Why a Blog?

 Why a blog?

I have worked for 40 years as a writer of various kinds, but in order to be paid for it, mostly it’s been kinds that other people – editors, bosses, clients – chose for me. So first and foremost, there are things I want to write whether or not anyone will pay me for them. 

For the past decade or so, a lot of my best work for money has been marketing communications for small companies angling to be bought by larger ones. I help arrange the flow of information on shiny new websites, and then I write all that information: company history, management bios, mission statements, core competencies, lines of business. I research and write white papers about issues in the company’s industry – healthcare if I’m lucky. I write email newsletters filled with bits of industry news and directing the company’s clients and potential clients to the white papers. The white papers are posted on the website, of course, and have “next steps” links to encourage new business. But the real point is to make the company look smart, innovative, and professional, so that larger companies will want to buy it.

I’m good at it. The companies I work for get bought. Unfortunately, as a writer, I’m not among the essential personnel who are notified in advance about the sale. More than once, all of my online work has disappeared overnight as the entity I created it for ceases to exist. The stuff is stuck on proprietary platforms where I can’t get it back. And then, because the larger company invariably already has all the writers it wants to pay, I get laid off.

So another reason for this blog is to have a portfolio of my work that’s under my control – to make me look smart, innovative, and professional, and – if I’m lucky – to help me get some paying work. You’ll find my resume here. 

I’ve always wanted to be a columnist, but my original idea, that I’d pay my dues by writing whatever news and features anybody asked me for and eventually I would be rewarded with a column, didn't pan out. 

I’ve also decided to write something like a memoir about my family and my upbringing. My immediate family are all dead now, and I don’t want their stories to disappear. I’m attacking this as a journalistic project, because so much of what I was told and what I remember seem unlikely to be true. I want to share the research efforts online to keep myself honest, as far as that’s possible. You can read more about my thoughts on that here.

Finally, I’ve been involved in living history for a dozen years now, and I’ve learned that you never know what shred of experience will turn out to be essential information for someone later on who is trying to understand your time, or how conditions changed between now and then. I don’t know how many American Revolutionary War reënactors have found solace in Joseph Plumb Martin’s account of ditching the iron mess-kettle, but I’d wager Martin never expected that anecdote to be his legacy. Despite living in what may be the most exhaustively self-documented era in history, I might still write down something that fills in a blank somewhere. And increasingly, this in itself seems worthwhile to me.