Writing life

This Blogger on Blogging

March 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

Today I was scheduled to teach a short class on blogging at my local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. However, my grade-schooler is home sick, and I’m on childcare duty today. So I’m posting my notes here on my blog since I can’t share them in person. Please forgive their somewhat random nature:

I was going to open with this inspiring (though power-tool-heavy) quote from the foreword that Seth Godin wrote in Steven Pressfield’s book Do The Work:

Right there, in your driveway, is a really fast car. Not one of those stupid Hamptons-style, rich-guy, showy cars like a Ferrari, but an honest fast car, perhaps a Subaru WRX. And here are the keys. Now go drive it.

Right there, on the runway, is a private jet, ready to fly you wherever you want to go. Here’s the pilot, standing by. Go. Leave.

Right there, in your hand, is a Chicago Pneumatics 0651 hammer. You can drive a nail through just about anything with it, again and again if you choose. Time to use it.

And here’s a keyboard, connected to the entire world. Here’s a publishing platform you can use to interact with just about anyone, just about any time, for free. You wanted a level playing field, one where you have just as good a shot as anyone else? Here it is. Do the work.

That’s what we’re all waiting for you to do – to do the work.

Ah, the Internet – and the blogosphere within it. You can publish your own writing, photos, recipes, and ideas for worldwide attention without ever leaving your house, networking with publishers, getting any formal training, or paying anything beyond the price of a computer and an Internet connection.

This is inspiring (because your access to the public is unprecedented in history) and disheartening (because this access is available to everybody else with a computer and an Internet connection too, so how do you get your voice heard among all those other voices?).

Well, Mr. Godin would say you need to find your tribe. If you use your unique voice and “do the work,” and give it time, you can build an audience who really cares about what you have to say. It may be small, but if you can do this well, you will build a virtual community where people really do want to gather around your blog.

Remember, blogging is not just for experts. You can be a reporter or researcher or someone sharing your own unique perspective on a particular topic (or no particular topic!). You can be asking questions and leading your readers in a learning experience. You can review movies or books – whatever you are interested in, a blog can be a way to deepen that interest and share it with others.

Terms:

A blog is a website of running entries, like a journal. Short for weblog.

A post is one entry on the blog.

Vlog – video blog/video log – a blog based on video rather than text.

Categories – titles used to classify posts

Tags – terms you apply to individual posts to help people searching with these terms to find your post

Free blogging platforms –

WordPress (what I use and know, arguably the best free blogging platform) – www.wordpress.com not wordpress.org (you want .com unless you want to pay for a web hosting service of your choice and then use the wordpress software for your blog)

Blogger.com – run by Google.

Tumblr – (tumblr.com) – short, photo/graphics-centric

. . . and many more – here’s a good article listing ten of them – http://sixrevisions.com/tools/top-free-online-blogging/ (Several of these use wordpress software)

YouTube (for vlogs)

Things to Consider:

What is the purpose of your blog? (teach/learn, entertain, discuss, inspire, market/publicize, creative outlet, social connection, practice writing, build a book, gain readership/fans/build a base . . .) Defining this will help you evaluate future post ideas and overall blogging decisions.

Images, widgets, sharing buttons – how much “clutter” do you want on your site? Images original or stock? (article on use of images – http://www.problogger.net/archives/2013/02/28/common-creativity-understanding-the-rules-and-rights-around-free-images-on-the-web/)

Minimalist blog example – www.zenhabits.net (no graphics, no sidebars, no comments!)

Busier but still clean blog example – http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/

How often will you post? Do you want to post regularly (ex. once a week, every Tuesday morning), or just whenever you feel like it? You will probably get more consistent traffic if you are posting regularly, but is that important to you? Do you want to take your time building your blog or jump right in? (You can do special things temporarily – I love what Kristen is doing at cheeryhillcottage.wordpress.com right now – posting one photo every day in March.)

Do you want to use your real name or be anonymous? How about your children/family? If you’re talking about them, do you want to identify them or keep it private? Anything you post online can be viewed by anyone in the world. Always remember that!

Focused subject matter or random?

