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Now blogging at 10,000 words, but still keeping tabs here

When I started Meranda Writes, I wasn’t sure what it was. That is to say, what I wanted it to be and how to make it that. My early posts discussed everything from car trouble to job hunting. Over time, however, this site became pretty focused on journalism and my personal experiences and opinions. This worked really well when there were few other young reporters blogging about the same things. Today, everybody is (including several I helped encourage to start). Where once I felt like my voice represented an under-represented segment of the industry, today, it feels drowned out.

Beyond the proliferation of similar blogs, Twitter has also done much to eliminate the need to post the shorter posts or to debate in a more stream-of-consciousness method the questions or concerns I have about developments or pass along links others would be interested in reading. There were weeks in the first year or so of this site where I posted nearly daily, sometimes multiple times in a day. I had a lot to say and no other platform. But thanks to the myriad other connections I have with journalists today, including through Twitter, much of the steady posts I used to write are supplanted by 140-character tweets these days.

Finally, because I’m in a very different reporting and editing role today, my experiences are less relevant to the general journalism population. I’d love to talk about how I use Access and databases to find story trends and sources for my magazine articles, but nobody else has access to that proprietary information. That isn’t to say there aren’t some really interesting tricks of the trade and experiences I’ve gained, because there definitely are. Seeing the industry from a different niche in it has made me appreciate some things I didn’t notice before, and it’s also made me miss some things I underestimated. Eventually, I’ll write about some of these things.

For now, however, Meranda Writes has gotten to the point where I post sporadically. So I’ve been looking for a way to get back into the groove and have a reason to keep my head and heart in new media and journalism trends. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to join an already established and respected site: 10,000 Words. As a contributor, not only will I get paid to write things I’ve been writing about for free here (although a modest amount that will likely cause more of a tax headache than any upward blip in my income), but I’ll also have a reason to keep writing because I’ve committed to at least a few posts each week.

My first two posts are already up:

I’m always accepting tips for blog posts you’d like to see me explore: meranda@merandawrites.com

I’ll still blog here from time to time — probably as often as I have been in the past year or so — but for more regular updates follow @10000words, and for my in-between musings, follow @meranduh.

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