Lately, I have been selecting posts from my blog to post on fb. I try to chose ones that have themes that can be applied to things other than writing or to life in general.
Like most writers, I edit everything I write. I sometimes have to force myself to use common abbreviations when texting or posting things on fb, but whenever I can I spell everything out correctly, use proper punctuation and grammar. Unless I'm tired or in a hurry, I meticulously re-read and edit even my short, personal emails.
So when I read each blog post as I am considering which ones to choose for fb, I am always surprised to have to edit them - again. I find punctuation, spelling and grammar errors, typos and awkward sentences.
We never stop learning how to write better , but our editing skills must improve continuously as well.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Bloggers' Block
I have prided myself the last several months on keeping up with my blogging schedule of posting twice a week, even when I'm not doing so well working on other writing projects regularly. My reasoning is that this is good practice for keeping a regular deadline and for exercising my writing muscles.
Even when I'm not feeling particularly clever or creative, I rarely have trouble coming up with things to blog about. Since I try to make my blog posts always relevant in some way, I don't want to just rant or share random useless information.
This week, however, I'm not feeling motivated and have nothing in mind that I want to share or explore through my blog post. My dilemma makes me wonder if it is better to force myself to come up with something to post, even if it's not interesting or well-expressed, or just give myself a day off.
Conventional writing wisdom says we should make ourselves write even when we don't feel like it or don't know where we want to go with our particular WIP. That's fine if you do so with the understanding that you might get in a zone and produce something brilliant OR might write crap that simply has to be thrown out.
Can't really do that if you make yourself write and post something on your blog. If all you are capable of producing at the time is worthless blather, it's not worth posting. You are only wasting your time and worse, your reader's time.
So this issue has given me something to think and write about and it might be a useful topic for others to think about. But what if it didn't and wasn't? Is it worth the effort to try and if I create something worthwhile, publish the post, or be unsuccessful in writing a post worth sharing and just not publish it?
I'm inclined to think the former is the best course. If this were an article or story for a publication that had to be completed (and well-written) by a certain deadline, I would certainly try every way to accomplish the task. Like a lot of things in the writing life, it's difficult, but worth doing.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly .com
Even when I'm not feeling particularly clever or creative, I rarely have trouble coming up with things to blog about. Since I try to make my blog posts always relevant in some way, I don't want to just rant or share random useless information.
This week, however, I'm not feeling motivated and have nothing in mind that I want to share or explore through my blog post. My dilemma makes me wonder if it is better to force myself to come up with something to post, even if it's not interesting or well-expressed, or just give myself a day off.
Conventional writing wisdom says we should make ourselves write even when we don't feel like it or don't know where we want to go with our particular WIP. That's fine if you do so with the understanding that you might get in a zone and produce something brilliant OR might write crap that simply has to be thrown out.
Can't really do that if you make yourself write and post something on your blog. If all you are capable of producing at the time is worthless blather, it's not worth posting. You are only wasting your time and worse, your reader's time.
So this issue has given me something to think and write about and it might be a useful topic for others to think about. But what if it didn't and wasn't? Is it worth the effort to try and if I create something worthwhile, publish the post, or be unsuccessful in writing a post worth sharing and just not publish it?
I'm inclined to think the former is the best course. If this were an article or story for a publication that had to be completed (and well-written) by a certain deadline, I would certainly try every way to accomplish the task. Like a lot of things in the writing life, it's difficult, but worth doing.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly .com
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Well, Darn.
In my post, "Welcome Visitors! So...Who Are You?", I noted (having just learned about blog 'Stats') the astounding number of page views my blog has had in the past several months. I wondered who all these people were and how they had come across my blog.
I played around with stats again recently and found you can see what part of the world your views are from. When I investigated, I learned fascinating things.
Of the 482 view to date, only 321 are from the US. Of the other 161, 95 are from Russia (!), 25 from Germany (Yay! I like this because I was born in Berlin - to American parents, but my grandparents were German - and lived in Bonn the first several years of my life. German was my first language.), 2 from France, and between 3 and 6 views from Latvia, India, Malaysia, Canada, Ukraine and Qatar. I am geographically challenged and couldn't find most of those last ones on a map. And I've never heard of Qatar.
