Crazy Children, Monster Posts, & Awesome Blogs!

I'm coming to get you!!!

Here are my two pence on the topic of the ever-expanding blog-o-sphere…

There are times when I go through a dozen blogs per day (if not hour). And there are days when I don’t bother because I feel burnt out. This is why I rarely ever comment anymore (sincere apologies for that). If I had to comment on every post I ever read, I’d be spending my time online 24/7! Granted, I have done that several times in my life, but I’ve recently decided to try and find some balance.

The Bloggerfly Effect and a Hundred Monkeys

Say what?

It starts with a blog post.

It can be a short post, a long post, a funny post, a sad post… no matter. Then people start reading it. For some, it evokes emotion (positive or negative or both), for others not so much. Some find it interesting, others bland. But whatever the outcome, there’s always an effect. Often enough, the effect goes beyond simply reading the post.

Thursday Themes: Brainstorming Gone Wild

Does your blog have themes? I bet it does; it seems trendy right now. But I’ll tell you what, it’s not only trendy, it’s also very useful.

This whole thing reminds me of the planners vs. pantsers debate. Pantsers are supposed to have all the fun while planners bang their heads against the walls when they hit an impasse in their outlines. But this is not really the case, is it?

Outlines give us both structure and freedom. One of my favorite authors – Holly Lisle – swears by outlines, and I know why she does that. Because pantsers can come up with an entire first draft riddled with plot holes while planners have something to lean onto when they hit a road bump. Of course, it’s all about individual style also, so don’t reach for the tars and feathers just yet.

Blogging to Be Remembered

So I’ve already talked about hooking them readers with a good blurb here. Today I’ll talk about writing style. It’s related to my American Idol rant where I said that every good artist should possess three qualities: gift, style, and craft. In this order actually.

Briefly, we all have the gift of our discipline. Style is the individual voice that permeates your art. Craft is the set of skills you develop to realize those things. It’s hard for me to say which the most important is. All I know is: you need to have all three to be great.

Now then. I read a blog post the other day on Dan Cavallari’s blog, which started off by referring to a post where a girl had mentioned she hadn’t written a word in six months. But he also said he didn’t remember where he’d read this (at the time) and that got me thinking. How many blog posts do you read every day? How many do you comment on? How much do you like each of those? And most importantly, how many of them can you recall later?

Blogging One Flash at a Time

I’ll do a bit of cross-blogging today. Sorry, I don’t mean guest-blogging or blog-rolling or anything helpful like that. In fact, I won’t hold it against you if you ignore this shameless self promotion on my part. Or wait…

Is it really self-promotion when I blog about my other blog on this blog? Or do they counter each other? Confused already?

Start over. I’ve been watching  – gratefully – how both my blogs have been gathering numbers of minions, I mean followers, each one at a distinctly different pace and for different reasons. This one has blossomed thanks to my shameless outcries to fellow tweeps, and thanks to them I now have the motivation to write EVERY DAY. All is right in my world again.