5 Things to Remember While You Blog

Congratulations! Remember that your blog is a project of creative writing as much as your novel-in-progress or budding memoir. But there are important differences, and they are worth keeping in mind if you’d like the quality of your posts to grow, and readers to grow as a result of that quality.

1. Your readers face temptation. At any moment they can hop to another blog, check their Twitter feed, or pull up a video of a cat yawning to a dance beat. Open strong. Write short.
2. Allow your blog to evolve. Which posts are read the most? Keep drawing readers back months later? What are commenters saying? Listen and react. The Artist’s Road has evolved over the past 18 months in ways I wouldn’t have expected as I’ve responded to reader feedback.
3. Blog gurus instruct us to put great care into the selection of imagery. I'll break that rule by sharing a photo from my cross-country U.S. road trip of an Ann Arbor, Michigan, robot repair store.
   Break the rules occasionally. When you absolutely have to, write long. Or go off subject. Unpredictability is great in moderation. Or, as your left brain might say, “Spontaneity has its time and place.”
4. Post original material. A blog is not the place to publish your work-in-progress. You’re embarking on a conversation, not a literary reading. Engage with us directly, and we’ll engage back.
5. Have fun! You get to write. You get to see your name in “print.” You get to read people saying they liked what you wrote. What’s so bad about that?

If you’re here, you’re a reader of blogs. You may have one yourself. What have I left out?