Women Who Blog: Emily Turner from "Doing It All Again"

Linda Jones interviews Emily Turner about her blog "Doing It All Again" for our weekly "Women Who Blog" column...

Name: Emily Turner
Occupation: Mum and writer
Blog: Doing it all again
Blogging since: October 2005

One minute it's spit-your-coffee-out hilarious, the next it's so very thought provoking. Always eminently readable and compelling, it's a blog I visit every day. Even if she hasn't posted, she will have taken the time to respond to her commenters, having mulled over experiences they've decided to confide with her and sharing her own sensitive view or advice.

What's your blog about and what inspired you to write it?

I started blogging to vent my worries about being pregnant for the second time and "doing it all again" while dealing with a toddler and the stresses of an insecure freelance career as a journalist/PR consultant. It ended up being a frank, open and honest account of my life, including the 10 years of child abuse I suffered and my teenage pregnancy. The internet gave me a place to write about my experiences. Discussing them in the comments section and on other blogs strengthened my opinions on such sensitive issues. I could have written under a pseudonym or anonymously but I felt strongly that I should use my real name to show I was real and that I was not ashamed to tell it how it really is.

What's the biggest thrill of blogging?

There are two thrills. The first is becoming part of a close-knit online blogging community which is really supportive and provides an excellent platform to share experiences, suggestions and ideas. The second is receiving emails from people who say that your writing has helped them face their past and seek help after years of battling alone or being too scared/embarrassed to admit what happened. Those emails make my day.

How did you build your audience?

I wasn't too bothered about creating an audience at first, I just wanted to sound off. I began to read many blogs on different topics: parenting, abuse, abortion and the NHS, and left the occasional comment. People often followed the comment back to my site. I also joined a Blogging Carnival Against Sexual Abuse which accumulated experiences, survival tips and healing advice on a monthly basis. In the summer abortion was in the news and a lot of political bloggers were writing about the topic. I wrote about my experiences and left the link on many blogs. That post created a lot of controversy and recognition, even getting picked up by MP Antonia Bance on her blog.

How often do you blog?

I write every other day in the week and usually have the weekends off. If I have something burning to say, I post every day. I also cull posts that take longer than 15 minutes to write. I try and write them as if I am on a manic newspaper deadline, otherwise I think the blog would take over the precious two hours I have child-free in the evenings!

What effect has the blog had on your life?

I've been politically apathetic for years but writing about my experiences with the NHS and reading other medical blogs has made me politically active. I used to shy away from giving my opinion on topical issues because I felt it was too muddled. Being part of the blogging community and reading such a diverse range of opinions has channelled my thought process and opened my mind to other solutions.

Who reads it and why do they follow it do you think?

It is read mainly be people I've never met, the majority of which I think are women. I think they follow the site because I never try to mask the truth to make me appear a certain way. Many people assume blogs are just people trying to make themselves sound perfect. I am not interested in appearing to be a superwoman. I am interested in diarising my life in a raw form, to be truthful about how I find parenting and trying to work at the same time. I can't see the point of writing a blog which glosses over the cracks to present a perfect image. Life isn't like that.

What's your best and worst blogging experience so far?

The worst experience was dealing with the pro-life lobby when I wrote the abortion post and the hardline breastfeeders when I wrote about how difficult I found breastfeeding. I knew I was writing about controversial subjects and I was naïve in thinking I wouldn't take the comments personally because I did. The comments made me question the decisions I had made but I concluded afterwards that I would still make the same decisions and they were the right ones for me.

Bizarrely, the best experience was losing my blog. Blogger deleted my profile and my blog disappeared in August 2006. I was distraught. Two friends worked so hard to recover it and transfer it to Wordpress. They relaunched it with a different URL and the blogging community showed how supportive they were by changing all their links from the old site to the new one. Without that, no one would have been able to find it again.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned about blogging?

Never write about other people's stories without their permission. I once published an email someone sent to me, not realising it was confidential and not for public consumption. The person was distraught and I was mortified. I hadn't thought twice about using it. From that moment onwards I decided I would always ask permission to use material whether emailed to me or told to me in person.

What's your top tip for women who blog already or may want to take it up?

If you write anonymously you must be prepared to be identified. This happened to Zoe Margolis who wrote under the pen name Abby Lee on the excellent blog Girl With a One Track Mind. Don't rely on a free blogging system as there is no one to call if you get frozen out of your account, it happened to me! Also back up everything your write. If you are going to devote a large part of your free time to your blog, save every entry on your hard drive and save your blog on a server to stop internet gremlins eating it.

Can your blog change the world?

Blogging can change YOUR world. For example, I was unhappy with the midwifery care I received last year and blogged about it profusely. My blog was read by my local primary health care trust and I was invited in to discuss my complaints with the Assistant Head of Midwifery for East Kent. As a result of that meeting I managed to change my midwife and my ante-natal care improved immediately. I was also able to explain about the effects of child abuse on breastfeeding and labour and I was asked to join a patient forum to disseminate these experiences to health professionals.

Who's your blogging hero (or should that be heroine?)

My blogging hero is Dr Crippen of www.nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com
It is the most fascinating web read this country has to offer. It gives an insight into what goes on behind the "professional" facade of the NHS. The anon Dr Crippen, with more than 20 years' in General Practice, writes with such passion and analytic devastation about examples which show the NHS has crumbled while Labour has been in government. He links to hundreds of mindboggling stories from patients, junior doctors, GPs, nurses and consultants. His posts are proof that the NHS is drowning with "dumbing down", red tape and bureaucracy and he holds the Rt Hon Patsy Hewitt responsible for the wasted millions and army of management consultants who have trampled over common sense and put lives at risk instead. I was politically dormant until I read this blog. Now I am ready to march.

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