Blogging: for and against

What could possibly be sadder than life as a blogger? Some poor, lonely soul who cannot find a spouse, a friend or a publisher. The sort of person who cannot persuade even the parish newsletter – which frankly prints pretty much anything – to give him a few column inches to air his woes. (Or her, for that matter; no sexual discrimination intended.)

Well, for a start, it’s not as sad as being the sort of embittered, lonely sod who fills his (or her) days posting negative comments at the foot of other people’s work on news websites or blogs. Blogging is at least creative, rather than wilfully destructive.

Then there are those few who, like the lottery winners we all dream of becoming when we buy a ticket (though we know we won’t be). have managed to use their blogs as a platform to secure publishing deals.

And then again there are those like me, whose lives have been utterly transformed by blogging, in completely unexpected ways. Like this:

And this:

And this:

The contribution played by this blog in securing the first outcome is most concisely described here. The others just followed somehow, by processes that must remain a happy mystery unless we wish to start lowering the intellectual tone.

When I started this blog, it was a handy way of filling the time, a useful aide memoire on the importance of sticking to my diet, and a piece of ephemera that might just outlive me for a short while. Ironically, I rarely have time to add to it these days because I am too busy earning money to support the offspring that it made possible. But if anyone tells you that blogging is a waste of time and effort …

 … I rest my case.