This leads me to the disappointing conclusion that a large percentage of my viewers came across my blog by accident and probably didn't even glance at it. This should not surprise me. How often when am I trying to navigate the web do I end up somewhere I didn't mean and never expected to be? But it took away a lot of the fun I had thinking of all these viewers reading and being encouraged, inspired, and entertained by my posts. I now know most of them were probably just very annoyed.
This feels similar to having your writing rejected after encouraging success (even if only imagined), but I know how to deal with that. Just keep producing the best work you can and never give up sending it out into the world.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
I played around with stats again recently and found you can see what part of the world your views are from. When I investigated, I learned fascinating things.
Of the 482 view to date, only 321 are from the US. Of the other 161, 95 are from Russia (!), 25 from Germany (Yay! I like this because I was born in Berlin - to American parents, but my grandparents were German - and lived in Bonn the first several years of my life. German was my first language.), 2 from France, and between 3 and 6 views from Latvia, India, Malaysia, Canada, Ukraine and Qatar. I am geographically challenged and couldn't find most of those last ones on a map. And I've never heard of Qatar.
This leads me to the disappointing conclusion that a large percentage of my viewers came across my blog by accident and probably didn't even glance at it. This should not surprise me. How often when am I trying to navigate the web do I end up somewhere I didn't mean and never expected to be? But it took away a lot of the fun I had thinking of all these viewers reading and being encouraged, inspired, and entertained by my posts. I now know most of them were probably just very annoyed.
This feels similar to having your writing rejected after encouraging success (even if only imagined), but I know how to deal with that. Just keep producing the best work you can and never give up sending it out into the world.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Welcome Visitors! So...Who Are You?
This month, March 2012, is the one year anniversary of my blog. Which seems amazing to me, probably because it started out as an experiment and grew from there. From March through September, 2011, I posted an average of less than twice a month. In October 2011, when I decided this would be a worthwhile endeavour, I set a schedule and have since posted twice weekly on a regular basis, averaging 8-10 posts a month.
When I first started my blog I wasn't sure about it at all - or about myself, in regard to blogging. I agonized over the first three posts last March. I had already determined that I wanted all my posts to be well-written and insightful. Insightful is kind of ambitious, but there's nothing wrong with aiming high. My anxiety over the first few posts was ridiculous, utterly, because no one was going to read them: I hadn't told a single person that I had a blog.
When I eventually decided that my posts were acceptable, I told three of my writer friends and two family members. I immediately had five faithful followers. Now, one year later, I have the same five faithful followers. Which is fine with me. But this creates a fascinating puzzle for me.
A couple of weeks ago (have I mentioned often that I am as computer challenged as anyone?) I learned about "stats", where you can check the number of page views your blog has had. The results were astounding. In April, 2011, when I had made one post (and three posts in March) I had 2 page views. No posts or views in May; June: 3 posts/10 views, July: 5 posts/15 views and so on. In September 2011, I was astonished to see that I had 39 page views. Since October 2011, the number of views per month has ranged from 52-92, averaging 74 per month. (Ouch, all these numbers! Even simple math is painful to me.)
Since I have no more than five people I know who occasionally read my blog, even if all five read every post, that accounts for 45 page views and leaves me with a question: Who are you people?
Another confession: I just this week learned about labels, which I'm told helps people who google subjects I might have posted about to be directed to my blog. I haven't tried that yet, which leaves me with another question: How did you find your way here?
I am delighted to that you are here. I hope you find something encouraging, inspirational and/or informative in my posts, and hope you will visit again. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment, so I can get to know a little bit about you and perhaps learn something new that you have to share.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
When I first started my blog I wasn't sure about it at all - or about myself, in regard to blogging. I agonized over the first three posts last March. I had already determined that I wanted all my posts to be well-written and insightful. Insightful is kind of ambitious, but there's nothing wrong with aiming high. My anxiety over the first few posts was ridiculous, utterly, because no one was going to read them: I hadn't told a single person that I had a blog.
