Several of you have written asking me to share some of my ideas and tips about blogging, so here goes.
Observation leads me to believe many bloggers do not know a good sentence from a turnip. If I find myself rewriting someone else’s sentence instead of reading their blog, I quit reading.
Another observation I have made is many people who consider themselves writers do not know how to tell a story. Now, I am not talking about Mark Twain kinda’ storystelling, just the basics.
Writing is difficult-those who would have written “writing is hard”-just proved my point. The task is difficult; the object is hard-eighth grade English class.
If you want to write well, be prepared to work. One of my favorite sayings is “if I had more time I would have written less.”
My overriding rule to myself is not to be redundant. If all I am doing is writing about the same topic as others, or offering the same perspective, I am just wasting air. I go out of my way to be contrarian, and I do so for the same reason.
Just because Word or dictionary.com warns you that the word you just typed is not a word is irrelevant. If it helps tell the story, use it. Also, only people with small minds believe there is only one way to spell each word.
I write conversationally, and I do so purposefully. I find it helpful to use tools-analogies and allegories to tell a story, to set a stage, or to draw in the reader. I use other such devices, but I do not know the names of devices any more than I know participles.
