Writing Archives - Page 15 of 15

A Blogger’s Personal Narrative Checklist

January 10, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Successful bloggers write well. As a professional writer, I have a few tips, tricks, techniques, strategies, and of course, checklists that I use to keep me on the right path. It’s time I started sharing them.

Almost everyone uses personal narratives. They’re the stories we tell to our families and friends. They’re the incidents we relate at work about meetings we attended. A personal narrative is any story you might tell about something that really happened to you. Bloggers do that all of the time.

Use this short checklist to review your next personal narrative to add value and polish to it.

Personal Narrative Content Editor’s Checklist

Does the introduction make readers want to continue?
Are the events clear and in chronological order?
Does the body stay to the core of the story, using only rich and relevant details for support? Less is definitely more in most cases.
Do you use exact words that portray the experience in a way the reader can understand it?
Does the conclusion tie the story together, leaving the reader glad to have read it?

Taking a minute to review the narratives you tell will kick them up a notch. Your writing will be just that bit more entertaining. It might be the difference that makes readers bookmark your blog to come back again.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

10 + 1 Qualities of Bloggers and Our Readers

October 27, 2005 by Liz 3 Comments

First there were bulletin boards. Over time they became forums and then chat rooms. Web sites were born and were gathered into portals. Each of them uses the magic of the Internet in a slightly different way. None of them quite captures the personality and creativity of so many individuals as blogging.

What is it about blogging that makes it so addictive both to bloggers and our readers? What am I talking about? Pete Blackshaw of Intelliseek explains it in his ClickZ article Ten Simple Rules for Dating a Blogger. I’ve used his rules to derive ten blogger descriptions. Do you see yourself in them?

Bloggers are always clicking. We see and report everything with amazing clarity.
Bloggers are never one. We are part of a social network. We love sharing information.
Bloggers are almost chameleons. The world of blogging is flexible and agile. Great bloggers are too. That’s how we’re creeping into all kinds of online publishing.
Bloggers love to disrupt the status quo. We live by doing things better, faster, cheaper. We have WAY MORE personality than our webmaster counterparts. It shows up in how we write and in what we like to read.
Not all bloggers are on the up and up. In fact spam and advertorial content is what some slimy bloggers are really about. Successful bloggers don’t need them.
Bloggers have their addictions and temptations. We are involved with Search Engine Optimization. We can’t quit checking ad program words. We are crazy copy generators. We are constantly checking links and statistics. . . . Excuse me for a minute. (If you don’t know what those things are, that’s why we’re putting together a Blogger’s Survival Kit.)
Bloggers live for our bloggy “big breaks.” It might take time, but our position changes. The first notice by a big search engine, the first trend search that shows up on Blog Pulse, the first page ranking at Google–these are our academy awards. We know not to expect our nonblogging friends to understand it.
Bloggers don’t tolerate imposters. If someone we trust has steered us wrong, you can bet we’re long gone. . . . and possibly blogging about it.
Bloggers think in lists. We list early and often. We know that lists are key to keeping information moving fast and furiously.
Bloggers like to have our say or we wouldn’t be blogging.

and I added this one

Successful bloggers know what we’re blogging about and who we’re blogging for.

So there they are 10+1 Qualities of Bloggers and Our Readers. Know any others I should add to the list? How do we use this information to make our blogs more enticing to our blogger-readers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Questions about Burnout and Writer’s Block

July 12, 2005 by Liz 1 Comment

From: D. Keith Robinson

Teja asks:

Do ever feel like you are ever burned out? Or do your own tips on beating writer’s block help beat that?

I actually feel burnt out quite often. One of the reasons why I’ve posted on the subject is because I think I’ve come up with some pretty good ways to combat burnout. As you know I’ve got lots going on and I’m a fairly creative person. Burnout is something that is inevitable and unavoidable. There really is no getting around it.

Another quick tip on burnout: Writing about it, blogging my tips and tricks and all that, is actually really therapeutic as well. When I get an e-mail from someone letting me know I’ve helped them with burnout, it actually refreshes me as well. Strange huh?

As far as writers block goes. Those tips do help with burnout, and sometimes it takes just one good post or completion of one task to get over it. All the tips I posted I’ve used and they all work. In fact, I actually use many of those techniques on a regular basis. They’re not just for getting past writers block.

Thanks for the questions!