When I eventually decided that my posts were acceptable, I told three of my writer friends and two family members. I immediately had five faithful followers. Now, one year later, I have the same five faithful followers. Which is fine with me. But this creates a fascinating puzzle for me.
A couple of weeks ago (have I mentioned often that I am as computer challenged as anyone?) I learned about "stats", where you can check the number of page views your blog has had. The results were astounding. In April, 2011, when I had made one post (and three posts in March) I had 2 page views. No posts or views in May; June: 3 posts/10 views, July: 5 posts/15 views and so on. In September 2011, I was astonished to see that I had 39 page views. Since October 2011, the number of views per month has ranged from 52-92, averaging 74 per month. (Ouch, all these numbers! Even simple math is painful to me.)
Since I have no more than five people I know who occasionally read my blog, even if all five read every post, that accounts for 45 page views and leaves me with a question: Who are you people?
Another confession: I just this week learned about labels, which I'm told helps people who google subjects I might have posted about to be directed to my blog. I haven't tried that yet, which leaves me with another question: How did you find your way here?
I am delighted to that you are here. I hope you find something encouraging, inspirational and/or informative in my posts, and hope you will visit again. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment, so I can get to know a little bit about you and perhaps learn something new that you have to share.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Among The Things I've Been Learning...
...is that I often don't have time or energy to write blogs on the days they are supposed to be posted - or the day before the day they are to be posted. I need to write them whenever I can, so they will be posted on time.
And that when I post blogs on unscheduled days (like this one), it feels like it should count for the one I missed last week, but it would be more practical to disregard the missed one and post this on the next scheduled day, so that I might not skip another in the near future.
The real lesson here is that writing of any kind needs to be done regularly no matter what, with no excuses, to aviod this problem all together. It is entirely too easy to get off schedule and out of the daily writing habit and hard to get back into it.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
And that when I post blogs on unscheduled days (like this one), it feels like it should count for the one I missed last week, but it would be more practical to disregard the missed one and post this on the next scheduled day, so that I might not skip another in the near future.
The real lesson here is that writing of any kind needs to be done regularly no matter what, with no excuses, to aviod this problem all together. It is entirely too easy to get off schedule and out of the daily writing habit and hard to get back into it.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
Friday, March 11, 2011
Now What?
I've been thinking about starting a blog. So I decided to investigate how to set one up. Apparently it's pretty easy, because it seems now I have one. Not sure how that happened. And now I'm supposed to post something. Hmmm...
My debate about blogging mostly concerned the idea that anyone would want to read what I had to say. It should be something worthwhile and worth sharing and center on things that are important to me, like writing and reading. My husband and my family are wonderful and important to me, but I'm not quite so willing about sharing them.
I have, like everyone, read blogs that seem pointless. That seems harsh. I should say I feel they have nothing to offer me or hold my interest. I also read and follow a few blogs that are entertaining and enlightening. (My real inspiration came from The Black Ichor blog, written by one of my writing friends.) I would like mine to be like that - interesting and useful to others who love things like books and writing. That's what I will aim for.
Before I made this leap, inadvertent as it was, I did identify a few topics I wanted to write about. My uncertainty about blogging is one of the first and so this is it. Now I just have to remember what the other things were.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
My debate about blogging mostly concerned the idea that anyone would want to read what I had to say. It should be something worthwhile and worth sharing and center on things that are important to me, like writing and reading. My husband and my family are wonderful and important to me, but I'm not quite so willing about sharing them.
I have, like everyone, read blogs that seem pointless. That seems harsh. I should say I feel they have nothing to offer me or hold my interest. I also read and follow a few blogs that are entertaining and enlightening. (My real inspiration came from The Black Ichor blog, written by one of my writing friends.) I would like mine to be like that - interesting and useful to others who love things like books and writing. That's what I will aim for.
Before I made this leap, inadvertent as it was, I did identify a few topics I wanted to write about. My uncertainty about blogging is one of the first and so this is it. Now I just have to remember what the other things were.
www.jennifermballard.com
www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com
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