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The Metaphor Project: What’s Your Blogging Metaphor?

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We’re All Teachers and Learners

What’s Your Metaphor?

When I traveled to other countries, one thing I didn’t expect was to learn how people add new things, ideas, and groups of people to their culture. Here’s an example of what I mean.

When I first started working with publishers, I noticed something about illustrators that I later realized was also true about writers.

  • When we have no experience with something, we notice the differences.
  • When we have a little experience with something, we begin to look for similarities, but we still talk in generalities.
  • When we really know something we can talk about generalities and specifics. We can point out how it is like and different from other things.

That’s the point at which we can switch from learner to teacher.

The Metaphor Project: What’s Your Blogging Metaphor?

Isn’t the same thing happening with blogging? Finally we’re gaining the experience to pull together the pieces into a picture from which to speak. We’re reaching out to explain to nonbloggers in terms they can understand.

Two weeks ago it was Derrick Sorles saying we’re pizza makers. This morning it was Char with this outstanding post.

Did Char’s metaphor work? Her mom’s question at the end proves the power of a great metaphor.

Let’s find some more.

Group Writing Project: What’s Your Blogging Metaphor?

So, what’s your blogging metaphor? I suggest a Group Writing Project.

1. Write a blog post using a metaphor to explain blogging.

2. If you leave a comment with a link to your post, link back to Successful-Blog, or email me, I’ll know how to feature your post. It’s not necessary, it just helps me track to make sure your work gets seen.

3. If you use Technorati tags, tag the post Blogging Metaphor.

BONUS: Ten contributors will receive an autographed copy of Lorelle’s book “Blogging Tips — What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.”

The more ways, the more metaphors we find to help folks understand, the more businesses will see the value. And imagine our friends and families will understand the power and reason behind what we’re doing.

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Use soa few hundred to draw a picture that they’ll never forget.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Comments

  1. Char says

    Liz – it was so nice to hear your voice today! I can’t wait to see how others equate blogging to other aspects of our lives. I have seen one or two people have already decided to take part in this project.

    Is the Group Writing Project the “new” bloggy tag? It seems to me it is – and it has a much more inviting appeal to it.

    Reply

  2. GP says

    most excellent food for thought 🙂 It’s already whirling around the brain. I’ll have to sleep on it and then ride on it… i’ll be back 🙂

    GP in Montana where it feels more like winter than the beginning of summer .. yup… snowflakes today

    Reply

  3. ME Strauss says

    Hi Char!
    It was the high point of my day getting your blog post and having an excuse to call you! How wonderful!

    Your stories, your visuals, they were so compelling. They show what a great teacher you truly are.

    Who knows about the new pix? I just made it for this project. Feel free to take it if you have a use for it. 🙂

    Reply

  4. ME Strauss says

    Hi GP!
    Food for thinking is always a nourishment, I hope. Take your time. I can imagine how a ride would make it a better idea. 🙂

    Snowflakes today? That’s just poor planning ont he part of the state of Montana. 🙂

    Reply

  5. Karin H. says

    Morning Liz

    Read the excellent post by Char yesterday morning and immediately forwarded it to a dear friend of mine (who I’m for months now try to get involved with blogging). Best I ever read on this subject (and SOB-cafe material ;-))
    Have to ponder about my own double Dutch metaphor now.

    Char, agree with you on the ‘GroupWritingProject’, sounds nicer and is more practical than tag-meme’s. (Could be of course I’ve already was part of two writing projects? ;-))

    Karin H. (keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

    Reply

  6. ME Strauss says

    Hi Karin!
    It was the brilliance of Char’s post that evolved into this project — no doubt about that. I was writing about her post and what I learned from it, when suddenly, I was writing about how more folks should offer a metaphor.

    I’ve read a few already and each is uniquely about the blogger who wrote it. Of course, were I to write one, my own would have to be “my father’s saloon.”

    I’m with you. I don’t particularly like memes or tagging people. Those tags are a response. And I’m making a point to do fewer and fewer. 🙂

    Reply

  7. Karin H. says

    Hi Liz

    Your note on ‘my father’s saloon’ has given me my own idea.
    I’ll be back 😉

    (And as an ‘amateur’ writer I prefer writing projects to tags anyway) 😉

    Karin H.

    Reply

  8. ME Strauss says

    Hi Karin,
    That’s so cool. What I was thinking when I wrote about my metaphor being my dad’s saloon was “I wonder whether this comment will spark ideas for anyone.” I’m delighted that it did. 🙂

    Reply

  9. Robert Hruzek says

    Howdy, Liz! This is going to be fun, reading everyone’s stories. Very nice idea.

    Everyone writes from the position of their own expertise, right? Your father’s saloon, Char’s market, Derrick’s pizza… I might just have to write about bridges (you remember our bridges, don’t you? 🙂

    I think Karin’s right – this is WAY more interesting than most memes, and seems much more reader-friendly, too. I think.

    Reply

  10. ME Strauss says

    Hi Robert!
    It was an idea that made itself happen. Those seem to be the very best kind. We could learn so much about each other as well as about blogging.

    I love that you’re going to write about bridges. That’s so cool. That will make your post special to me. I so remember our first conversation on the phone, talking about the bridges in Chicago. I still have pictures in my head of what I imagined as we talked.

    This project will take us inside blogging in a whole new way. The energy and elegance of a simple and good idea is that it reveals itself in bits. What fun finding out how it takes form. 🙂

    Reply

  11. Wendy Piersall says

    Very interesting that this would come up today. I have had a metaphor post cooking in my mind for the last two days. 🙂 It shall be posted sooner rather than later now thanks to your request!

    Reply

  13. derrick sorles-web 2.0 consultant says

    Hey Liz! What a great idea! This past winter, I said BLOGGERS ARE A LOT LIKE PIGEONS in how we interact we each other. And a lot of people related with that. And at SOBCon, it was David Armano that got me thinking about all the creativity and drive we have as personal publishers and writers.So I think we have a lot in common with chefs – and pizza makers! It will be great to read about all the thoughts and ideas!

    Reply

  14. ME Strauss says

    Hi Derrick!
    You are such a fun one! I love the way you can see the relationships, just twist your view a bit and come up with a new view of the world. 🙂

    Reply

  35. ME Strauss says

    Hi Denise!
    It’s a such fun to see how versatile we all are and that we have such diverse ways of describing something we have in common! Yeah!

    I’m having a blast too! 🙂

    Reply

  36. Ryan says

    i just found this metaphore cuz im bored out of my mind and thinking of reality:

    My life is a lost highway, i can do a U turn and go to the past, and fix my mistakes, or i can just continu straight up to no where

    Reply

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