Interview with Michelle Mitchell from “Scribbit”
“Scribbit”
I’ve kept prolific journals since I was a child and as a way to keep in touch with family out of state I started typing my entries into my computer, then cutting the private stuff out and sending the hard copies to the grandmothers. I got word that my letters were making circuits around the communities and nursing homes where these ladies lived and in 2004 my husband, who’s a tech-junkie, got after me to start a blog. I laughed at him for a year until I got up the nerve to try and when I did I loved the creative nature of the medium, it’s like publishing your own magazine.
Though my blog was public I didn’t pursue it seriously or post regularly until September 2006 and it’s taken off since then. I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t take my husband’s advice earlier, because so many bloggers began about that same time two years ago.
My daily posts vary, I usually writeanecdotesabout the family two or three times a week which vary in length or occasionally something more serious and on Sundays I take a break by posting a recipe. I’ll often participate in the WFMW or memes such as The Thursday Thirteen. I particularly like to blog about things we do in Alaska that are unique to our state–readers seem to like hearing about a place they haven’t been and family members like to see what we’re doing.
I love mental tesserae because she’s intelligent and artistic yet funny–and she’s a professor at my alma mater. I like The Daily Tiffin because of the great lunch ideas (and because talking to someone in Germany is just that much cooler). I like Karen Wise at Verbatim because she posts so frequently and because she’s a copyeditor–I used to be an editor in a previous life.
Everyone loves getting comments and I’ve noticed that rarely does a reader ever say something argumentative or unkind. But I love hearing from people, they’re always very kind and supportive–my favorite kinds of comments are those that ask about my family or about Alaska, because who doesn’t like to talk about themselves? I hope I never get to the point where it’s too much work to answer all the comments and emails because then blogging will have lost some of it’s thrill for me.
My husband reads my blogs and has Scribbit on his Sage feeds. I know my mother visits almost daily, when she’s not traveling the world, and I’ve seen my brother lurking around my site occasionally. Beyond them, only a few of my friends and family read it regularly. Occasionally someone will tell me that they read my blog–or even liked it–but often I think non-bloggers are puzzled by the mystery that is the blogosphere.
This is rather morbid, but there was an infamous trial going on in Alaska where a girl was accused of having her boyfriend kill her mother. In the paper it said the police were looking at her blog for evidence. I went to my husband who has all those techy answers–he’s my own private google–and he told me what a blog was.
The first blog I read was Chookooloonks by Karen Walrond. I saw her tropical pictures of the rainy day occurring that moment on the other side of the world and I had to comment and let her know how much I loved what I saw. She was sweet enough to write me back immediately and say nice things about my blog and from that point on I was hooked.
As for inspiration, that comes mostly from my family. I started blogging to help record the funny things my children (and husband) do, to help them remember that we’ve had a lot of fun as a family. I’ve wondered if when my children grow out of childhood and into adolescence if I’ll run out of entertaining things to write but then I look at my husband and how he keeps me laughing and I’m not worried about running out of material.
Filed under Mom Blogs
