Saturday, November 27, 2010

A Year of blogging dangerously

It's been a great blogging year. Don't know exactly when to date the anniversary, but this seems as good a time as any. My first posts last November were essays I'd written but never published; hence the name of this blog. When my adult daughter complimented an early impromptu post, I knew I was on the right track.

As my process evolved, I started to take note of how the words looked on the page and learned the art of visual editing. On screen, I discovered, paragraphs needed to be short; lots of "white" space was good for onscreen reading.

Over the next few months, I gradually discovered that I was breaking many rules about blogging. I didn't care. I was having so much fun and learning so much that doing it "right" didn't matter.

I learned to edit, edit, edit. Pare the message down until it doesn't go past "the wrinkle," though sometimes I still do, like now. Link to related material, including You Tube videos. Illustrate with my own pictures, or other pix for which I can obtain permission.

The greatest joy has been to write about absolutely anything I want. Whenever something interesting comes into my head, I use it. It only takes a few words to post these little ideas.

I've been using HiStats since January. I've notice that many of my readers hail from cities where I've never been, or know nobody. Friends may say they'll check out my blog, but for the most part, they don't. Yet I've had visitors from 23 countries now, and 120 cities.

Occasionally people respond, as a busker did from New York. She heartily agreed with my sentiment, posted before the 2010 Olympics, that buskers should not be required to apply for licences to play music in transit stations. From her link, I heard performance in the subway.

On the whole, it's been a great blogging year. Next year, I look forward to becoming even more proficient at this new-found art form.

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