I decided that my "thumnail" image needed to be updated to be slightly more personal. Since the pic that goes with my profile is so tiny, I decided to give you a better look at the photograph. There's a story in this photograph. What does it tell you?
Showing posts with label who. Show all posts
Showing posts with label who. Show all posts
August 18, 2010
A New Face
I decided that my "thumnail" image needed to be updated to be slightly more personal. Since the pic that goes with my profile is so tiny, I decided to give you a better look at the photograph. There's a story in this photograph. What does it tell you?
December 22, 2009
Who
The "Who" of blogging can be as simple as you and I. You are the reader and I am the author. You read what I write. Unfortunately, most authors don't look at this in such simple terms, preferring to replace the You with Audience, and the I with "The Writer."
I can go with the Audience thing, since you have the potential to reach more than one person with a Blog, but I still like to think personally when it comes to blogging, since there is really only one reader at a time. There is no feedback or crowd reaction from the presence of a mass of humanity gathered in one place to simultaneously experience your communicative efforts.
But there are comments, you say. The audience can interact with each other, and provide a group dynamic. And yes, I will tell you that it is true, but its only an audience in the basic sense in that they have read your words, not been present for a performance. I suppose that is the major difference, in that Performance and Audience are linked in my mind.
The main purpose for an Author to have some concept of audience in mind, is so that they can direct their efforts at a known class of persons, with particular faculties and reasoning skills. It would do little good to create a work that is not targeted. As was touched on in the previous post, the audience plays a significant role in the choice of words and writing techniques that an Author may choose to deploy in the effort of communication.
Did I just loose you there? What I over your head with "deploy in the effort?" What was I aiming at with those words, a military crowd? Sure. That might be right, but at the same time, I might also claim that we are engaged in a literary war, and words are our weapons with which we assail the masses with seeds of ideas and ideals.
Ug. I don't want to know where that just came from, but I seem to remember one author in particular by the name of Joe Orton. He was English, at least while he was alive. I had to study this writer of English Literature in college, having no clue that the word English would refer to England and not the language in general. I would still hate writing at the end of my English Literature experience.
The idea of "You" as an author is about as good as any when it comes to blogging. Most of the blogs that I've encountered (meaning 50% plus one) are written by a single writer, most of the time. This should be true for most of the personal bloggers in the "here's my life" category, barring some kind of mental illness, psychosis, demonic possession, or chemical influence. Note that none of these are considered impairments to becoming a successful author.
In rare instances, a cadre of authors will band together to create a larger blog than one sane person would manage. I would have a tough time creating posts of this length on a daily basis, given the fact that I am regularly employed and do not mix my blogging activity with company time. Professional writers should have little trouble with such a task, as they commonly measure their output in column-inches.
When it comes to the educational level, I have no problem with setting a minimum somewhere between High School and College. High School Sophomore is about as low a level as I would think appropriate for the Internet, and it only goes up from there. You can aim as high as you like on the Internet, and there will be somebody, someday, somewhere, that gets it.
As far as my daily blog project goes, I try to keep the vocabulary level as far up the scale as the storyline permits. There are also limitations that are imposed by the period in which the current sequence of posts is set. I had to establish a rule that would not allow a term to be introduced that was not appropriate at the time. This has produced some very strange posts, pushing the fictional aspect of the work into some strange and interesting niches. The good news is that I can write new things in, provided they are supported by the historical record.
Perhaps you will create a blog that is not bound by such odd and strange rules. I can't say how it happened that I would choose such a subject, but it happened and I started and now I have to keep going. I've managed to acquire a small audience of more than a dozen regular readers, and that's huge considering that I'm a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, having done it for a mere three months.
As a user of Google Analytics and Feedburner, I am able to see a fairly anonymous listing of who is visiting my site and how many feed subscribers I have. I can see hits by city with Analytics, and feed readers by country with Feedburner. It should be no surprise that most of my readers are in the United States, as my blogs are in English. Even with all of this, and some loyal subscribers, I've had a string of zero-hit days, but that's to be expected, especially with the holidays upon us.
While it may be true that you have a certain number of readers today, tomorrow there are more potential readers. Every day, new minds get connected to the Internet for the first time, and we know that they will never leave. The high degree of preservation that digital publishing offers, ensures that your writings will not go the way of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What you write today, will likely outlast you, and the next seven generations. Your blog is more than just something to do, it can become a vital touchstone to future generations in a way that mankind had only dreamed of, until yesterday.
