Uncategorized

Intro post: Welcome, friends

/ Austin Chastain / Leave a comment

As I sit behind the screen of my laptop, staring at the cursor blink quicker than I, I can’t help but think of how excited I am to one day share my stories.

This blog — a site for my digital journalism class at Central Michigan University — is an opportunity for me to share the stories I have accumulated in my time at CMU and everything else I’ve been able to experience.

A lot of my favorite stories come from working in journalism on the sports desk at Central Michigan Life.

I started covering smaller sports, field hockey and wrestling to be exact, and worked my way to manning both the men’s and women’s basketball beats in just my second semester on campus.

Because I had the opportunity to cover basketball, I was able to join our team at the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. The trip was so much fun — I still talk about it to this day.

Another one of my favorite memories was the entire 2019 CMU football season, which started with a rainy Thursday night and ended with a blowout Chippewa loss in the Land of Enchantment and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I understand some may have negative views of CM Life, and that’s cool — I don’t mind at all. I won’t be on here preaching how great CM Life is, that probably won’t change your mind.

One thing I do pride myself on, though, is respect.

I’ll respect the heck out of everything you do and will try my best to understand it, no matter the case.

All I ask — respect in return.

I just love being able to tell stories and try to do so respectfully and fairly. Sometimes, I have to tell a negative story but it’s my job to do so. I don’t want to hold the folks in power accountable, but it’s my job to do so.

I’m excited for this class and the ability to tell stories with all of you as we work through the spring semester.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

/ Austin Chastain / Leave a comment

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.