Persuading Melinda

So for the last week or so I've been trying to convince my good friend, Melinda, that she should read the first entry of my newly-created blog, "cup of joe." She was hesitant to do so asking only one thing, "why?" Why, indeed, should she have to read my blog? My knee-jerk response was "because you're my friend and you should support my writing." Guilt-drawing as my response was, I couldn't think of a more concrete reason for her to willingly read my blog. "Just tell me what's in it," she said. "That's not the point. You have to read it to find out...," I responded. Her response to this prompted the entry you're reading now; "But what's the point? What's the point of blogging?" I had nothing to say to that because I was unclear what the point was. I'm still a little unclear. Certainly, there are reasons why I've chosen to start blogging, but what reasons would anyone have to start reading any blog, let alone mine?

Let me be a little selfish and begin with my reasons:
1). I like writing
2). I like people reading what I've written
3). I'm a recent playwright and I would like to explore other modes of writing.
4). As a writer, I think it's important to write all the time and what better way to do that and
still have other eyes read it then by creating a blog?

There are probably a few other reasons but these are the ones that pop out the most. Generating reasons why someone should blog are significantly easier then finding reasons why someone should read them. Of course every blogger thinks what they're writing is important and interesting. I would like to think what I'm writing is interesting; as far as it being important, that has yet to be seen. And as my blog ages, reasons for people to read it will hopefully be revealed.

As a blogger I have a responsibility, not only to hard-to-convince Melinda, but to all the other readers, if there are any (I'm still working on pooling readers). I believe I should provide a service, a driving reason for people to go out of there way while surfing the web and partake in my blog. Even if the service is creating the catalyst for laughter in a reader, the reader has to leave the blog with something they didn't have before they went to it. One of Melinda's concerns was what she would get out of reading my blog that I couldn't tell her in person. The answer lies in personality. My personality as a writer and in person are certainly apples from the same tree but I prefer the version of me on paper a little more then the one in person.

This entry was geared towards convincing Melinda to read my blog. I may have not succeeded but I do promise this. I will always leave the reader with a small nugget of knowledge or opinion, even if it involves the philosophical break-down of blogging..., according to me.

Thank you for your time and here's to persuading Melinda.

======================

On more of a silly note, if you are ever interested in hearing a Jewish story over the phone, you can dial 718-467-7800. it is a service called "dial a Jewish story" and I found it in my planner. Enjoy.


You're beautiful.




-joe