I’ve set up a little house of blogs at Writerly Haphazardry. Unfortunately, the reason I chose the title continues to hold true. My blogging there is haphazard at best. I’m a very busy person. For most of the year, I’m more likely the have teaching issues on my mind than anything else. Thus, there’s more to say on Teacherly Tech right now than on Writerly Haphazardry, but it’s all me, and it’s all writing I love.

The main page there is for general writing–creative non-fiction, thoughts on life and the world, or whatever. Then there are the poetry and fiction blogs in their own separate spaces: Poetry Haphazardry and Haphazard Fiction.

Most people don’t compartmentalize their blogs like this. Most bloggers probably just have one blog. I have three registered domain names just for myself, and that’s not counting the places I’ve set up on free sites like Blogger and WordPress.com. I compartmentalize because I write a lot, and I write in many directions. I don’t assume people who read my teaching articles want to read my poetry or people who read my poetry want to read my creative non-fiction. I have separate blogs for separate audiences, but there’s actually even more to my reasoning for three domain names than that.

I’m building collections of work. My poetry blog is a book of poetry, or it will be when I put enough poems there. My fiction blog is a novel-in-progress. This is just one way books are compiled in the digital age.

The first time a poet was offered a piece of paper to write on that poet would have said, “Oooo, let me see how that works.” Not, “No thanks, I’m too busy etching on this clay tablet.” I think of myself as a poet first, and poets are naturally curious people.

Consider that when assigning student blogs. Consider how students can build beautiful and creative collections that they can feel proud of. Consider giving them some room to experiment, to fulfill their natural urges to find out how things work. Help them think of what they are doing as making a work of art rather than simply finishing an assignment.