I can go with the Audience thing, since you have the potential to reach more than one person with a Blog, but I still like to think personally when it comes to blogging, since there is really only one reader at a time. There is no feedback or crowd reaction from the presence of a mass of humanity gathered in one place to simultaneously experience your communicative efforts.
But there are comments, you say. The audience can interact with each other, and provide a group dynamic. And yes, I will tell you that it is true, but its only an audience in the basic sense in that they have read your words, not been present for a performance. I suppose that is the major difference, in that Performance and Audience are linked in my mind.
The main purpose for an Author to have some concept of audience in mind, is so that they can direct their efforts at a known class of persons, with particular faculties and reasoning skills. It would do little good to create a work that is not targeted. As was touched on in the previous post, the audience plays a significant role in the choice of words and writing techniques that an Author may choose to deploy in the effort of communication.
Did I just loose you there? What I over your head with "deploy in the effort?" What was I aiming at with those words, a military crowd? Sure. That might be right, but at the same time, I might also claim that we are engaged in a literary war, and words are our weapons with which we assail the masses with seeds of ideas and ideals.
Ug. I don't want to know where that just came from, but I seem to remember one author in particular by the name of Joe Orton. He was English, at least while he was alive. I had to study this writer of English Literature in college, having no clue that the word English would refer to England and not the language in general. I would still hate writing at the end of my English Literature experience.
The idea of "You" as an author is about as good as any when it comes to blogging. Most of the blogs that I've encountered (meaning 50% plus one) are written by a single writer, most of the time. This should be true for most of the personal bloggers in the "here's my life" category, barring some kind of mental illness, psychosis, demonic possession, or chemical influence. Note that none of these are considered impairments to becoming a successful author.
In rare instances, a cadre of authors will band together to create a larger blog than one sane person would manage. I would have a tough time creating posts of this length on a daily basis, given the fact that I am regularly employed and do not mix my blogging activity with company time. Professional writers should have little trouble with such a task, as they commonly measure their output in column-inches.
When it comes to the educational level, I have no problem with setting a minimum somewhere between High School and College. High School Sophomore is about as low a level as I would think appropriate for the Internet, and it only goes up from there. You can aim as high as you like on the Internet, and there will be somebody, someday, somewhere, that gets it.
As far as my daily blog project goes, I try to keep the vocabulary level as far up the scale as the storyline permits. There are also limitations that are imposed by the period in which the current sequence of posts is set. I had to establish a rule that would not allow a term to be introduced that was not appropriate at the time. This has produced some very strange posts, pushing the fictional aspect of the work into some strange and interesting niches. The good news is that I can write new things in, provided they are supported by the historical record.
Perhaps you will create a blog that is not bound by such odd and strange rules. I can't say how it happened that I would choose such a subject, but it happened and I started and now I have to keep going. I've managed to acquire a small audience of more than a dozen regular readers, and that's huge considering that I'm a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, having done it for a mere three months.
As a user of Google Analytics and Feedburner, I am able to see a fairly anonymous listing of who is visiting my site and how many feed subscribers I have. I can see hits by city with Analytics, and feed readers by country with Feedburner. It should be no surprise that most of my readers are in the United States, as my blogs are in English. Even with all of this, and some loyal subscribers, I've had a string of zero-hit days, but that's to be expected, especially with the holidays upon us.
While it may be true that you have a certain number of readers today, tomorrow there are more potential readers. Every day, new minds get connected to the Internet for the first time, and we know that they will never leave. The high degree of preservation that digital publishing offers, ensures that your writings will not go the way of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What you write today, will likely outlast you, and the next seven generations. Your blog is more than just something to do, it can become a vital touchstone to future generations in a way that mankind had only dreamed of, until yesterday.
December 16, 2009
What
It's all about the subject, says the word "what." This is the core of any blog, the central thread that ties everything together and gives the collection of writings a focus and purpose. It is definitely worthwhile to perform any form of prewriting exercise, like clustering, a list of keywords, an outline of subject matter, etc. In the process of prewriting, you will begin to sew the seeds that grow into the fountain of material from which you can draw. If the prewriting does not get your creative juices flowing, refine your subject and try again.
I will admit that I did not perform this step on paper when I conceived of my daily blog. I had been considering starting a blog, on any number of subjects. Some of these subjects are still suitable for blogging, but they are far more personal. When I began to consider the audience and the potency of the work required, I decided that like other blogs, I too would rebel in some way.
