Archive for October, 2006

Darren Rowse on ProBlogger has written an interesting and thought provoking article called Expertise, Knowledge and Intuition in Blogging. He writes about what inspires him, where he gets his inspiration and how much intuition plays a part in his writing and blogging.

He poses the questions

• How much knowledge do you have on your topics?
• Where does your inspiration and knowledge come from?
• How much do you rely upon intuition?

I happened to be the first to comment on this post and in part my comments are posted below.

Intuition only plays a small part in my blogging, in that I sometimes know intuitively what my readers are interested in reading. Feedback through comments is a good guide here.

On my birding blog (Trevor’s Birding) I mainly rely on my knowledge base gained over thirty plus years of going out into the field and actually watching birds. A lifetime of experience to draw upon is invaluable and can give one’s writing something of a voice of authority.

This vast amount of experience is backed up by the same number of years studying books, referring to field guides, reading magazines and participating in forums and newsgroups on the internet over the last ten years. I also attend the local birders monthly meetings but not as frequently as I’d like due to distance.

My main inspiration comes from what is right in our garden. The constant activity in our garden is a rich lode I mine frequently for inspiration. Wherever I travel I record what I see, drawing constantly on those observations for my blog writing. Most writing books and many articles about writing urge one to Write What You Know.

What I hope emerges in my writing is a passion for my subject, and a deep desire to share that with my rapidly growing number of readers.

Related articles:

• Write with Passion

• Maintaining Motivation as a Writer and Blogger

• Write what you love (Writing Hint #12)