K's pretentious blogging meme

I was inspired a bit by the year in review meme that went around and Tam's project where he provided bloggers with post topics. Thus, I have some questions around blogging that I would selfishly love for other bloggers to answer. I call it the pretentious blogging meme, because its about blogging. Seriously, what could be more pretentious than blogging about blogging?

So I am particularly curious about how other bloggers blog. Ya, call me a total dork. Thus, here are the questions that I want to know about and to get this started, my corresponding answers.

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?
2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?
3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?
4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?
5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?
6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?
7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?
8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?
9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?
10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?

I've been blogging for over two years now (*boggle*), having started in September 2007. I started because I wanted to chronicle my adventures in game. This blog really started as a diary of sorts, hugely inspired by Phaelia of course.

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

I would say about 3-5 hours a week.

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing? Do you write in your day to day job?

Well, I always did well in my english classes in school and always had an easy time writing papers, but beyond that I don't have any formal or professional writing experience. I did keep a personal journal for about 10 years though. Does that count? Writing in my RL job is minimal.

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?

Like most bloggers I guess I look for inspiration for posts while I am playing the game. But I also do a lot of random brainstorming and daydreaming while I am driving to and from the current client I am working for. I am in the car from 2-2.5 hours per day and when I am not busy calling other drivers f'in idiots (which happens often), I find myself brainstorming possible blog topics. I also read a ton of random non-WOW blogs and find a lot of inspiration on topics or random stupid funny stuff on those blogs as well.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?

Um, no rules here. I like to think that this blog is about everything and nothing at the same time (deep, I know). Because I blog about everything from our guild's raiding updates, random funnies, pvp/arenas, blogging, asshats, professions, gaming, and finally the occasional post about actual druid stuffs or healing (shock!).

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?

For a while now I've been on the schedule of posting 3 times a week. In general I do try to diversify those 3 posts so that they aren't all about the same topic. So I'll try to do a random funny post, the second from something within the game, and the third about gaming or blogging. Though this varies week to week. Im terms of writing, I do a lot of my actual writing at work (shhhhh).

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

I currently have 8 potential blog posts drafted in various stages, whether its a simple idea or written out a bit more. I actually draft a lot of my posts within gmail as draft emails. I will also draft posts sometimes within a word processing platform whether that is Word (work computer) or Pages (personal computer). I find this easier than within the blogspot platform itself. Of the 8 drafts I have right now, I am guessing that 3 will never get written or published. Sometimes an idea just never really develops, or I wait too long on actually writing the post that it either gets outdated or written elsewhere.

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

Hmmm, well Jess would have to continue the Left Claw stuffs, Tamarind would continue the random humor/ranting bit, and Beruthiel would continue the druidy/healy stuffs... though seriously she is a much more serius bzness tree than I am or ever could be.

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Well, I'm surprised first of all that I'm still blogging, even though my blog has changed a whole lot from when I first started. I'm surprised that I've been mentioned or linked from wow.com three times over the life of this blog. Little old me! Finally, while I'm not very active in a lot of the blogging forums, I have been surprised by the sense of community within the WOW blogging world. As I commented on Beru's blog last week, I think of a lot of you fellow bloggers and frequent comments on my blog as my WOW friends... even though I've never played with you in game or anything.

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

No real goals beyond perhaps trying to do some actually serious posts a bit more often. Other than that, just keep on keeping on!

Any fellow bloggers who would like to indulge me in answering any or all of the questions, please think of it as a late Christmas gift for me. If you do blog about this, please leave a comment on this post so that I can make sure that I see everyone's answers.

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Edited with some answers:
Falling Leaves and Wings
A High Latency Life
Rejuvo
Clearcasting
The Bossy Pally (awesome blog name!)
Sideshow & Syrana
Shadow-war
More Bars Than You
The Tree Unleashed
The Pink Pigtail Inn