Be True To Your Blog And Your Blog Will Be True To You.
A good blogger will always make a good writer, but a good writer might not necessarily make a good blogger.
Quite a bold statement, don’t you think? Maybe I’d better explain myself.
Firstly, we’d better talk about what I mean by writing in this context. I’m not talking about creative writing, that’s for sure. I’m referring to all the technical learned types of writing you might find amongst journalists, copywriters and every other type of writing from resumes, to business letters, to presentations we all throw out on a daily basis. You see, we’ve all been taught how to write in specific ways for specific tasks and we all tend to rigidly stick to these ways when the situations call for them.
For years we’ve had it drummed into us that we shouldn’t be personal, we shouldn’t use contractions and, well, you know what I’m talking about. Let me just say that knowing how to write in this context is of absolutely no use to you as a blogger. It’s just clutter. Forget it.
If you’re a writer you might just be feeling a touch miffed about some jumped-up sheet metal blogger telling you how to write. But, I’ll tell you something, if you have a particular style of professional writing and you struggle to shake it off then you’ll make for quite a dull blogger. As Paul Chaney says:
Blogging is all about voice, creating a personal style that engages others in conversation - what Doc Searls called “an email to everyone.”
But anyone can do it, right? It’s not a craft, right? Paul says,
I contend, however, that blogging is in and of itself a particular (some might say peculiar) style of writing and, therefore, is a craft that has to be learned. I don’t call myself a journalist. I’m reluctant to even call myself a writer. I’m proud to call myself a blogger.
And so am I. You have to learn how to write a blog. You have to let yourself go. You have to be vulnerable and open to criticism. There’s no word limit, the only deadlines are the ones you set yourself and there’s no particular style you have to write in other than one than is uniquely your own. It’s maybe not so much a case of learning how to blog, but un-learning how to write.
The one thing that all good bloggers have is the same thing that sets them apart - a voice. In that sense they’re all united and divided by a common thread. In the common tome of all cheesy coming of age flicks - ‘be true to yourself’.
Yeah, I never understood that bollocks either when I was 15, but let me try and explain how to go about it.
#1. Read other blogs.
#2. Comment on other blogs.
#3. Repeat steps #1 and #2 until you feel completely comfortable.
#4. Start a blog.
You can start shaking off all those learned response shackles right now.
Filed under: How to Blog, Paul