Timeframe – perpetual or specified end-date? (“life on the prairie” or “one year with chickens”)

Getting the Word Out

Social Networking – Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. – connect your blog with your accounts on social networking sites. Try to build one consistent Internet presence (your personal “brand”). Get a Gravatar profile (http://en.gravatar.com).

Twitter is great for connecting with people you don’t know – put your profile out there, start following people/orgs you find interesting and relevant to your blog, and many of them will follow you back. Peruse Twitter regularly for other blog posts/articles related to your blog, read, comment, connect with people around these posts.

Title, First Line, Images – there’s so much out there, and esp. when you’re sharing links to your posts on social networking sites, it’s the title and any images you include that will draw people to your blog. (First line is important for the same reason – it often gets included when you or others share a link to your post on Facebook, etc.). Grab their attention with a title that tells something about your post but leaves people curious to read more.

Subscribe to other blogs you find relevant to your own blog. Read and comment – often when you comment, you can post under your blogger identity or include a link to your website (if that particular blog gives you a “website” field to fill in). Don’t include links in the body of your comment. One, it looks (and usually is!) self-promoting, and two, many blogs will classify your comment as spam if it includes hyperlinks.

General Blogging & Writing Tips

Comments –

Should you respond to every commenter? Will you reply “thank you” to every commenter who writes “great post!” (Sure, why not?!) I’m still feeling this one out myself – sometimes I get annoyed when reading other people’s blogs and see that the blogger has responded to every single tiny comment – it’s hard to wade through if I want to read other comments. I think this depends on how many comments you receive. As your blog grows and you begin getting more comments, you can pick and choose what needs a reply and what doesn’t. Don’t feel bad about that! Sensible readers understand it is a waste of everyone’s (you as the writer and us as the readers) time for you to make up replies to every little comment. (Pay attention to your own favorite popular blogs for how different bloggers handle comments, and figure out how you’d like to do it on yours.)

On the other hand, especially when you are just starting your blog, you will be genuinely grateful and appreciative to anyone who takes the time to read and comment (leaving aside trolls and mean people) – and it’s probably better to err on the side of too many replies to comments than too few.

It’s your blog, you get to decide what comments to approve, which ones to reply to, how much you will engage with commenters. I’ve enjoyed the discussion that happens between/among commenters, without the blogger always chiming in. If your blog gets lots of comments, you may find yourself becoming more of a moderator of discussions happening among your commenters.

Respond to commenters using the username they give with the comment, even if you know who they are. For example, if you know by the email address that it’s your Aunt Mildred, but she posts her comment under a username “Peaches,” call her “Peaches” in your reply, and leave out any identifying information she hasn’t included in her comment. Respect that your commenters may be wishing for anonymity.

You’ll find (at least I did on WordPress) that random bloggers will follow your blog, or “like” a post, and sometimes this is apparently just to pick up more followers for their own blog. It’s not always for this reason, but if you check out their blog and discover a long list of bloggers commenting, “thanks for liking my blog!” then it probably is. There is a difference between genuine interest in people’s work and feigned interest for self-promotion. Get experienced at spotting this when other people are doing it to you (it’s fine if they want to follow for any reason, but don’t feel too flattered; and be mindful of your own motives in engaging with other people’s blogs.)

Start small, with low expectations about your work. (http://zenhabits.net/sticky/ – great post about building a habit).

Don’t make public promises (next week I will post about . . ., etc.) unless you are absolutely committed to making it happen – and even then, I think “underpromise and overdeliver” is a great tip. You want to build trust with your readers, so always do what you say you will do.

At least in the beginning, let your posts sit overnight before you publish. Sometimes going back and reading again with fresh eyes will point out places for editing.

Narrow narrow narrow. Expect to eliminate readers. Say what you really mean. Be opinionated (but never unkind or disrespectful). Don’t say “I think” – just say what you think. Readers are not likely to stay with your blog for long if they don’t find a distinct personality there. Even if people disagree with something you say, they will be more likely to engage/comment/follow when you use your unique voice instead of saying what you think people want to hear.

Use good grammar, spell-check, short paragraphs. Constantly improve your writing. Because blogs are so immediate – quickly published, often without anyone else editing but the blogger – they are often filled with poor writing, basic grammatical errors, etc. You can set yourself apart just by faithfully applying basic grammar/spelling rules!

