July 14, 2004

How to Blog in 30 Easy Steps

I saw this on I am Pariah, and when I read it realized that it was good, but I have edited it for my select readership...to read the original read here

how to blog in 30 easy steps by Tony. commentary by me, the Dancing Rain Girl

1. write every day. Or nearly I have been keeping a longhand journal for 25 years.

2. if you think youre a good writer, write twice a day.
Ive hered it said that to practice the craft of writing one should write 1000 words a day, dont have time for that.

3.dont be afraid to do anything. in fact if youre afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again. I am a firm believer that if you are thrown from a horse get back on, but some scary stuff Ive done should not be repeated.

4. cuss like a sailor. weelll, I am trying to improve my vocabulary, so I try to find more creative ways of expressing my disgust!

5. dont tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you'd rather they didnt read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy. Your diary can be used as evidence against you in a court of law. I learned that in my first divorce. Yet, I am still a rather fearless writer and try to be as painfully honest as I can. When I was 17 I razor bladed out pages of my school girl diary so my future husband wouldnt read it. That was the last censorship of my own writing that I have done. Now I dont care who knows, and I share my blog address with everyone interested.

6. have comments. dont be upset if no one writes in your comments for a long time. eventually they'll write in there. if people start acting mean in your comments, ask them to stop, they probably will. I love it when people comment. It tells me that the world really is out there...

7. have an email address clearly displayed on your blog. sometimes people want to tell you that you rock in private.
Good Idea, Im doing it.

8. dont worry very much about the design of your blog. image is a fakeout. I was thinking about it after I saw the cool revamp of Becomming Normal. But I dont have time just now...

9. use Blogger. it's easy, it's free; and because they are owned by Google, your blog will get spidered better, you will show up in more search results, and more people will end up at your blog. besides, all the other blogging software & alternatives pretty much suck. Sounds like a commercial to me but I would hazzard a guess that this is true...But why does it tweek all the punctuation into Swahilli?

10. use spellcheck unless youre completely totally keeping it real. but even then you might want to use it if you think you wrote something really good. Heres where Blogger falls down. The spell check screws up my writing, and it HATES Hawaiian

11. say exactly what you want to say no matter what it looks like on the screen. then say something else. then keep going. and when youre done, re-read it, and edit it and hit publish and forget about it. When I was in counselling I would try to say something and it wouldnt come out...The gal that was working with me used to say, "Any way you can..." Sooo True

12. link like crazy. link anyone who links you, link your favorites, link your friends. dont be a prude. linking is what seperates bloggers from apes. and especially link if you're trying to prove a point and someone else said it first. it lends credibility even if youre full of it. I love links and need to do more of it...

13. if you havent written about sex, religion, and politics in a week youre probably playing it too safe, which means you probably messed up on #5, in which case start a second blog and keep your big mouth shut about it this time. Weel, lets just get serious on the bloging after all isnt the reason that you started this was to tell the world about your life? Your opinions, what you ate for dinner and so on???

14. Remember: nobody cares which N*Sync member you are, what State you are, which Party of Five kid you are, or which Weezer song you are. the second you put one of those things on your blog you need to delete your blog and try out for the marching band. similarilly, nobody cares what the weather is like in your town, nobody wants you to change their cursor into a butterfly, nobody wants to vote on whether your blog is hot or not, and nobody gives a rat ass what song youre listening to. write something Real for you, about you, every day.
Well, Tony, no, people do care about the weather in Hawaii. Memes and Quiz thingys are fun and often are a good grist for the writers mill so to speak. Kids use a lot of this stuff and thats ok. Blogging is about self expression and as the daughter of a, wife of a, and former member of a few marching bands some of them quite good, I resemble that remark...

15. dont be afraid if you think something has been said before. it has. and better. big whoop. say it anyway using your own words as honestly as you can. just let it out.
True and cool Just say it...or rather Blog it.

16. get Site Meter and make it available for everyone to see. if you're embarrassed that not a lot of people are clicking over to your page, dont be embarrassed by the number, be embarrassed that you actually give a hoot about hits to your blog. it really is just a blog. and hits really dont mean anything. you want Site Meter, though, to see who is linking you so you can thank them and so you can link them back. similarilly, use Technorati, but dont obsess. write.
I need to upgrade my site meter, but I am no technorati, technonovice kindly technoignoramous obviously

17. people like pictures. use them. save them to your own server. or use Blogger's free service. if you dont know how to do it, learn. also get a Buzznet account. several things will happen once you start blogging, one of them is you will learn new things. thats a good thing. Help I would love to put pics on my blog but dont understand the jargon... Help and I will send you Mac Nuts from our orchards here on the Big Island

18. before you hit Save as Draft or Publish Post, select all and copy your masterpiece. you are using a computer and the internet, shit can happen. no need to lose a good post.
This has happened to me, sometimes by Blogger sometimes one of my cats will pounce on the escape key. Save save save. I also save and archive my posts a month at a time on a different system so that I could reprint them one day...

19. push the envelope in what youre writing about and how youre saying it. be more and more honest. get to the root of things. start at the root of things and get deeper. dig. think out loud. keep typing. keep going. eventually you'll find a little treasure chest. every time you blog this can happen if you let it.I have learned a lot about myself from Blogging and it great...

20. change your style. mimic people. write beautiful lies. dream in public. kiss and tell. finger and tell. cry scream fight sing and dont be afraid to be funny. the easiest thing to do is whine when you write. dont be lazy. audblog at least once a week. No sound, but lots of bleeding on the blogging screen

21. write open letters. make lists. call people out on their BS. lead by example. invent and reinvent yourself. start by writing about what happened to you today. for example today i told a hot girl how wonderfully hot she is. Hmmm...I wonder how that turned out. I need to do more of this

22. when in doubt review something. theres not enough reviews on blogs. review a movie you just saw, a tv show, a cd, a kiss you just got, a restaurant, a hike you just took, anything. Cool Idea

23. constantly write about the town that you live in. Oh my Hawaii how I love thee...I will never get tired of doing just that...

24. out yourself. tell your secrets. you can always delete them later.No Censorship just say it

25. dont use your real name. dont write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired. Heh Heh Heh... I have seen this and it aint pretty. Dont write nasty about your boss in a open blog. You will be found out.

26. dont be afraid to come across as an wimp. own your wimpeness.Right on Brother

27. nobody likes poems. dont put your poems on your blog. not even if theyre incredible. especially if theyre incredible. odds are theyre not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put your dumb poems on there. whatever.
O'l Tony is wrong about this, poems are the best. I love them and will continue to write about them, they are a part of my style. I think he's not 100% sure of his feelings either...

28. tell us about your friends. Thats the easy part

29. dont apologize about not blogging. nobody cares. just start blogging again. I havent run into this problem yet...

30. read tons of blogs and leave nice comments. I love doing this.