Blog Writing: Using Words

Blog writing is communication. We aren’t writing fiction, but neither are we penning instruction manuals for mechanical implements. We have an extremely short amount of time to hook a reader into following through to completion, perhaps only as much as the title of the article. In any event, it’s important that we communicate effectively with our limited number of words, and that we don’t wait too long to set the hook.

We had almost nothing left in common and eventually she left.

The above sentence describes a situation and relays the end result. It’s terse and to the point, but it doesn’t engage the reader’s imagination because it never called upon the reader to imagine, feel, or relate to anything. Almost all blog writing is done in this manner. Most blog articles show the same creativity as a shopping list. When people do veer away from this sterile type of communication, it is usually not toward creative expression, but self expression. Occasionally self expression is a viable goal, but for the most part Richard Peck had it right: Writing is communication, not self-expression; nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother.

Our transgressions became a wall that eventually toppled over on us, crushing what we once had like it was a small, fragile bird. I looked up one day and watched her vanish, like mist burning off under the imperious glare of an indifferent sun.

The above sentence illustrates the hole we can fall into once we decide to introduce some creativity into our writing style. It’s completely overboard and self indulgent. Nobody talks like this, and nobody writes like this except in poetry. John Gardner said it best: The writer who cares more about words than about story – characters, action, setting, atmosphere – is unlikely to create a vivid and continuous dream; he gets in his own way too much; in his poetic drunkenness, he can’t tell the cart – and its cargo – from the horse. The same is doubly true for blog writing. We aren’t writing a story, we are communicating. Interject some creativity and you can increase your effectiveness as a communicator, but less is more.

There was so much damage behind us and so much change between us that in the end we were two strangers living in the same house. One day she just left, and neither of us were surprised. While some part of me mourned the loss of what we once had, there was more relief that it was finally over.

First and foremost the message you are trying to communicate must not be diluted or lost. The communication is the important thing, not the words we wrap around the message. Use more or less depending on what engages your imagination. This is why books will always be a much more fulfilling medium for storytelling than motion pictures. Motion pictures can offer a spectacular 90-120 minutes of escapism, but they leave little to the imagination. The writer’s brush is the reader’s imagination. A successful writer will use the reader’s imagination to paint the landscapes and characters, and effectively use shared emotions and experiences to give weight to those phantoms.

I want you to think about your writing and how you can make it more engaging for your readers. The first step to this is to go out and read blogs. I don’t think you can be a particularly good blog writer unless you are a blog reader. Be analytical and note what makes other writers successful or unsuccessful at engaging you. Don’t try to imitate someone else’s style, but do note the approaches other writers take. Really good writing occurs when you have a topic that you have interest in and something to say about it. Do not be afraid to engage your reader’s imagination, because otherwise all you have is a one way conversation that excludes them.

Blog writing isn’t poetry or literary fiction. That doesn’t mean it has to be impersonal and sterile. Give your readers something of yourself and engage their imaginations, but don’t overdo it. Understand that your medium is to communicate in a relatively small amount of words. Make those words count.