Blogging Tips

IheartTarot

Blogging Without Obligation

I don't think I have mentioned Blogging Without Obligation in this thread. It may sound silly, but I can honestly say that not feeling obligated about it has helped me to want to post more regularly.

After coming across what seemed to be the 4000th or so post on someone’s blog starting with “I’m sorry I haven’t posted in awhile.” I decided it is time to rethink what makes a good blog and the expectations that have come to be part of it. I am thinking that no one should utter those words again . . .and with that thought I give you Blogging Without Obligation.

If you feel the same way feel free to grab the logo, make a logo or whatever you would like to do!

I release all the logos, thoughts and words mentioned here about this concept into the public domain. Take the idea and run with it. . .or walk away. It is all good.

Because you shouldn’t have to look at your blog like it is a treadmill.

Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.

Because its okay to not always be enthralled with the sound of your own typing.

Because sometimes less is more.

Because only blogging when you feel truly inspired keeps up the integrity of your blog.

Because they are probably not going to inscribe your stat, link and comment numbers on your tombstone.

Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be “bloggable”.

Because if you blog without obligation you will naturally keep your blog around longer, because it won’t be a chore. Plus, just think you will be doing your part to eradicate post pollution. One post at a time. . .
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Samurai2001

Tips are tips

There's nothing wrong with targeting a small niche of people or blogging solely for personal expression. If it makes you happy, go for it!

That said, I don't believe simpler, shorter writing is necessarily of poorer quality or less artistic. Here's why:

I'm currently in the process of turning a fantasy detective novel (with Tarot, of course) into a web serial. Because the scenes are rather long for a web page, it's forced me to tighten things up. Conversation which adds nothing to the story? Gone. Weak adverbs like "really" and "very"? Gone. Every verb is scrutinized -- is it strong enough? Will my heroine "run quickly" or will she race down the hall? Literary flourishes got the axe. And when I was done editing down the first scene and compared it to the original, it was better. Lots better.

Brevity truly is the essence of wit.

Anyway, there are all different kinds of blogs and I agree you should write for your audience and for your purpose.
 

IheartTarot

All tips and opinions are welcome. :love:

I must just remember to keep an open mind (always!). ;)

Context is always important.

I believe that social media is evolving all the time and still trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. :D
 

MareSaturni

Samurai2001 said:
That said, I don't believe simpler, shorter writing is necessarily of poorer quality or less artistic. Here's why:

I'm currently in the process of turning a fantasy detective novel (with Tarot, of course) into a web serial. Because the scenes are rather long for a web page, it's forced me to tighten things up. Conversation which adds nothing to the story? Gone. Weak adverbs like "really" and "very"? Gone. Every verb is scrutinized -- is it strong enough? Will my heroine "run quickly" or will she race down the hall? Literary flourishes got the axe. And when I was done editing down the first scene and compared it to the original, it was better. Lots better.
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I agree. Excessive usage of adverbs and adjectives tend to make a story poor and repetitive. I have seen thousand of books that are definitely overwritten, and that could have lost at least half of their description paragraphs.

But still - it depends on the public and the kind of text you are writing. It depends on a lot of factors. You cannot treat it as one absolute rule for all cases.

And I did not say that short texts were poor in quality or less artistic - specially because I was not talking about short stories. I am a short story writer myself. But the rules that you posted did not seem to apply to an artistic text, but to an objective blog text. And I'm just saying that three lines full of hiperlinks do not make your blog better or more sucessful.


Samurai2001 said:
Brevity truly is the essence of wit.
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It depends on the kind of text, on the writer, on his or her skill and on the context. It's this very kind of generalization that I am criticizing, not the nature of a short text. Most of newspaper in my country have very short texts, and guess what, there's nothing witty about them.
 

Samurai2001

Tips are tips

Actually, Maria, I don't think I ever said they were rules. They were tips. I don't use them all the time either, but I try to keep them in mind when I'm writing because they help me catch myself when I'm running on too long, or when something could be done in bullet points that I've posted as a paragraph.

If you inferred from my post that I'm some sort of blog dictator, well, please don't.
 

Samurai2001

Blogging without obligations

I wonder if microblogging platforms like Tumblr are a result of the difficulty in maintaining a regular, "full" blog? Or are they just an outgrowth of the quick jots we're seeing on Facebook and Twitter?

I haven't tried Tumblr, but I have to admit, it looks fun. Most blogging platforms allow you to run a Twitter feed on your page as a widget, so you can have a micro and a "macro" blog side by side. It's nice for quick updates if you're not feeling up to a full-length post.

And speaking of cool blogging sites, have you checked out flavors.me? It's a homepage you can set up with background you upload, and then you just link it to your blog or other feeds (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc., etc.) and they show up on the page. It seems like a pretty nice (and free) platform. Standard disclaimers: I'm just a happy customer.
 

IheartTarot

Samurai2001 said:
I wonder if microblogging platforms like Tumblr are a result of the difficulty in maintaining a regular, "full" blog? Or are they just an outgrowth of the quick jots we're seeing on Facebook and Twitter?

I haven't tried Tumblr, but I have to admit, it looks fun. Most blogging platforms allow you to run a Twitter feed on your page as a widget, so you can have a micro and a "macro" blog side by side. It's nice for quick updates if you're not feeling up to a full-length post.

And speaking of cool blogging sites, have you checked out flavors.me? It's a homepage you can set up with background you upload, and then you just link it to your blog or other feeds (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc., etc.) and they show up on the page. It seems like a pretty nice (and free) platform. Standard disclaimers: I'm just a happy customer.
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Thanks Kirsten, I never thought about twitter or fb that way.

I haven't used Tumblr or flavors, yikes it's hard to keep up! :D
 

IheartTarot

Tips vs rules

Pretty please for the sake of everyone else following this thread, please take any further exchanges in this regard outside. :love:

You have both been helpful and made your points well. :)
 

WolfyJames

Well I do find Wordpress editing a tad confusing so I looked for a manager app for blogs and I've been using Windows Live Writer with Wordpress and it's a marvelous tool, it had made my blogging much easier on Wordpress.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer?os=other
 
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