Is Blogging considered a form of creative writing?

Question

I have seen most personal blogs where the blog author's writing style is undisciplined and mostly inspiration-driven; that is, the author doesn't care too much for grammar and usually writes in a persuasive style, so blog writing isn't academic writing for sure. Is it true that it's a form of creative writing? If not, then what is it called?

Answer 1

The distinguishing isn't about style but about subjects and blogs can be anything:

• Creative (a fictional story written in parts as blog entries)
• news reporting (even if it's news about a party at your friend's house),
• academic (a teacher blogging 'classes' for benefit of students)
• technical (tech blog with tips about solving problems, a blog which shows various techniques of some craft)
• Journalism (review blogs, editorials/opinions)
• ...and even Legal (a corporation publishing statements through the corporate blog).

There are quite a few more I missed, but generally the Blog is a very versatile medium, and there are very few types of writing (if any) that wouldn't work as a blog.

As for how the style you described is called (undisciplined and mostly inspiration-driven) I guess it would be Informal.

Answer 2

I think you're being tripped up by some mistaken impressions.

First, you suggest that ungrammatical and/or persuasive writing is "creative". Maybe some of it is, but that's hardly the definition of the term. There is plenty of creative writing that follows the rules and conventions of its language, and plenty that is descriptive or story-telling but not particularly aimed at persuading the reader.

On the flip side, there is academic writing that sets out to persuade, and academic writing that doesn't. Either way, yes it's generally formal and grammatical.

Blogging isn't a style; it's a platform. Many blogs are casual, with or without following grammatical conventions. Some focus on creative writing (fiction blogs, poetry blogs). And some are more formal, publishing essays that wouldn't be out of place in respectable magazines or even Academia. (Consider Language Log, for instance, a blog by and for linguists.) Further, there are institutional blogs, often attached to media or academic institutions, and their publishers will have style requirements that are probably different from Joe Random User's personal blog.

Blog writing isn't called anything in particular because it doesn't have a fixed style. Describe the style based on the content, not on how it's published.