Use specific language to help us see what you’re writing about in our mind’s eye. (Not “a car” but “a red Toyota.”)

Read read read! Read other people’s blogs, books, articles – learn more not only about your blog’s topic but also about good writing skills.

Always have something with you (notebook, smartphone with voice-memos, etc.) to record blog post ideas. Keep a running list of blog post ideas. (In WordPress, you can save drafts of blog posts for later publication.) Then when you have time to work on blogging, you won’t have to come up with a new idea each time.

Don’t let your blog (or any social media for that matter) substitute for a personal journal. Your own journal, where you write unfiltered, is so important for developing your own ideas and building your writing skills. You can always build a blog post from a journal entry later.

Links on blogging and general writing:

Frank Viola – http://frankviola.org/2012/01/19/adviceforbloggers/

Mr. Money Mustache – http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/01/17/how-to-start-a-blog/ (note – this is about starting a blog where you pay for the web hosting, if you are interested in that level of blogging).

Darren Rowse – http://www.problogger.net

http://writetodone.com

Inspiring page of a Seth Godin free e-book – “Don’t Waste This Platform” – p. 23 of http://changethis.com/manifesto/100.01.IcarusDeception/pdf/100.01.IcarusDeception.pdf

There you have it – my notes for the class I couldn’t teach today. Please feel free to ask questions if you need me to clarify something or if you have other questions about things I didn’t mention. I’m by no means a professional or even very experienced blogger but I’m happy to share what I (think I) know anyway! 

And if you have tips or suggestions yourself, or links to other good blogging resources, please share!

I Deleted The Doctor

March 11, 2013 — 7 Comments

Oh no, not That Doctor.

And not my friendly family practitioner.

The doctor I deleted was a knockoff of Doctor Mario – a free game I downloaded on my iPhone maybe a month ago, one snowy cold Minnesota Sunday when I thought, hey, I wonder if there are any Doctor Mario games I can download for free on my newly acquired iPhone 3gs? (Doctor Mario was my favorite video game back in my college days – it’s something like Tetris.)

And sure enough, there was one.

Thus began my addiction.

I played it to “de-stress.” I played it on Sundays, while the rest of the family played Xbox. I played it in the evenings after the kids went to bed. I played it in the evenings while dinner was cooking. I played it in the evenings after dinner while the kids did their clean-up chores. I played it on Saturdays. I played it while the kids would ask me if I wanted to play with them. Usually I’d put it down then, but not always.

These are the confessions of an addict.

I knew I needed to quit. Heck, I knew I should never have started. When Nathan inherited and fixed a broken Xbox and asked me about my interest level, I said, don’t get me started. I hadn’t played a video game in years, and for good reason. I get addicted.

This past weekend I went on personal retreat. Of course I had my phone with me. No, I did not play – or even feel tempted to play – “my game” during the whole weekend (I would have drained the battery and there was no electricity in my hermitage!). I read some books that renewed my inspiration to live generously, slowly, meaningfully (The Windows of Brimnes by Bill Holm, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren).

I came home truly de-stressed, and eager to live more intentionally, more present to the people around me in each moment.

And I succeeded, for maybe ten minutes! I hugged my family, played a card game with a friend’s daughter who was visiting; and then when the kids went in the other room to play some Xbox together, I went for my fix with the Doctor.

It was my last fix, though. That evening as I reflected over the day, remembering my kids seeing me pull out my phone and saying, “oh, you’re playing your game again aren’t you?” – and not in a joyous, “good-for-you” tone – I decided to delete the Doctor.

Clicking that little “x” felt great.

Now I’ve decided that a “de-stressing” activity should be something that is ultimately good for me – like exercise, or good food, a conversation with a friend, playing music, taking a power nap or curling up with a good book, catching up on the blogs I follow, or even watching an episode of The Doctor – the one I would never delete!

I know, I can always download the other Doctor again. But I’ll have myself, my family, and the expansive life of my dreams to answer to.

Lions and Tigers and Balaam’s . . . Oh My!

February 20, 2013 — 3 Comments

To follow up on this post, I went and read Life of Pi. (If you haven’t read the story or seen the movie and you plan to do so soon, you should skip reading this post for now. Spoilers to follow. You have been warned.)