Personally, I find that while writing, I have to back things down a notch, and aim for one or more of several distinct audiences. One audience is highly intelligent and technical, but has limits to understanding and comprehension of the English language. The basic structure for this group is simple sentences with a splattering of understandable high-technology terms. Lucky for me that I can use mathematics and computational languages to supplement my writing for this group, or there would be no joy. This is not a standard audience, by any means. The other groups are fairly standard, and should be considered when aiming your writing at an audience.
The most basic level of writing is Newspaper class. Read any story on CNN, or in any newspaper or teen magazine, and you will quickly understand this level of communication. Semi-redundant, catchy, flashy, with a bit of spark and spiff, but the total vocabulary and structure is easily followable by pre-teens and sixth-graders. Yes, this is the level that most city-beat reporters and journalists aim for. It is a very wide audience, and when in doubt, aim for it, since all other audiences are a subset of this one.
As educational level increases, the starting vocabulary may expand appropriately. There is quite a difference in vocabulary between High School and College, and it is the graduates of these two educational phases that define the next strata of writing. A College graduate is not easily confused by the construction of a rhetorical question, whereas a newspaper would never print one due to the ensuing confusion. College graduates who have studied English as their focus, learn that the language can be re-defined in-context, and as a result, can lob words as weapons to unsettling effect and torment of others.
While it may seem that your target audience would really fall under the category of who, and you may be correct (I put the who tag on this entry just to please you), it so heavily influences what you are writing, that it can not be left behind. Unlike the sadistic English major, your job is to lob words into the mind of the reader that communicate what you want to say, in a manner that generates interest in the subject and furthers the growth of readership. You don't publish something to put it on the shelf and look at the pretty leather wrapper.
What you are writing about may be keyed to where you are writing from. Laptop and ultra-mobile computers allow up-close and personal styles of blogging, since you can immerse yourself in the environment and write. A travel blog, updated on-the-road, might be a good immersive experience blog, if you are a frequent traveller and have access to the source material. In this case, you are also bringing your experience, that snapshot of time, to the rest of the world that may happen upon your writings today or tomorrow's tomorrow.
The subject of your blog is the ultimate key to what you will be writing. It is suggested that this subject be distilled into a one, two or perhaps a three sentence description, which you will need for the description segment of your blog header. While you want the description to be broad enough to cover a range of material, it is just as helpful to have limits and boundaries that help maintain focus. If you find yourself with material that does not fit your theme, then perhaps you have the seed for another blog.
While I am impressed with some of twitteresque blogs that answer the question "What are you doing?" it quickly becomes yet another example of the human experience. Yes, it is interesting to see what parts of people's lives and experiences they are willing to put out for the world to see, but it is still premeditated. Note the embedding of the word 'edit' smack in the middle of premeditated. Only your brain has the complete record, and anything you post is therefore, an edited recollection. Believe it or not, this is a very good thing.
Perhaps you have a great idea for a blog subject, and you're ready for the challenge. What does the Internet have to say about that idea already? Pull up to a search engine or three, and pound on the input box. Type in the core of your blog idea, several different ways like you might do if you were a potential reader. Did relevant things come up on the first page? If so, this is your competition. This is what you will be compared to. This is the crowd to which you will become the leader or just another me-too.
If you are writing just to write, or to have a place to point people to, then your competition does not matter. You are doing your thing in your little wisp of the cloud, and you can send anyone in the world there who wants to go there. You also have a non-zero probability of discovery, and unless you say otherwise, the automated web-bots will read your writing, perform analysis on the HTML code and links to and from the pages of your blog to the rest of the web.
However, there are certain advantages to filling a niche. If your search session does not pull up compelling references to your subject, and there is little or no competition, you are lucky indeed and should seize upon the opportunity. Do double check your work. As a final search test, enclose all or part of your keywords in quotes to provide a tighter match, looking for word pairs or triples, in order.
Uniqueness is often the key to great reward, provided that you can maintain and enhance your position. You must work to establish and enhance your position, and while Copyright law protects your rights, you need to have something worth copying before those rights need to be enforced. If you can fill the search niche you discover with a blog that you will enjoy creating, you've got a fantastic opportunity.
