Number Three: I don't have a plan. I have a lot to say, but it all just sort of comes out in no particular order. I have heard him speak on the subject briefly once before and he shared his tools for planning blogs, which I need to get from him again, because as I already pointed out, I DON'T HAVE A PLAN. (people with plans amaze me, and I am sure would have recorded his initial advice and already be using the tools to organize their posts into meaningful thoughts)
Number Two: I am not encouraging conversation. While I desperately want to hear what people think of what I write I don't write in such a way to encourage them to engage in commenting. I have a tendency to "share what I know". Tony expressed, that while he is learning a lot about cycling, and quickly gaining expertise, he leads with his ignorance. In other words, he starts with a question, or something he wants to learn and asks for opinions and advice, leaving room for others to add to the conversation.
And the Number One mistake I have made: I try to say everything in a format that is meant to be bite sized. Rather than condense one or two good points on a topic into a few good paragraphs, I write a novel. There is a place for Tolstoyan literature, it's called a library. People on line are busy. They are picking up your blog in the three minutes between the end of their morning projects and the drive to lunch. While they want to hear what you have to say, they don't want to hear ALL of it right now. Give them a few actionable ideas or thought provoking questions and leave it at that.
So, what about you, what have learned to or not to do with your writing? What works for you, or what would you like to do better?
Very good points Mark. I enjoy writing, but only as a hobby sometimes, not as a pro. I think those 3 things you talked about today would make any blogger a better blogger if followed well. I have struggled at times with writing styles - which style I should choose for blogging, and have ended up settling on a personal, 1st person style to let readers have a glimpse of my life and hopefully provoke a little thought by my mistakes and triumphs. I don't plan very well either when blogging. I also don't blog nearly often enough - something I learned from Dan Pearce, author of Single Dad Laughing (www.danoah.com) and he has about 50,000 folks reading his blog daily. But he also posts daily, sometimes twice a day. But then again, that's what he does for a living. :)
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ReplyDeleteI don't type well and find it draining so blogging is not my thing. However writing out my thoughts however laborous and angst inducing of a process it may be; I find it quite theraputic.
ReplyDeleteThe greater the degree of pain, frustration or inspiration that drives my written expression the more I lean toward the novel. The lesser the strength of a given stimulus the less likely I am to partake of this endeavor.
I do find that writing things out is often the first concrete step of merging the abstract processing, reasoning or under the radar internal dialogue into some resemblance of an organized thought.
Obviously the goals and priorities for the blogging experience are different from my more casual haphazard attempts to equalize personal internal dynamics with my combined experiences with the "outward" environment.
I'm also really terrible at using coma splices and lets not EVEN bring up spelling. Somehow I think there is something about these two tendancies that speak volumes about myself that I remain fairly oblivious to so far.
Scot, I totally get you on the stupid comma thing. I hate what is happening to spelling due to e-communications, but come on, punctuation needs to go, right? (of course I am a former spelling champ who almost got to go to state)
ReplyDeleteJason, if you can get free, the writer's meeting is at 12 on the second Thursday at the West Edmond campus of Life Church up on the second floor. Love to have you anytime.
ReplyDeleteMark, Was it Mark Twain that said "It takes a very closed mind to spell a word only one way?"
ReplyDeleteYou know it's really bad when spell check can't come up with a single suggestion LOL. It does run in my family - even with my sister who is a school teacher in special education.