The book has set me to pondering its main idea, “choosing the better story.”

Growing up fundamentalist, I learned that fantastical things were only allowed to be believed if they were written in the Bible – and then they must be believed as literally, historically, factually true. Santa, not true. Satan, true. Flying reindeer, lies. Talking donkey, historically accurate.

When I was nine, my mother read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to my brother and me at bedtime. I just couldn’t get it. I asked her, “did this really happen?” There was a wardrobe (of sorts) at the foot of my bed. I tried once or twice to walk through it, with no luck. I doubted that Narnia was real, and my mother affirmed my suspicions.

I asked her why she was reading us this story, then. Why is it important if it’s not real? I wanted to know. She told me that these Narnia books are good for the development of children’s imaginations.

Who needs an imagination, I wondered, when only true things matter?

Throughout my adult life, I have mostly preferred nonfiction reading to fiction. I’ve wanted to learn new information and understand other people’s views and ideas. I haven’t had much time for stories, because I’ve believed that they aren’t true.

The Life of Pi, however, has challenged these thoughts. Or struck a chord I already know but haven’t played enough.

In my college years, I read Jane Eyre, and the story somehow changed me, deepened and darkened the shallow pastel tones of my life. Recently, I reread it. I’ve been rewatching Doctor Who episodes; and although I’ve read the book and seen both the theater musical and the movie starring Liam Neeson, I went out and saw the latest Les Miserables movie.

When I reread or rewatch a story, I haven’t necessarily forgotten the plot line. It’s not that I don’t know what happens in the story. And yet it is that I don’t know what happens in the story. Beyond (or within?) the actions of the characters, the plot development, there is a whole reality – a whole life – that I can enter into, again and again. And each time (if it’s a good story), I will have lived a little more life, grown a little wiser, learned something true that nonfiction cannot convey.

So what is this “better story” stuff? Does “choosing the better story” take us back to that tiresome dichotomy of rejecting science for art, dropping reason in favor of faith?

It might feel that way from a superficial reading of Life of Pi. There was the “factually true” story and the “better story.” Reason and faith (or fact and fiction, or science and art) were competing, and faith/fiction/art won.

But I would suggest that choosing the better story does not mean denying the truth of the “lesser” story. Science and art/reason and faith/fact and fiction are not mutually exclusive stories. Art/faith/fiction helps us go beyond the bare facts and literal account of an experience. So much more is happening in every moment than anything we can convey in a scientific theory or a reasoned argument. Reason is what we believe. Faith is what we believe in, the deeper meaning we apply to the facts.

The stories I learned in Sunday School begin to breathe when released from the demand that they be factually correct. They shimmer with touchpoints on my own experience of the world; they poke into the transcendent nature of things which thoughtful, honest scientific research also points me towards.

I cannot – and do not – deny the bare facts of evolution as the most accurate explanation of the origins of life. That includes classifying myself and yourself as highly evolved “great apes” in the animal kingdom, formed from a process happening over billions of years and manifesting itself through countless life forms and an unfathomably long string of births and deaths. There are moments when this cold hard truth chills me with its starkness.

But there is a better story I embrace, one which gives me courage to accept the lived and living reality of the lesser, equally true story. This story (my chosen faith tradition) paints in richer hues not only the beauty and joy that exists in the cold hard truth (and there is plenty when you take the time to look), but the violence and suffering as well (there’s also plenty of that). It gathers up the facts and re-creates them, not to deceive, but to reflect.

Maybe I only call my faith tradition the better story because it puts me – or my kind – at the center. Pi’s better story put him at the very center. He was the boy and the tiger.

But isn’t it true? From your perspective, you are the center of the story. Everything is happening, ultimately, in your own mind, your own conscious being. That, at last, is the best witness you have to anything you call reality.

Maybe it is possible to choose the lesser story – facts and facts alone. But it seems to me that one of our most widely shared human experiences is to take the facts before us and to tell the truth again – in a better story. This story can take various forms – faith, art and fiction are a few of the names we give it. But in making any sort of comment or reflection on the factual truth (processing it within our own selves), I suggest that we are reaching for the better story.