I will admit that I did not perform this step on paper when I conceived of my daily blog. I had been considering starting a blog, on any number of subjects. Some of these subjects are still suitable for blogging, but they are far more personal. When I began to consider the audience and the potency of the work required, I decided that like other blogs, I too would rebel in some way.
Personally, I find that while writing, I have to back things down a notch, and aim for one or more of several distinct audiences. One audience is highly intelligent and technical, but has limits to understanding and comprehension of the English language. The basic structure for this group is simple sentences with a splattering of understandable high-technology terms. Lucky for me that I can use mathematics and computational languages to supplement my writing for this group, or there would be no joy. This is not a standard audience, by any means. The other groups are fairly standard, and should be considered when aiming your writing at an audience.
The most basic level of writing is Newspaper class. Read any story on CNN, or in any newspaper or teen magazine, and you will quickly understand this level of communication. Semi-redundant, catchy, flashy, with a bit of spark and spiff, but the total vocabulary and structure is easily followable by pre-teens and sixth-graders. Yes, this is the level that most city-beat reporters and journalists aim for. It is a very wide audience, and when in doubt, aim for it, since all other audiences are a subset of this one.
As educational level increases, the starting vocabulary may expand appropriately. There is quite a difference in vocabulary between High School and College, and it is the graduates of these two educational phases that define the next strata of writing. A College graduate is not easily confused by the construction of a rhetorical question, whereas a newspaper would never print one due to the ensuing confusion. College graduates who have studied English as their focus, learn that the language can be re-defined in-context, and as a result, can lob words as weapons to unsettling effect and torment of others.
While it may seem that your target audience would really fall under the category of who, and you may be correct (I put the who tag on this entry just to please you), it so heavily influences what you are writing, that it can not be left behind. Unlike the sadistic English major, your job is to lob words into the mind of the reader that communicate what you want to say, in a manner that generates interest in the subject and furthers the growth of readership. You don't publish something to put it on the shelf and look at the pretty leather wrapper.
What you are writing about may be keyed to where you are writing from. Laptop and ultra-mobile computers allow up-close and personal styles of blogging, since you can immerse yourself in the environment and write. A travel blog, updated on-the-road, might be a good immersive experience blog, if you are a frequent traveller and have access to the source material. In this case, you are also bringing your experience, that snapshot of time, to the rest of the world that may happen upon your writings today or tomorrow's tomorrow.
The subject of your blog is the ultimate key to what you will be writing. It is suggested that this subject be distilled into a one, two or perhaps a three sentence description, which you will need for the description segment of your blog header. While you want the description to be broad enough to cover a range of material, it is just as helpful to have limits and boundaries that help maintain focus. If you find yourself with material that does not fit your theme, then perhaps you have the seed for another blog.
While I am impressed with some of twitteresque blogs that answer the question "What are you doing?" it quickly becomes yet another example of the human experience. Yes, it is interesting to see what parts of people's lives and experiences they are willing to put out for the world to see, but it is still premeditated. Note the embedding of the word 'edit' smack in the middle of premeditated. Only your brain has the complete record, and anything you post is therefore, an edited recollection. Believe it or not, this is a very good thing.
Perhaps you have a great idea for a blog subject, and you're ready for the challenge. What does the Internet have to say about that idea already? Pull up to a search engine or three, and pound on the input box. Type in the core of your blog idea, several different ways like you might do if you were a potential reader. Did relevant things come up on the first page? If so, this is your competition. This is what you will be compared to. This is the crowd to which you will become the leader or just another me-too.
If you are writing just to write, or to have a place to point people to, then your competition does not matter. You are doing your thing in your little wisp of the cloud, and you can send anyone in the world there who wants to go there. You also have a non-zero probability of discovery, and unless you say otherwise, the automated web-bots will read your writing, perform analysis on the HTML code and links to and from the pages of your blog to the rest of the web.
However, there are certain advantages to filling a niche. If your search session does not pull up compelling references to your subject, and there is little or no competition, you are lucky indeed and should seize upon the opportunity. Do double check your work. As a final search test, enclose all or part of your keywords in quotes to provide a tighter match, looking for word pairs or triples, in order.
Uniqueness is often the key to great reward, provided that you can maintain and enhance your position. You must work to establish and enhance your position, and while Copyright law protects your rights, you need to have something worth copying before those rights need to be enforced. If you can fill the search niche you discover with a blog that you will enjoy creating, you've got a fantastic opportunity.
