Carolyn R. Miller (1984) argued in her seminal piece on genre, “Genre as Social Action,” that “a rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish” (p. 151). She asked what the exigence for a particular genre is and looked to how the genre answers that exigence in order to determine how to group genres together. Even though Miller (1984) later argued that a blog should no longer be considered a genre, but rather a medium (Miller and Shepherd, 2009), thinking of the blog as a place where action is accomplished can be productive for the discussion of blogs, narrative, writing, and identity.

For this class, we mostly chose blogs with a particular type of exigence, even if that exigence looks very different across all the blogs—dealing with some sort of a “problem” and trying to write through or out of that problem. Whether it be living in the tension of doubt and faith (Rachel Held Evans), wanting to shed traditional views of womanhood and strike out alone (Nomadic Chick), or dealing with depression (Lifting the Weight), these bloggers are specifically facing some sort of issue that they interact with and attempt to work through by writing. 

Writing, then, is a very important action for these writers. Many of the traditional features of the blog are used in these sites (links, pictures, comments, etc.), but it is the ability to write and to be read that answers the exigence of the situation because the act of sharing writing is almost as important as the writing itself. If these writers wanted to work through problems in their writing for themselves only, they would buy a journal, or open a word document on their computer, or even maintain a private blog that only they can see. The act of sharing (and asking for responses) is what truly fulfills this exigence. It is through the blog community that these writers can interact with other people who face similar difficulties and garner support for themselves.

Another important aspect of the writing of these types of blogs is the way that narrative and identity are both created throughout the process. As these writers attempt to use their blogs as a forum to write through and out of specific problems and situations, they end up telling a story and creating a particular online identity. There are moments of overcoming struggles and moments of falling backwards, and each blog tells a story. In doing so, the writers construct an identity. By telling a story, continuing to write about it, and doing it specifically in an online forum where community can be built, a specific written identity is constructed for each blogger. 

Of course, people who write blogs have identities larger than that of “blog-writer.” It’s more than that. It’s constructing an identity as a specific sort of Christian who works through doubt while maintaining faith, as a woman who is dealing with and struggling to overcome depression, as an educator who is frustrated with what is happening at schools across the country, and these writers create those specific identities through the writing of their blogs. By telling their stories, they write themselves into a particular identity, one that recognizes but hopes to work through the problems that arise in their lives.