10 Questions with Gimble of A Haiku a Day
10 Questions with Gimble of A Haiku a Day
1. Describe your blog in five sentences or less.
It’s a practice of discipline and control – an online journal that is essentially my daily diary written in haiku form. I write for a living, and use far too many words for my own good. Haiku A Day teaches me to practice that old adage, ”All things in moderation” – especially words.
2. Link us to one post from your blog that best defines who you are.
Here’s a sense of a day’s worth of postings (okay I lied – it’s not always ONE haiku a day, in fact it’s somewhere between 3 and 9.)
Daily Archive for October 5, 2007
3. What sets you apart from other bloggers?
You show me who else is out there journaling the events of their daily lives in haiku form, and I’ll show you a blogger who’s just like me – but I haven’t found her/him yet.
4. When and how did you first discover blogging?
I found blogging about three years ago, and took some tentative steps, but seemed to freeze up inside when I posted – I was inauthentic and too much a poseur. Now I keep about eight different blogs for different purposes, and can keep my split personalities separate and pure.
5. What is your biggest pet peeve related to blogging or the internet?
Lordy, lordy, I hate bragging. If I wanted to read your happy holiday letter full of how fantastic your life is, I’d be your friend and receive it in the mail. If a blog isn’t honest, I’m not going to read it.
6. Name one plugin, blogging widget, or service that you can’t live without.
Tag clouds, because they’re like therapists without the price tag. They show me what I unknowingly fixate on, and then I take those obsessions and check out other blogs with those tags to see if they’re as flat out crazy as me.
7. If you could choose anyone, living or dead, to write a guest post for your blog,who would it be and why?
I would want to see Emily Dickinson blog in haiku. She’d be amazing, I just know it.
8. How has blogging made you a better person?
Haiku A Day keeps me honest and attentive to detail. I can write about life in a concentrated way, and even as little as seventeen syllables, when packaged just right, unfurl into full-fledged memories.
9. What are your tips for becoming a better blogger?
I tell people writing is a muscle. Exercise it every day and you’ll have (instead of a six pack) a blog pack. Also, read others’ blogs because they keep you honest and remind you of your connection to others. Like a great public speaker, blogging isn’t about you – it’s about your connection to others. If you write about something that resonates with them, then you both benefit.
10. Name one great blog that you read on a regular basis. What makes it unique?
The Scent of Water is a blog written by a New Zealand woman who lives
such an impossibly beautiful life. Her photographs of simple objects around her house – like toothbrushes standing in a pitcher that look like flowers – elevate the ordinary into the extraordinary. And her narrative is equally simple and gorgeous. If I can’t be her (and trust me, my life is the antithesis of hers) then I want to vicariously live it through her blog.
Very cool, Gimble. Definitely going to have to stop by and check out your blog. Several years ago I used to have a livejournal where all my blog entries were haiku :)
Smart blogger .
Thanks so much for the mention. I am surprised and honoured, but must disclaim the impossibly beautiful life. From my perspective, it’s a rather messy and chaotic one!