When I approach my Christian faith tradition and its “holy book” of the Bible as the “better story” that I have chosen, then I can interact with it. I can move in and out of the stories. I can argue with the characters and the things they say about God. I can argue with the characters labeled God, too (they are inconsistent and sometimes infuriating).

On good days (which would be most of them), I get out of bed in the morning because I believe that I am part of this mystical something bigger than myself, this truth that is living and real. I am a character not only in the lesser story, but also in the better story. The holy book may be closed, but the story it began to tell continues to unfold, and it’s my story too.

Why I Wish Matthew Crawley Had Had Two Hearts

February 18, 2013 — 8 Comments

There’s this television show called Downton Abbey. Maybe you’ve heard of it. I don’t mind admitting I am hooked on this distinguished soap opera, and that I think in a British accent for short periods of time after watching it.

I haven’t watched the most recent episode yet, but I came across its major plot development today, by accident. SPOILER ALERT: do not read on if you want to watch it yourself and haven’t yet.

You can go here to read a good refresher, some reactions, and a bit of explanation. To sum up, Dan Stevens, the actor who played central character Matthew Crawley, didn’t renew his contract with the show, and so the show’s creator Julian Fellowes chose to kill him off in a car accident in the last episode he would appear in.

But why can’t anybody else play Matthew Crawley? Maybe I’m too much of a Doctor Who fan, but I wouldn’t be overly disturbed to see Matthew with a new face (not to denigrate Dan Stevens’ fine face at all). It would take some getting used to, but I’m sure I would recover.

I know, because each time my beloved Doctor regenerates, I expect that the new one will never live up to the old one. I felt this especially strongly when David Tennant replaced Chris Eccleston, but by the end of Tennant’s time on the show, I felt just as attached to him. And now I just adore Matt Smith.

I grant that, in Doctor Who, the two-hearted time lord is actually regenerating, and each regeneration is unique yet the same, and besides it’s science fiction and lots of natural laws can be bent – wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey . . . stuff. But I still think it supports my point – that the character should be more substantial than the actor.

In this interview, Julian Fellowes said it was unthinkable to bring in a new actor for Matthew’s character, stating:

“You want viewers to think that it is kind of real, and changing actor would be like saying, ‘Hey, guys, it is not real at all’, and lose the show some of its authenticity.”

What?

I suppose there is more than one way to think about this, but I simply can’t grasp the truth of this statement. Wouldn’t Matthew Crawley – and the whole world of Downton Abbey – be even more real if another actor successfully played the same character? It’s some sort of pathetic reality if it can only be incarnated by one set of faces.

How many actors have played Othello? And does the “reality” and “authenticity” of his character diminish each time someone new takes the stage in his character? But, to argue with myself, a new actor doesn’t usually take the stage in the middle of a production of Othello. Yet, to further argue with myself, each episode of Downton Abbey is comparable – in length, that is – to a Shakespeare play, and I’m not asking for an actor swap right in the middle of an episode.

Maybe I’m too much of a book-reader. Maybe I don’t understand or appreciate the art-form of the television show. But allowing the story to be so significantly controlled by the career choices of its actors is, in my opinion, beginning to push this story beyond the limits of believability. I grieved the death in childbirth of Lady Sybil (precipitated by Jessica Brown Findlay’s decision to leave the show), but even then I wondered if we would be seeing more deaths or disappearances for similar reasons, and began to put myself on guard.

If the characters in Downton Abbey are to be fully alive (as the best fictional characters can be), they must be allowed to tell their own stories, not to have story lines pushed on them based on their actors’ life choices.

As much as I adore my favorite Doctor Who actors –  Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith – none of them is really the Doctor. Their brilliant acting has only heightened his reality in my imagination.

I only wish the same could be said about multiple actors for Matthew Crawley, may he rest in peace.

Wherever You Go

February 14, 2013 — Link — Leave a comment

. . . and now for a bloggy nod to Valentine’s Day. Here’s a song I recorded for a friend on the occasion of her wedding two years ago. She wrote the words and I wrote the music.

Furthermore, here’s a whole album called Love Songs for Everyone that I don’t think I’ve mentioned on this blog before. There’s a lot of love in this little post.

Thank you to everyone who reads and comments here. I really do love and appreciate you!