by Wilbur Witt
As I venture deeper into the world of blogging I'm gaining new respect for this unique art form. The biggest thing that has impressed me is the way a blog can reinvent itself. In the music business you write a song, it hopefully will be recorded by someone other than your brother in law, and then equally hopefully, it will achieve some notoriety and will be listened to by enough people to help pay the rent. The bitter pill is that once the tune makes its run that's it! Good, bad, or plain, it rises to number whatever on the charts and then it invariably finds its way down, until you only hear it as a golden oldie, and no one makes any money off that.
A blog, on the contrary, reinvigorates with each new additional post. I didn't understand this at the onset, and made a new blog with each idea, which I thought of as an article. I treated them like a song, watching the individual postings rise, and then slow. Then, one day I added something new to one of my blogs and was snake amazed when the entire process began again.
So I started updating my blogs with additional thoughts, or links, to keep my readers up to date with whatever subject that particular posting was dealing with. Also, I began to study the kind of people who were kind enough to read what I write, and started to tailor my posts toward them. Why give someone mustard when they have clearly indicated that they prefer ketchup? I began to use a thesaurus for the first time in my life, and I've written three books, working on the fourth. What was happening was this medium was exercising my abilities.
I don't get into gimmicks, either in music or writing. My main contention, has always been content. Write something worth hearing, or reading. Don't labor your audience with boring, poorly written content. Have something worth saying and say it. Also, I've mellowed with age. Time was when I would jump on very controversial subject matter and slam it. I hate to admit it but I'm becoming politically correct. I learned this in a stretch limo in California, and I won't tell you what I did, but let me just say it was a doozy! Everyone was so impressed. Now I go for the more discreet approach. I make my point with an undercurrent which I have found makes my case much better.
Lastly, don't write just to fill lines. Say what you're going to say. Say it eloquently, say it with finesse, but get it said, and get out! Size doesn't matter. Sometimes, when I have an exceptionally long entry, I will do my oral read, and if it comes off too preachy, then I will consolidate some lines, or thoughts. I don't want my reader to wonder when is my post going to get good. I try to always be good.
I read an article today announcing awards to civilian writers who had developed major stories this year. BLOGGERS! Imagine a medium where anyone can pick up on what you're putting out. This is tantamount to having an opportunity for every producer on Music Square listening to your song! The publishing word is wide open now. Where before people would only read material published by big name authors, now a good blogger can make a name for themselves, and just like YouTube changed the format of videos forever, the blogging template will become a style all it's own. And it's all right there just waiting to fall into your hands!
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