How do you write yours?
For some, no most, of my readers, that question is possibly totally irrelevant. as the question relates to how your write your Blog Posts and I believe that the majority of my readers probably don’t write blog posts at all so will have huge difficulty in answering that question.
The thought was triggered by me writing an e-mail to someone who has contacted me in response to a blog post. I was explaining that I have a rather hit and miss approach to blog posting, I tend to write when I get ‘the inspiration’ and then will bang out a lengthy, often too lengthy, blog post in one session, usually anyhow.
My ‘thinking’ during writing is kept to a minimum I just type as I ‘think’ so what gets written down is pretty much a map of my thought process, which probably explains why the posts don’t always make a huge amount of sense, in the way that they are put together. They don’t flow easily, I tend to jump from one topic to another and then back again, I am in the middle of writing something and my mind triggers another thought so I write that down then go back to where I was.
As a reader of my blog you really do get the inside track on what my mind is doing to me as I write, occasionally I will edit a blog post after it is written and change the location of paragraphs to make it ‘flow’ better or to remove bits where I realise I am repeating myself, this is especially important where it is a long blog post, but more often than not I tend to just do a quick spelling & Grammar check, both of which is totally appalling to start with and is probably only improved marginally once I have finished checking it through.
Anyhow, as I said, this post was inspired by just that sort of thinking, as I wrote the e-mail to this guy I realised that it would make a good topic for a blog post and so I told him that In had just decided to write a blog post on the issue.
So, for me its not a huge thinking process, sometimes I have the seeds of a post kicking around for a few days, as something has happened or struck me but I will never make notes in preparation for a blog or start writing a post before I am ready to just write it. Say something strikes me as an important issue I kind of put it to the back of my mind, or even just carry on with it sitting there, then further down the line, sometimes a few hours, sometimes a few days, sometimes a few weeks, I reach a point where I suddenly, and it is usually suddenly, feelt he urge to grab the laptop and write something, sometimes not even being aware what exactly I am going to write. Then before I know it, the thing that has been on my mind is written down and out in the open, all the thinking process that has gone before is often not associated with writing the blog, I may be thinking about something and trying to work out my response or get a grasp on some issue but I won’t usually be thing ‘this will make a good blog post’ or ‘how will I write this down?’ I am usually just trying to get my head round the issue for myself.
At which point I can see that a number of you have just realised why some of my posts, and some of the arguments/points I make are not as clearly thought through as it could be!
Obviously, as you will know, I do a number of book, and product reviews these have to be slightly more planned but even with them I don’t do too much planning. I wrote the camera review in one go without too much planning just by my experience of using the camera, some of the book reviews literally get written the same way, although I will need to check back some of the details I tend to read the book and then write the review from my memory or impression of the book rather than going too factual. Obviously this has its drawbacks with something like a book but then isn’t that how we react and respond to books? Generally, we tend to go by how it made us feel or what we remember of the book rather than any in-depth details, I can recall the feeling and sensations surrounding some of the books I have read years after I can recall the details of the book. I am told that is a characteristic of a female brain (checks to see – yes I am still a man!) I am not sure about that bit, but then I never did like gender stereotypes, they are usually totally inadequate ways of generalising, but that really IS another issue and not one for this blog post – says he sidestepping the issue.
If I do get writers block, which doesn’t often happen, I just stop writing the post, put it in the drafts folder and return to it when I get something come to me, fortunately for me I don’t have any timetables to keep to, either imposed from elsewhere or self imposed. The only time I did have such a deadline was when I did the Mosaic Bible Review, which had to be published on a set date, that had me a little nervous to be honest but I did manage to do the review a couple of weeks ahead of the deadline and then scheduled it for automated posting. I had a good few months to write it so was on fairly safe territory, although I am not sure what would have happened if I failed to meet the deadline, the worst that could have happened, at a guess is that Tyndale, who I was reviewing for, decided to remove me from their list of reviewers, which to be honest would have been a disappointment as I enjoy the book reviewing, but would not have been the end of the world.
It is probably this rather ‘spur of the moment’ style that gives rise to the strange fact that I seem to have very few photos on my blog, I do keep thinking that I ought to incorporate a few from time to time but just never get round to it, untill of course I do a photo upload using Pixelpipes then you get loads of pics in a blog post with no written content.
Anyhow, so back to the original question, how do you write your blog posts?
Do you have any ‘usual’ method of doing so?
Do you aim to write a set amount in a set period of time?
Do you deliberately think up topics to blog about?
Do you keep your blog fixed on a single topic? as you will know by now, I dont have any one topic, i will discuss anything that I decide.
Is there a set formula you work with?
What about word counts? do you have a minimum/maximum count?
Do you aim to be a popular blogger (write what you think will get you read by a lot of people) or write with the aim of dealing with specific stuff (not too worried about blog stats)?
Also, something I haven’t touched on in my blog, how do you use ‘tags’ and ‘categories’? I am sure this is oen area that I could work smarter than I do and make my stuff more accesible to the reader, anyone up for giving me some advice on this area? even delve in and advise me whow I could/should restructure my own categories with this blog.
