Blogging has become an integral part of the lives of people of all age groups around the world. This online diary has come to be viewed as the acme of literature in a hurry!
The blogosphere has opened up a world of limitless possibilities. From the pompous college braggart, the intelligent housewife, and the jet-setting businessman… blogging is a way in which people choose to share their innermost thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations and experiences with those who’d care to listen (read).
But in my opinion, over time, the art of blogging has been trivialised. It’s a simple case of wanting to reveal too much about oneself. That’s possibly why you find bloggers making posts on mundane issues: “I went to this restaurant and the people there were boisterous…”; “My friendly neighbourhood flower seller is ill”; “Ah! This is the mongrel outside my home which I feed daily”. Does anyone really care about these things, apart from the blogger? I’m not in any manner or form deriding those who make such posts.
I firmly believe that when someone visits your blog, he or she must leave thinking about what they’ve just read or seen. Such must be the impact that the text and images linger in the mind and make one reflect upon it. Therefore, your posts mustn’t be commonplace. Vain attempts at inducing humour, where there is none to be had, are a strict no-no.
There are quite a few blogs that I love and appreciate. Those that enrich and enlighten the reader on every visit. No post is thoughtless or made for the heck of it. There’s a steady flow of thought in whatever the blogger wishes to convey. Even food recipes and aspects of gardening are dealt with in an engaging manner and exude the passion in the mind of the writer. It’s infectious.
Overall, I am mighty pleased that the world of blogging has allowed for more and more folks to come out into the open and try their skills at writing. In cyberspace, anything goes. So many bloggers say, “To hell with grammar and syntax and other things such as these!” Okay! But don’t abuse language —respect your reader.
Write your heart out, be honest to yourself… that’s half the battle won. But NEVER talk down to your readers with an ‘I-know-it-all-attitude’. Having served as a journalist I can cite several examples of ‘been-there-done-that’ types. They all fall flat on their face, sooner or later. A little learning is soon exposed.
Know your audience, for you’re not writing to the wind. This is not to say that you play to the gallery. Respect the opinions of others, whilst holding your own. It’s no rocket science, but a thin dividing line that separates wisdom from folly.
Another aspect I’d like to hold forth on is immediacy of news. For example, imagine a hypothetical situation, a tragedy in your city that has denizens troubled. Surely a majority of the bloggers will write about it… as it happened. So why don’t you give it a twist? Try and be unique… write about the human element in the tragedy instead of just projecting it as news. That’s the key.
These, in my opinion are some of the mantras that a successful blogger ought to employ. The ball is in your court!
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in July, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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—About our writer:
Anand Balaji is a journalist with seven years’ experience and has worked full-time for leading newspapers and on Radio as a freelance interviewer, in Bangalore. He has covered the Arts, Environmental issues, Politics, Crime and Education and has earned 400 bylines. He was a freelance writer in an NGO; a document editor in a Law firm and a senior copywriter in an ad agency. He has edited/co-authored a book on street kids.
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