Skip to main content

Building a blog, part 6

Read part 5 here

Blog Content, continued

Blog about personal themes.

Think about any personal themes you might have. They can be deep or shallow—but everyone has personal themes.

So blog about them.

For example, my personal themes are:

(a) Asiana because I grew up with a lot of things that are new and different to my blog readers
(b) humor because I’m naturally rather irreverent and like funny stuff
(c) Christian fiction because I’m an avid reader
(d) knitting because I’ve gone gaga over my new hobby
(e) my dog because I don’t have children

Cheryl Wyatt has themes of both military related things and also funny embarrassing moments for herself (her “Blush and Cringe” posts are hilarious!). Sharon Hinck has a theme of encouragement, so she blogs short encouraging devotionals rather frequently. ChristianFictionQueen blogs not only about Christian fiction but also on BBC movies and miniseries, and also on musicals and other CDs.

Look at your own personal themes and build on them. Go with them. Develop them.

Discover your personal themes.

Look at the kinds of blog posts you like to read on other people’s blogs—and write them.

Devotionals, funny stories, recipes, patterns, pictures, travel, poetry, etc. The sky’s the limit.

Visit lots of blogs and pay attention to the types of things people blog about. Pay attention to the blog posts you especially enjoy. What kinds of blog posts are they? Could you do something similar with your own spin to it?

Be observant. And then be creative.

Ask your friends and/or blog readers.

Often other people will notice trends and themes in your blogging that you might not even realize. So go ahead and ask people who regularly read your blog.

Feedback is always a good resource for someone trying to become more professional and more unique as a blogger. Feedback will help you refine your blog and make it more interesting and targeted.

Next: Building a blog readership.

Comments

  1. Great suggestions. I've actually started a few "theme" days. Like Musical Mondays, Then and Now Thursdays, and Friday Funnies. That leaves Tuesday and Wednesdays for open things...whatever is on my mind, or fun things I've done throughout the previous weeks.

    It's been fun. :-)

    These are great posts on blogging, Camy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Writing Fight Scenes

I love martial arts movies and action flicks. So naturally I'd write action scenes. I discovered that it takes a slightly different writing style. These are some of the things I learned, although this list isn't exhaustive by any means. Action-Reaction A fight scene is always Action-Reaction. He punches, she staggers back. She kicks, he blocks and swings a fist at her. Watch out for putting your reaction before your action: She staggered back when he slammed his fist into her shoulder. The rule of thumb is to have each action-reaction have its own paragraph, although that’s not always possible. Sometimes the sentences are too short for their own paragraphs and can be combined. It’s up to the writer how to format it: He swung a roundhouse punch. She bent backward and felt his knuckles swish past her nose. versus: He swung a roundhouse punch. She bent backward and felt his knuckles swish past her nose. Short sentences = fast reading flow Use short sentences and phrases to make re...

How to write a kiss

There was a question on the writer’s Discord server that I’m on where someone asked how to write a kiss. They weren’t specifically asking me, but I was able to give a short answer for how I write kisses. I write and read traditional romances, so my kiss scenes tend to be heavily influenced by the genre and by how my editors critiqued my manuscripts. You basically want to focus on the emotion of the kiss and how the kiss makes the point of view character feel, as opposed to going deep into physical detail. Ideally, the description will show that the kiss is something special and not just them macking. For example the kiss made her feel ___. Or the kiss was ___ which made it seem that he felt ___ for her. “The kiss made her feel as if she were incredibly precious to him.” “His lips were gentle and almost tentative, as if he were afraid of frightening her.” “The kiss surprised her and yet felt as familiar as if they’d kissed a thousand times before. The kiss felt like home.” I...

What’s a chapter-by-chapter synopsis?

Some editors or agents ask for a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. Not all of them do, so don’t automatically assume you need one. However, it’s the easiest type of synopsis to write, in my opinion. It’s simply a list of each chapter number, and then a couple sentences describing what happens in the chapter. Any significant spiritual or internal conflicts should be included, as well as major plot points, red herrings, symbolism, etc. The chapter-by-chapter synopsis will take the reader on a shortened version of the same ride you’ll give your novel reader, so include the dead ends and frustrations and obstacles that beset your characters. Each major character should be named, and minor characters can also be named if they have a significant impact on the storyline. However, peripheral characters shouldn’t be named in a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. I usually write a chapter-by-chapter synopsis first, then cut that down to a 1-2 page synopsis which I use for my proposals. Most proposals call f...