block?
7. Can people be taught to write?
8. How much outlining do you do before beginning to write?
9. Do you prefer reading fiction or nonfiction?
10. Who (or what) are your greatest influences?
11. If you could interview anyone, who would it be?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BLOG?

• Interesting, informative content.
• Writing that is clear, precise and economical.
• Consciousness of what readers want/need to know.
• Thought-provoking questions.

I've noticed something as I've searched for blogs to honor. Many writers create blogs  that are so personal and idiosyncratic, they are more journal than blog. 

Do they really believe their personal thoughts and feelings are that interesting?

In general, our personal struggles are only interesting if  others see themselves in them. 

Struggling writers find the struggles of other writers interesting only when they are relevant to them!

Frankly, I don't care if you had a bad day and couldn't get anything done. Or if your dog ate your manuscript. Or if your kids missed the school bus. Those kinds of things happen to me too. To all of us, in fact.

You can make me care by making me laugh at your plight--and by extension my own--or if you tell me how you got out of your difficulties so I can apply the same wisdom to my own situation, or if you got up the next day and started all over again so I can see that perseverance  pays off.

But, in general bemoaning difficulties does not engender interesting blog posts.

Do you disagree? Have you found personal blogs that you love? What are they? What do you love about them?