I have a heavy work load so I read my blog feeds in “scrollback mode” and I’m a week behind…

Anyway, I started my own (Swedish-language) peak oil-ish blog last summer for some of the same reasons you did (organize my own thought – might be of interest to someone else…?).

I was thinking about a niche and since I can’t be a jewish mother climate person, I aimed for Swedish-language peak-oil-will-change-everything person. My main decision was to write in Swedish for several different reasons:
- I write better (more stylistical flair) in Swedish than in English and it is easier (less work) for me to write a couple of pages in Swedish
- there was little competition on the “Swedish peak oil blog market”
- it would be nice to make a difference and why not start where it matters most to me – where i live

I also made a “strategic” decision not to publish daily/often, but rather aim for long-ish essays (now around 10 000 characters or so, i.e. 2-3 pages of text) more or less once per week. The idea of writing shorter texts several times per week died already during the first month. That’s just not for me.

I tend to squirrel away links and references and work with a couple of texts in parallell. I also prefer to have at lest a few finished texts in the pipe but publish them according to my own schedule (much work – one new text each 8 days, more time to blog – one new text every 5 days). I prefer to write a little longer, (hopefully) more thoughtful texts that integrrate many sources and sort of “sum up” topics. I have two main competitors on the Swedish scene who sometime write about PO but they complement rather than compete with me. Both are more prolific than I am but write for the most part about economy and current events. I seldom write about currents events. When I come around to a topic, it is usually at least a month old, but I try to paint a more broad picture than others commenting on current events.

By the way, as I subscribe to your blog feed, I can see that there are 1174 other persons who do that. I have 71 subscribers to my blog and pick up in average one new subscriber per week. But I now have between 500 and 1000 unique visitors per week and I am quite content with that number (and it grows almost every month which is a great motivator to continue blogging).

After 3, 6 and 12 months of blogging I wrote meta-texts about writing texts/the blog. They have partly served the same function as this text might have done to you – a time to reflect and write about reflecting and writing. I tend to agree with much, but not all of what you wrote above. The thing is that I will now squirrel away the reference to this text and the next time I write a meta-text about my blog (perhaps after 18 months, i.e. Feb-March), that text will be an “answering move” in a “conversation” with this text.

Also, after having written for a year and having produced around 75 essays, I felt confident enough to want to paralell publish in English which I started doing last month (http://life-after-oil.blogspot.com). The main reason for not doing it earlier was that I prefer to spend my time doing research and writing new texts rather than going back to an already-published text and spend 2-3-4 hours translating it (starting with an unpolished and usually quite crappy Google-translated version) etc. But then I asked on my blog if anyone would like to help me translate and one guy volunteered directly and offered to translate 1-2 texts per month. Now a second guy has volunteered to help me out and this more than anything else in my blogging “career” really blows my mind. People showing up from somewhere – anywhere – volunteering to help translate my texts. That’s the internet to you. I haven’t done and “advertising” of my blog besides mentioning it here a couple of times when I have written something that resonates with your blog posts. Right now most of my visitors either find their way there from my Swedish-language blog, or by doing a google-search (“transportation after oil”, “average length of car commute in nyc”, “can i survive on 400 dollars a week”, “lifestyle changes after oil”).

I haven’t looked into ways of increasing traffic but I sure find it interesting to peek at what Google Analytics has to say about how many come, where they come from etc.

Surprisingly, engineers are often very good at picking up the rudiments of clear writing, once they make up their minds to. They are excellent at learning a craft, which writing is.

You don’t have to go to journalism school. I learned on the job, when I was thrown into a reporting job. All I had was a $2 book, “Basics of Journalism.” My best teacher was a newspaper editor, “Lennie the Butcher,” who edited my first articles with copious red ink.

Maybe writing classes at the university level are better than they used to be. If you are teaching them, I’m sure they would be. I always found the teaching to be too perfectionistic, based on out-of-date models and lacking real-time feedback.

As usual, this is a topic that would be fun to discuss at length – no real answer, but many insights to be found in the process.
-Bart / EB

Sharon

I do disagree about journalism as a career. Granted, there are going to be even fewer jobs that are labeled “reporting,” thanks to the shake-out in the media.

However the skills and mindset of journalism are ALWAYS in demand: clear writing, skepticism, research, speed. Whether one is a corporate drone, a wild-eyed radical or a back-to-the-lander, a journalistic background is always a plus.

Someone’s got to report on where the obsidian blocks are to be found, and how to turn them into spearpoints.

take care, Bart (EB)

Bart, I disagree about journalism – I think a journalism degree is probably a bad idea, given what’s happening to the news industry – most of the journalists I know aren’t advising people to go into their field.

I don’t claim “do what you love and the money will follow” at all – I still haven’t seen the money follow . Sure, I get paid. I have made a total of about 12K for three books – I could have made that writing ad copy or editing in three months, rather than three years. But then, I didn’t go to grad school in English while my peers were starting internet companies to get rich , and I didn’t start a CSA while my peers were getting tenure to get rich , and my husband didn’t intentionally pursue a teaching, rather than research career to get rich. Our policy is more like – live really really cheap, and then you can write what you want and do what you want and have fun . And yes, I know not everyone can do this. But since it is a choice for us, we might as well enjoy it. I’d probably still be writing just as much if I had those four readers .

Sharon

1. There are MANY opportunities for writing once one thinks beyond commercial book publishing. Journalism, public relations, newsletters, technical writing, editing, etc. One can even earn a good living at them. I would vote for journalism as the best field in which to get training (I much preferred the newsroom to academia).

Non-fiction writing is much easier to market than fiction writing (like 100 times easier).

Even if one doesn’t get a job as a “writer,” the ability to express oneself effectively gives one a leg up in any profession.

The peak oil movement has been so effective because there are quite a few talented writers like yourself. I keep wishing there were more such writers, so we could make even more of a dent.

2. I think there are going to be many more opportunities in writing about sustainability, etc. We have just scratched the surface, and as the public develops a taste for it, they will want more.”

Ecologically minded fiction is still in its infancy.

3. In terms of a career, it’s easier to be a specialist than a generalist. I think your example is not the usual one, Sharon. For example, if I as an editor want a book written on soil ecology, I will pick a knowledgeable but so-so writer over a brilliant but ignorant one.

4. In one respect, I wish more people would follow your path. You pursued your interests because you loved them and felt strongly about them, rather than because they offered money or fame. Therefore, you have something real and substantial to say.

I’m not sure if the advice is right to “do what you love and the money will follow.”

But for sure, “do what you love and you will have a great time, and the work will be meaningful. Maybe somebody will discover you, but it won’t matter — you will have had a happy life.”

Bart
Energy Bulletin

All the work you have put into writing vs the money you have made makes it less worthwhile moneywise than gardening even! Which is fine if all you want is to see your ideas out there.

Published is good, too. But with internets its possible to find readers w/o finding a publisher as you mention.

I started my blog because I got tired of my husband nagging me that I should, because he said I had something to contribute. Well, mostly no. Except that I live in a climate area that simply isn’t covered by any gardening book I’ve ever read, and this is nothing if not challenging. The blog gives me a public space to keep track of what I’ve done, in conjunction with Independence Days, and allows me to document both failures and successes. And to learn from both.