I think that’s enough questions from me, you might have realised I am trying to encourage reader interaction a little more on this blog, that is something that is planned and deliberate, even if the content of the posts are ill thought and off cuff.[houdini]
I am a 40+ y/o Christian.
I have been married to Joy since 1989 and we have 2 adopted children with special needs.
I am a photographer and work part time as Church Administrator for the church that I have been a member of for the past 25 (or more) Years
My interests include walking, food and people.
I write mainly about life with our kids and about depression, having suffered from depression pretty severely for some time.
But also write about my faith and do book/product reviews.
The views expressed in my blog posts are my own views, this is my place to express my views, they are not necessarily the views of anyone else connected with me or any organisation that I may represent.
Sometimes in my blog posts I may take an extreme stance or play 'devils advocate' in order to make a point, that is my style and sometimes I word things badly and it can be misunderstood or misrepresented, where this is the case or where I am in error in my comments I am always happy to post an apology or correction to the post, as a comment, please just let me know where you consider I am wrong and I will look at it and consider your views but if you do disagree with something I say you do have the right to respond, I will always approve comments to my blog posts, except where they are insulting, inflammatory or represent a personal attack on myself or anyone else, or where the comment is a 'spam' posting. I am always happy to publish comments which disagree with my own expressed views.
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Ok, here goes…
Though first off, I suspect reader interaction is one of the most rewarding aspects of blogging. At least it means that folk are actually reading what you write.
But that’s a bit of a two-edged sword really, or at least I find it so.
On the one hand, as I say, its rewarding and sort of makes blogging worthwhile. But on the other hand I find it kinda scary and a bit embarrassing cos (especially with my photoblog) I tend to just ramble on about nothing of any consequence whatsoever and most of the time make a right silly arse of myself (I suspect!).
Anyway, to address the question…
Its actually not that straightforward to answer, for me at least. As I have several different blogs each with a different (though not always clearly defined) role.
One of them’s quite a serious one, generally related to my photojourno type activities, and for that I usually adopt a more serious tone and take somewhat greater care in how I express things.
Another is my sort of “personal blog”… very often containing snippets of news about Bedford and suchlike, and equally as often a bit ranty.
With that I’m somewhat more casual although again there’s an underlying seriousness.
There are a couple of other minor blogs that we needn’t even think about here.
Then there’s my “photoblog” that probably is as much, if not more, text as pics.
I suppose in some sense it counts as my “main blog” inasmuch as I post there much more frequently than I do to the others.
And its certainly the most casually written.
Intentionally so.
I originally set it up as a sort of “diary” or “journal” of my personal journey into and through photography and, knowing beforehand the sort of pickles I get myself into, I thought it might be vaguely interesting and entertaining were it to be heavily focussed upon my mishaps, misadventures, and general screw-ups.
And it seemed to me that the appropriate tone to adopt for such would be a humourous, or at least semi-humourous, one.
This isn’t in the least contrived though as really its only a reflection of the way I tend to see things when I actually step back and look at them, sort of thing.
I’m fortunate in being able to see a funny or ridiculous side to most things, including… most importantly… myself!
As it happens not every post on the photoblog has proven to be quite as light-hearted as the original intent… but no matter. I’ve not stressed about it, and I pretty much just write what I think/feel at the time.
My overall approach to writing the posts is to try to imagine myself talking to someone, and emulate that style.
And having knocked out the broad outlines of what I want to say, I’ll post it as is.
Then start tinkering! Fine-tuning if you will. Repeating phrases over to myself and asking if it makes sense, if its grammatically sound (and if it isn’t, whether that’s intentional or not), if its as I would say it to someone in normal conversation, and so on.
Very often during this process additional thoughts will occur to me, so consequently revised or even new sentences or paragraphs will begin to creep in… but still adhering to this same “natural” style.
And its during this process also that I tend to get incredibly irritated with all the typos that seem to magically appear! And of course demand correcting.
Generally I regard a post as finished (to my satisfaction) a day or so after the original post date.
That’s how I actually write the posts.
What I write about is another aspect of it.
Curiously I find I’m posting far more than I originally thought I would, and the pattern I seem to have fallen into is writing a post about pretty much every major or semi-major (or even minor sometimes!) photo session I have (including a selection of pics from the session).
I’m not sure this was the original intention, but that seems to be the way its panning out.
However, none of these are “forced”.
What generally happens is, I post a session’s pics to Flickr then ask myself if there’s any little story I want to tell about them… sometimes not much more than a one-liner such as “went to xyz today and did such and such”.
Other times it can be a bit more rambling but again very much in the style of a personal diary entry. In that sense I suppose its as much me recounting events for my own benefit as for the entertainment of anyone else.
And given that, I’m always surprised when from time to time various folk have revealed that they follow the blog and enjoy reading my ramblings. That’s the embarrassing bit!
But I try not to let it affect the way I write.
Occasionally I’ll write a somewhat more serious “think piece”, and that’s usually the product of my having mulled something over for a period of time.
