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Last year heralded some of the most lively interaction to date on the Pagan Values blogject. So much that it even coaxed out some beginning bloggers. And it should! If you wish to blog about Paganism, you are talking about your values every day – there is no separating your values from who you are, after all.

To help people get even more out of their blogging experience during the Pagan Values project, here are a few do’s and don’t’s:

Do:

• Post your link to the blogject entry for 2012.
• Read the links that other people post – you can find plenty to argue with, inspire, and examine.
• Post your link at the Facebook group page, and comment on the links of others.
• If you choose to discuss another person’s post in the content of your post, link back to it.  If you’re really going to commit to the spirit of exploration and debate, you’re going to have to risk people finding you – especially if you post links to a public site.
• Leave relevant-to-the-post comments on the blogs you visit.
• Answer questions left for you in comments.
• Revise your post for grammar, spelling, etc. Nothing is ever perfect, so making small changes after it’s published is normal and to be expected.

Don’t:

• Expect people to agree with everything you post. Different Pagan religions = different values. There are even differing values within the same religions.
• Post blog comments anonymously. This isn’t 4chan.
• Make unsubstantiated claims.  A fact is something you can look up in a library or if you must, Wikipedia. An opinion is the sort of thing you just can’t look up.

Fact: Dogs were domesticated from wolves. Notice that I embedded a link to a respected and accurate information source, PBS.

Opinion: Pop music sucks. It may very well suck to you, based on your inner neurology. But that’s not a fact (directs glare at my partner, who likes to do this to annoy his sibling.)

• Set out to prove something. This is about self-expression, and exploring where the communal lives in the Pagan community, not about satisfying an image of yourself.

But I’m blocked!

That’s OK. This is Pagan Values month – but it’s not 30 days of blogging. Very few people have 30 posts on any one subject in them. Most aspects of Paganism involve work – and this is an expression of my personal value: if you’re going to do spiritual work, it should be work you take pleasure in. That can be hard work, or light work, but it must engage you. If you find this blogging process engaging, and find that it continues to be engaging, wonderful!  If you find it stressful, then it’s OK to stop at one or two. If you’re afraid, then write down the reasons you’re afraid, and answer them with all the logic you can muster – and then celebrate it when you hit the publish button.

There are many other blogging trips and tips I’m happy to share over on the Facebook page. I’m an avid WordPress user, so I’m all about writing and scheduling posts out, using automatic methods of sharing, and creating in-text shortcuts so I can spend more time consistently writing new stuff. If you want to talk tech and toys, just open up a discussion on the Pagan Values Facebook group.

Happy blogging!

Related articles

• Out of the Broom Closet – IPCOD. (satsekhem.wordpress.com)
• Kids and Spiritual Practice #PaganBlogProject (faeoftheroots.wordpress.com)
• #paganvalues: the place of religion (dianarajchel.com)
• #paganvalues – Why I don’t want to talk about religion over a beer with you (dianarajchel.com)
• What is a “Pagan” – joining another Blog project (pixiecraft.wordpress.com)