Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama

I originally sent the answers to Broomhead’s blogging survey right to him, but decided to share them here, especially with some other fellow bloggers in the IW community posting their entries publicly. Some of these answers seem like I’m giving variations on the same answer to variations on the same questions to me, though.

For the record, this survey goes for both the Pagoda and So Hot She Shits Fire. Also, for the curious, I liked Vee’s answers the best of all. (It’s a Cancerian thing).

Brian, I hope you got the results you were looking for with this survey. I’m curious as to see his summary of everything.

Goals:

* Why do you blog?

For the Pagoda: Partly to keep my writing skills active, partly to contribute to the growing network of music blogs disseminating information about quality music. For So Hot She Shits Fire: To keep the growing Reina worship off of the Pagoda.

* What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?

The primary goal, other than the above-mentioned one for the Pagoda, is to keep my name out there as a writer.

* Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?

Not enough time on the planet to just write, period. Sometimes my other writing projects force the blogging to take a backseat.

* If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?

Stopping me from having to rush out of the house in order to get overworked and underpaid by my waste-of-space, piece-of-shit thieving bastard of a boss.

* What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?

I think I already answered this above!

* Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?

No and no. I write when I have an idea or concept, and I keep writing until I’m finished with something. Word counts I tend to worry about for bigger projects like novels and short stories.

* For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?

Whatever inpsires me to write a blog entry at that particular time.

* Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?

Not consciously.

Subject Material:

* What do you blog about?

On Stuck In A Pagoda I write about music. So Hot She Shits Fire’s objective is less serious.

* Would you be keep a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?

Yes, as I’ve been maintining an LiveJournal since 2003.

* Do you write about the material to promote it to others?

Yes.

Readership:

* How much do you care about readership?

More than enough to do the best work I can on the material, period. That goes for both blogging and my more serious writing.

* Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?

I don’t know. I know I’m getting hits, but outside of when I get comments or written up at IW, I don’t know who’s reading, and I’m always curious as to who else is reading.

* What effect does receiving a comment have on you?

That depends on the comment.

* Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?

Both. With both the Pagoda and SHSSF, I’m aware that I have a particular audience thanks to IW. When I write album reviews for the Pagoda I generally try to write those like I’m going to be contributing the piece to a magazine like Rolling Stone or Spin, especially when it comes to the reviews of J-Pop albums as I feel the need to try to describe and promote the music to people who might have heard of the artists but never heard the music.

* If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?

I would like to think that for the Pagoda, IW readers and fellow bloggers are part of my audience. For SHSSF, the audience is way more specific.

Community: (The International Wota section)

* If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?

Yes. Hell, it was American Wota that lit the fire under my ass to start MotokoAoyama.com in the first place.

* When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
* When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?

I’ll answer both of these at once. In both cases, I’m encouraged to blog more. I should add that when I post something and it doesn’t get covered, I wonder why it didn’t get covered. Since Ray has been the one who has covered my work the most, I sometimes wonder why, other than time contstraints, something got passed over, especially if its something I think he or someone else at IW would have picked up on.

* How often do you read other blogs?

Whenever I can. Unfortunately, my late PowerBook being bitchy at work made this rather difficult for much of the first quarter of 2008.

* How often do you comment on other blogs?

Whenever I have something to say!

* If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?

Yes. I most likely still have something to say about that topic.

Commitment:

* How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?

It’s fun for me, but as it is part of my writing I take it seriously too. For a brief example, this is why I’ve been taking my time with Morning Musume In America entries - and some CD reviews that I, admittedly, really should have finished by now.

* How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?

At least once to three times a week or whenever I’m inspired. If I could blog every day, I would. It depends on the material. My worst “dry spell” was over at So Hot She Shits Fire this past month - I had eyecandy to post but no dialogue ideas to go with them!

* What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?

Since my biggest priority in life is writing, its usually my other writing projects that have to be put aside when I get a blog entry idea.

* Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not?

Yes. Because I want to.

Personal:

* Would you say you blog for yourself?

Vaguely. To repeat an earlier answer, part of the reason I started the Pagoda was to keep my writing skills going and get/keep my name out there as a writer.

* What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?

On average, I’m thinking, “OK, looks good… aw, fuck, how did I leave that sentence hanging or that word mispelled?”

* What needs does blogging fulfill?

The need to keep writing and contribute dialogue.

* Do you consider yourself a writer?

Yes.

* Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?

Yes.

* How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?

There seems to be more references to my personal life on the fictional IM dialogues with Reina Tanaka at SHSSF. Other than that, the only personal things I’ve out and out shared at the Pagoda were one of my short stories being picked up by Jaded Silence Press and my getting engaged on Christmas Eve.