Again this is probably more for my own benefit than anyone else’s.
Throughout my entire life I’ve always found it easier to organise my thoughts and actually find out what I’m thinking if I write it down… sort of “flow of consciousness” type thing I suppose. Very often, until I’ve written it down, I really don’t know what I truly think/feel about a given topic.
Might sound a bit bizarre, but that’s the way I am. It also helps explain why I’ve never bothered too much with conciseness. I’ll just ramble on until I’ve exhausted whatever’s in my mind.
Which can sometimes be quite a long-drawn-out process, for having followed (in writing) a particular line of thought I’ll discover that sparks another, related, line of thought that also has to be followed. And so on.
And then, sometimes, I’ll read something or someone will say something to me that’ll spark a train of thought and… bingo!… another post.
And then there’s all the other odd little bits and pieces that just sort of happen out of the blue.
From which you can deduce that I never force myself to write anything, or hunt for inspiration. Nothing is contrived, even though I may consciously mould the style of presentation (which for me is really just a question of getting into the right frame of mind). Its whatever occurs to me at the time. If nothing occurs to me then I won’t write anything. Simple as that.
Oddly, my problem is usually the opposite. Very many things occur to me to write about but I find I can’t be bothered to make the effort to set them down.
And I think that’s the real key to almost everything I write… I don’t write for other people. I write for myself.
Maybe that’s a rather selfish or at least self-indulgent approach. But so what? At least it keeps me entertained and out of mischief.
Which is probably just as well for society as a whole. So really I’m doing everyone a favour
Um… that’s about it really I guess.
Hey Mike! That comment is like a blog post all of its own!
Mike, my friend Mike, do a longwinded rsponse, nah! tell you what that guy can talk for all England, if it were an olympic sport he would be one of this countries strongest contenders for a Gold Medal.
btw, dont know whether you realise Han but I have you to blame for the fact that I even know Mike, picked up on his blog through a link on one of yours!
i’m more of a ‘spur of the moment’ and ‘mind mapping’ guy myself. something will strike me as an interesting thing to blog about and i will write a few notes in the wordpress iphone app. then when i get a bit more time i just spew out my random thoughts – sometimes it becomes a rant (my next blog post will be!!), sometimes just a life-news update and, more often than not, it can get a little strange…
i have no self-imposed targets for how much or how frequently i write (with one exception – see below) i just write stuff that i find interesting at the time. i blog for me, if others enjoy it or even reply then i’m grateful! the main use of my past blogs have been simply to look back at particular times in my life and just recall what was going on! sometimes it’s a good ting, sometimes it’s not but it’s my life, and my blogging helps me to remember it!
MaFt
* the one exception to my rule of not having a target was back in 2004 when i blogged every day for 3 months proving that you really do learn a new thing every day! it’s here if ya wanna read it: http://maft.co.uk/newthing but bear in mind it was ‘easier’ to read when it was happening – the archive links seem slightly odd and you need to read from the bottom up…!
Well, David – in my case, once a journo, always a journo. I can’t write anything (!) without drafting and redrafting and being quite sure. I check and doublecheck and get v annoyed with myself when I have a day of brainfog.
Sometimes I put off posting on the blog until a day or two later when I feel cognitively able to check what I’ve written is just as I want it, and accurate. I think this is particularly important to me as I often reinterpret medical research and don’t want to mislead anyone, as this is something I am critical of when done by other journalists.
Speaking as someone with frequent brainfog…..can I mention David that EVERY paragraph in your blog post above is in fact one sentence! With no full stops, colons or semi-colons! Look at the length of some of those sentences!! I found it incredibly difficult to read.
I also have a tendency to make my blog posts too long. I have now recognised this and resolved to write shorter, more frequent posts (when possible). As Mike basically said, the main point of the best blogging is that someone else wants to read it, not that it sits in the ether as evidence we are alive. (Though I do recognise sometimes we personally need to write like this as a healthy way of reaching outside of ourselves.)
Happy blogging!
Hey Helen,
Thanks for the response, yes I am aware that my grammar is absolutely awful! in my other blog I have a friend who comes along after the post is written and edits the post, doing the grammar & spelling corrections for me, I don’t have that luxury on this blog, which is a shame as it is the one I use most often.
Just for you I have gone back over the blog and improved the sentensing, at least a little, not my srtong point I am affraid so it will be far from perfect but should be a little better.
I do agree there seems little, or no, point in writing if we dotn expect anyone else in the world to read it, ultimatelly we must be anticipating that it would be of interest to someone else otherwise why not just keep a private journal, either a physical book or one on your computer, I am still however humbled that a good number of people seem to have taken to reading this blog, and some of them, like yourself and Mike for example, on a regular basis.
Hey
It depends sometimes I just ramble and ramble and hit publish before the thoughts occur to me about how it doesn’t make sense.
Other days I spend time fine tuning each sentence to make sure that it makes sense. I think it just depends
oh your also a star at editing my posts & checking comments, on the ‘other’ blog, talking of which that is likely to spring into life again over the next few weeks.