ProBlogger: Blogging and Privacy: How to Blog Authentically Without Losing Your Voice |  |
| Blogging and Privacy: How to Blog Authentically Without Losing Your Voice Posted: 26 Jan 2015 06:39 AM PST
__________ Blog BeginningsI started blogging as a creative outlet for my writing. I moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma with the romantic notion that I was going to write novels and screenplays for a living. But I never got that far. I fell into television & movie production as a way to pay the bills, and that workload is really kind of intense. After I got married, I quit working in reality television and decided that I finally wanted to pursue that original dream. Blogging was just beginning to get huge, and the instant gratification of publishing on the internet was so alluring. At first I just did it for myself and the handful of family and friends that read my first small blog. After a few stops and starts, I finally decided that I wanted to take the whole thing more seriously and grow an audience. I started over with the blog name Hollywood Housewife (because I am one) and have been plugging along with it ever since. Privacy NeedsMy husband Jeff Tremaine is a successful director/producer with a large fan base. The demographics that are attracted to his movies and tv shows aren't necessarily the same people who want to read about my parenting journey. In the beginning, it was really important to me to keep the two things separate. There are a lot of google searches for his name and work, and I didn't want people looking for a crude clip of a movie stumbling upon my list of favorite moisturizers. After we had children, I was especially concerned about our family's privacy and how I could write my story without exploiting our two kids or too much of his personal life. By now there has been some crossover – people who love him have found my Instagram, for example, which then leads them to the blog and everything else. It's okay, though. You can see pretty quickly what I'm about, so that naturally weeds out those who aren't interested in family, faith, & beauty content. And for the most part, almost everyone has been very respectful of the distance I keep between what I'm doing on the internet and what he's doing on the big screen. No-Go ZonesFor search engine reasons, I don't use my husband's name and I have given him and our children little nicknames I use instead. The reasoning behind this makes sense, but sometimes I wish I'd picked something a little less silly. It's tricky to write the more serious posts while referring to the most important people in my life as The Gorilla, Pigtail, and Pirate. You live and you learn, I guess, but that is one thing that I tell newer bloggers to think long and hard about. I also don't include too much about where we live, but I think everyone on the internet – blogger or not – should do that. And there are huge chunks of our life I leave out entirely. We've had very significant illnesses on both sides of our family, and even though it was on our hearts day and night, I didn't write about any of it for years. It just didn't feel right. I also never write about our personal relationships with people who are well known. I want my blog to be a peek into a true Hollywood household, but it's not a site for name-dropping. Balancing Authenticity and PrivacyIf it were just me, my blog would be a LOT more tell-all. I have no patience for fake people, and I like to write honestly about things. But juggling these other factors in our life has been a good discipline, actually. I've rarely hit publish on a post and wished I could take it back. I'm very deliberate about what and how much I share, but it's all truth. I think the authenticity comes from me sharing MY heart and MY taste, and less about being juicy. It's easy for me to be honest about what *I'm* feeling or the products and things that *I* like, and I try to leave anyone else out of the equation. I figure that will get me in the least trouble. I'm also fairly quick to say if I made a mistake, failed at something, or if I changed my mind on a topic. There is no picture perfect illusion on my blog. This goes a long way in deconstructing whatever myth people might assume about our lifestyle. Reader RelationshipsI have some of the best readers on the planet. I'm always underestimating them and they're constantly surprising me. Like if I think I'm posting something sorta wackadoo and they're not going to understand what I mean – they do! They're almost always along for the ride and I love this about them. Somewhere along the way we've sliced through the blogger wall, and I always feel like I'm a real person writing to real people. It's easy to get confused about that. I interact with my readers daily on Facebook and Instagram I love twitter, but my readers aren't over there so much. My favorite way to interact with my readers has been through my monthly Secret Posts These go to subscribers' emails and the content is more personal than what I put out on the blog. Lately I've been asking readers to respond to the Secret Posts, and people are blowing me away with their thoughtful interaction. And Her Husband?He loves the blog. It's the only one he reads – ha! Because his career is such a circus, he has always encouraged me to have my own thing and to pursue it as much as I wanted. He keeps the kids when I go on blogging trips and conferences, and he's often my sounding board when I'm about to publish a sensitive post. He is way less concerned about our general privacy than I am. Or maybe he just trusts the way I've handled it so far. He has never asked me to delete or change something I've posted. More Privacy = More StruggleWe've had a few weird things happen, like people finding me and trying to get a direct line to him. I've received more than one script in the mail that someone wishes I'd pass along. (Those go directly in the trash, we can't directly accept anything like that for legal reasons.) It's also annoying that sometimes I can't write about a major thing in our life until after it's already happened. Last year he made the movie Bad Grandpa and I basically couldn't write about any part of it for over a year, even though it was a huge part of our daily lives. That's not a real struggle, though, is it? While I sometimes have to be creative or find a workaround when writing about our friends and family, the bottom line is that you'll never regret being too careful about what you put online. The TakeawayEven though blogging and social media continue to change rapidly, I feel really lucky to be able to tell my story in real time on the internet. There are people who put way too much of themselves out for the world to see, and there are people who are terrified to put even the littlest bit on display. But for most of us – no matter what level of privacy we either must or choose to maintain – there is a happy medium. Be creative! I know one blogger who writes about some of her current mental health struggles as if it was something that happened a long time ago. That makes her feel safer about sharing. Another blogger I know spills out a lot of harsh detail about a certain situation and she has ended up a thought leader on a topic very few are willing to discuss publicly. A lot of obstacles can be worked around, be it a job or a family situation, or anything else you've convinced yourself requires silence. If you want to tell your story, do it. There's no shortage of people who want to hear it. [Tweet that!] _______________________ So how about you – what’s the balance you strike between authenticity and privacy? It’s one I’ve definitely juggled. Stacey is the Managing Editor of ProBlogger.net: a writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd balancing it all with being a stay-at-home mum. She writes about simple living, good food, and travelling the world with kids at Veggie Mama. Chat with her on Twitter @veggie_mama (cat pictures welcome!). Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger     |
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