This week Fuelmyblog is talking to Lynne Murphy, blogger behind “separated by a common language”.

Thank you Lynne for sharing your tips and take on blogging. Lynne has been on Fuelmyblog since January 09, have you added Lynne as a friend yet?

If you wish to take part in We are Fuelmyblog email help (at) fuelmyblog.com

What’s your name?

Lynne Murphy, aka M Lynne Murphy (the name I publish linguistic stuff under), aka Lynneguist (my blog handle)…and if you don’t mind, I’ll do what I do on my blog, and try to use both the American and British variants of expressions that vary between the two dialects.  Those are marked in bold here.

What’s the name of your blog?

Separated by a Common Language

What’s the URL of your blog?

http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

How old is your blog?

I’ll let the reader do the math(s):  I started it in May 2006.

If you’re willing to share, how many visitors per day do you have to your blog?

These days, it’s 400-500 per day, which is pretty good considering that my rate of posting has taken a post-natal (and post-maternity leave) nosedive.

How much time do you spend blogging every week?

These days-i.e. since having a baby, returning to work and acquiring three book deadlines-it’s a couple of hours at most.  But back in my heady heyday of three posts per week it was at least six, sometimes more.

Is it the creative process or the editing process which take you longest when writing a post?

Depends on the post.  I’ve got three processes, which can overlap: the research process, the writing process and the editing process.  Normally, it would be the writing that takes longest, but sometimes I get really into doing some research-like in the corpus research in the post on ‘Quite what’ (http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/05/quite-wh.html) or the book research on ‘ae’ and ‘oe’ versus ‘e’ (as in oesophagus and esophagus) (http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/09/ae-oe-and-e.html).  And occasionally, I have to be extra careful about not offending readers-for example when discussing issues of politeness or social class-so in those cases editing may take longer.

What inspired you to first start writing a blog?

I was on (AmE) sabbatical/(BrE) research leave, working on a book.  And I hate writing books.  They’re so big.  Unfortunately, I love planning books-so I end up with contracts to write them.  So, starting a blog allowed me a writing distraction from writing–a way to limber up before going on to the ‘hard stuff’.  I’d started a ‘personal diary’ kind of blog once before and abandoned it-I ended up feeling that the web was not where I wanted to whin(g)e about stupid things that had annoyed me, no matter how anonymously I did it.   But I admired blogs (like Language Log, Dress a Day and How to Learn Swedish in 10,000 Difficult Lessons) that worked with a theme and could serve as a teaching/learning tool for readers.  I think it was after a discussion with my former boss in which I used the word roiling where he hadn’t expected it that I reali{s/z}ed what my niche was: insights on the linguistic (and cultural) differences between the country of my birth, the United States, and my adopted home, the United Kingdom.

What do you do to get inspired to write?

I get misunderstood-or I misunderstand someone.  For me, the most enjoyable posts are those inspired by an interchange between myself and a British person (or, more and more, between me and my American family) that goes wrong.  I do fewer and fewer of those these days because I get so many requests from readers to cover differences in American and British English that they’ve noticed.  I tend to favo(u)r the requests that allow me to relate the topic to an anecdote of my own.  Sometimes I get requests that get me wondering and talking to people-and that’s a kind of inspiration too.

How do you market your blog?

Early on, I joined various things like ‘Blogs by Women’ and ‘Expat Blogs’ as well as Technorati-and similar things that I’ve forgotten about.  I get a little traffic from those.  But mostly, it’s little things like having my URL in my email signatures and on my staff profile at work, commenting on other’s blogs, and having fans who put me on their blogrolls.  Right now, I’m fortunate enough to come high on Google searches for certain topics.  That really took off after I blogged on some topics that people seem to search for a lot-like how to (AmE) set/(BrE) lay a table, how to translate women’s clothing sizes and a comparison of the names and organi{s/z}ation of US and UK school years.  That means that some of my posts are often used to settle arguments on discussion boards and other blogs-and those links send me a lot of traffic too.  I’ve only recently joined FMB because another blogger I respect (JD of the Engine Room) was profiled on it-other than that, I’ve become very lax about marketing!

What are the blogging tools you cannot do without?

I’m pretty easy when it comes to tools for blogging.  Give me fancy things and I’ll try to use them, but mostly I just need to be able to write and post prose.  I have been fighting addictions to the ‘recent visitors by referrals’ function on SiteMeter and my RSS feeder (I use Bloglines).

Is there anything that you simply refuse to blog about?

I superstitiously didn’t blog about being pregnant until the baby was born.  And I’m a bit conscious of the distinction between my husband and child as characters on my blog and their real selves.  Almost everyone ‘real’ in my life gets a pseudonym on the blog-and sometimes some false details-for instance, if I report a conversation in which friends were gossiping, I’ll try to make it impossible to tell who it was that we were gossiping about!

If you went for a job interview and were told that you’d have to close your blog in order to get the job, how would you react/feel about it?

I’d assume that they’d want me to re-open my blog on their site!  Having a relatively popular blog that’s within my research area has won me some points in the academic workplace.

Do you talk about your blog with your relatives and friends or do you avoid mentioning it?

I talk about it, but my relatives rarely read it and my friends only occasionally do!

What is the biggest mistake you made when starting your blog?

To be honest, I can’t think of one.

Any tips for aspiring bloggers?

If you’re looking for a regular audience beyond your acquaintances, speciali{s/z}e.

• Find a niche and work it. There will be people out there who want to fall into your niche.

• Try to respond to seemingly negative comments with grace and generosity. Unless they come right out and call you ‘stupid’, there’s probably an opportunity for you and commenter to learn from each other.
• I think the best blogs are found at the intersection of the topical, the personal and the funny.

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