Blog Advice #1: Read weblogs

I got an email yesterday from a wonderful friend, telling me he'd decided to start a blog. Hooray! He's a good writer and a sunny, funny guy with great instincts, so I can't wait to read dispatches from his head. I was thinking this morning about the things I might have benefited from knowing when I started, nearly a year ago. So I'm going to write him some advice posts about blogging. This is the first one.

Read other weblogs. To save time, use an aggregator, once you've found a few blogs you like to read, although keep yourself open to serendipity and discovery of new voices and thoughts. Follow the links of people you like to read, and see what you find. I was using NewsGator and liked it a lot, and am now using Bloglines.

Notice what you like about the weblogs you do like. I've noticed that I like blogs written by people who let their personalities come through in their posts. Who write well, with a strong, distinctive voice. Who aren't worried about impressing me on their blog, and who I don't suspect of using the blog to battle some insecurity about themselves. Who write daily, or nearly daily. Who I can trust, not just to say things that they think might sound good but to say things that they really think, whether they might sound good or not. Who take risks. Who love the world. Who write about concrete things -- people, experiences, smells, tastes -- in a way that lets me learn something about their character. As it turns out, these tend to be the kind of people I like to be around in real life, too.

And the posts themselves: I like posts that cover a single subject -- no long rambly here is what I did today posts, with different observations in different paragraphs. It can be a long post, but I don't want to discover what the author is really trying to say at the same time the author does, four paragraphs into the post. (Plenty of times I write posts like that, but I try to delete the rambling precursor to my point before I actually publish the thing. Although, clearly, I often don't succeed) I like to believe the author knows what he/she is writing about from the beginning of the post. If you want to tell me about the book, tell me about the book. If you want to tell me about what you did, tell me about what you did. Don't tell me about what you did and then say, by the way, that reminds me of a really great book and now I'll write about that here. New post for the book, please.

Other things that make me keep an otherwise well-written blog off my blogroll:

* complainers, no matter how good a writer they are. If greater than 20% of the time you are writing about things that aren't going right, people who frustrate you, or how tired/sick/stressed you are, I might continue to read the blog from time to time but I'll never recommend you to others. This doesn't mean you can't write about difficult things. Complaining is different than a frank conversation about something you're struggling with.

* Anyone who writes a blog post about being bored, that mentions being bored, or about how boring something was or is. Are you kidding? I guess it's a subset of complaining, but my threshhold for reading the words of anyone who is bored with the world is very low. As the author of the blog, you are my guide into your world. If it bores you, why are you inviting me to come along, and why on earth would I accept?

* Anyone who writes mean things about other people with regularity. Makes me think I won't like the author in person, and with only a few exceptions, I want to read things written by people I think I'd like as actual friends. I've discovered that this holds true for snarky political or legal debates too.

* Anyone who posts up every single damn Internet personality quiz they take, or writes much about television shows or movies. These things don't tell me much about the author, or the world, or the author's world, and to me suggest a lack of discipline. Take the quiz, or watch the TV show, but don't tell me about it unless you're making a larger point.

It should be apparent to readers of this blog that I've broken all of these rules of thumb. Do as I say, not as I do, my newly blogging friend, and you should be all set.

Comments

[Rufus T. Firefly]

How do you feel about bloggers that write in the pose of a fictional character that is based on the author, but isn't really the author. You know, sort of a guise or a pose that takes the author's personaility and character traits but stretches them to their breaking points. And also the subject matter of the posts is the author's life, but exaggerated and embellished for satiric effect. Yey somehow the author brilliantly ties it all together in a literary tour de force in order to speak of universal truths about lawyers and lawyering.

[Autumn]

Where is your blogroll? It seems to have disappeared.

[Dylan]

Woo hoo! I fail 85% of these criteria.

But let the record show I'm not battling any insecurities; I've fully embraced and accepted them.

[Law School Buddy]

Thanks for the tips, S! I am truly enjoying my first few days in Blog Land!

[RM]

Hey - I'm a new blogger as well so I'll try and take your advice on board. Thanks!

[GTFTW]

yea same i must have failed like virtualy all of that list but hey we all write for different reasons, and ill try and take your thoughts on board in future!