My dear Beth gave me a new blog address today, that of Lauren Winner, an author we’ve enjoyed reading and, incidentally, have also met once. I went to Lauren Winner’s blog (www.laurenwinner.net/blog), and began to read. And after I had read a few postings, I read a few comments, and then read the postings of some of the blogs of some of the commenters.
Now I know I have been blogging All Wrong.
You see, when I began this blog a few months ago, I had only really read two blogs, that of Beth (http://ohmyword13.blogspot.com), and that of tworivers. I enjoyed their blogs very much. They are funny, and fun, and honest. They use photos or interesting graphics, and have information in sidebars. Sometimes they mention me. But in reading their blogs, I wasn’t really being introduced to blogs in any “clean” sort of way, so to speak. I already knew these bloggers; they are personal friends. I couldn’t receive or interpret their blogs outside of knowing them. And so I thought I could start a blog, too. And I did.
But today I looked and I saw what is Out There, and now I Know.
It turns out that you are Supposed to have information in sidebars. Lots of it. And you should have more graphics, or photos, or both. And a smaller font. And you should have a Thing. A Topic. A Point. A Subject, for crying out loud. And you should be doing interesting things, and talking about them, and be jaded about them, even, maybe. You should be web-savvy, and computer-savvy, and provide links to Other Sites, and Other Blogs. And you shouldn’t really write the way I do, but rather should just sort of talk like you are catching people up on your day, the way I do when I talk to Beth and tworivers on the phone. And the entries shouldn’t be So Long.
Oh.
I have to admit that this isn’t entirely a surprise to me. I’ve been having inklings of this for some time. I’ve noticed that my font is too big, and I imagine that I could do something about this, but I haven’t cared to. Also, I’ve practically given over putting photos up, and can’t really say why, except to say that the words are more interesting to me than the photos, or compel me more, or something. But that doesn’t sound very good, because I keep taking photos, and the photos are primarily of my children, and my children are Very Interesting to me. So I guess what I mean by that is that when I sit down in front of my computer, I am vastly more interesting in writing than in plugging my camera into the machine and downloading pictures.
But I’m troubled by my blog address and my blog title. They aren’t Cool, that’s certain. Not surprising, though. Not very Blog-like, if the other blogs are providing any hints at all. And my blog is dreary from a visual standpoint. Talk about plain! It reminds me of a dismal scene in a G. K. Chesterton novel, one I thought would Never End. I have a photo somewhere that I’d like to put at the top, a permanent kind of thing, and I really think this is a good idea, but apparently it doesn’t matter enough to me to make it happen.
These inklings were More Than Confirmed by my brief foray today into the blogging world At Large.
The sad thing is, I don’t think I can change. There are only so many hours in a day, and I just don’t care At All to fill them in learning how to post new graphics to my blogsite. I would be perfectly happy to sit down with someone for, say, five minutes and discuss changes he/she might make to the appearance of my blog For Free, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Ever. Maybe I’ll post more photos sometime. Maybe. But meanwhile I’m thinking I’ll ask Beth how she orders prints on-line, and go back to my meager efforts at a photo album, because it Just Isn’t Happening here.
The title and address of this blog Are. It’s too late to change them now. Or maybe it isn’t, but I am not going to change them, because that would take time and thought that I don’t care to give to that project. And sidebars, and links. That would require surfing the web, I guess, and finding more on-line interests. And you know? I have enough interests off-line to keep me busy. There is that nagging doubt that I’m missing something, or missing Lots of Things, but for now the hours just fill up and pass and I’m scrambling to remember April. Or the first half of May.
As for shorter entries, Well. That isn’t likely to happen. I can talk a hind leg off a mule. Just ask Beth, or tworivers, or Lynne, or Bill, bless him, or Anyone. I love that line from Amadeus, when Mozart is accused of using too many notes. He replies that the music has precisely as many notes as he requires. I am no Mozart, musical or literary, but I do like words, and find them awfully handy when it comes to saying things, so I guess I’ll just keep going.
Meanwhile, I apologize that my blog isn’t very bloglike, and thank you for reading in spite of that fact.
And maybe I’ll look into using a smaller font.
