A reader asked me to share a sample of a bad post with them. Since I try never to let my readers down I present to you the mess below in the block quotes. It reminds me a bit of a bag that has been stuffed full of too many objects and is on the verge of splitting open at the seams. Â Comments to follow.
This Father’s Day is likely to be memorable for me but not necessarily for the right reasons. It happens to fall during a challenging time for me. Â That is not much of a surprise. I have been writing about it in very general terms for some time now. The general terms are used because there are boundaries in blogging- lines that we need to think carefully of before we cross. This is not a private blog nor a private post. It can be read by anyone.
There is that insouciant part of me that rolls his eyes at all of this and says “who cares.” His twin the angry man doesn’t care either asking what difference does it make. But there is hesitation and that’s enough for now. I suspect that I’ll share more details later, but I am not ready…yet.
So my friends if I told you that I was writing a book, would you buy it? Would my request be enough or do I need to provide you with details? Would it make a difference if the price were $5 bucks or less.
As I write this post there is a conversation on Twitter regarding which superhero we would be. There is a debate between Superman and Captain Marvel with a sprinkle of Wolverine and Captain America. For a moment it is a nice distraction but that doesn’t last long. Too much is going on far too fast and yet so slowly I am feeling crazed.
If I wrote a book I would probably weave together posts from Fragments of Fiction like:
- Echoes of The Future
- He Put A Gun To My Head
- A Beginning
- Timing
- The Almost Warrior
- A Burning Anger- Georgie
- A 21st Century Break Up
- Lightning Strikes Twice
- Dancing In The Fire
- Jericho
Or I might go a different direction and focus upon blogging and business. It might be based upon things like:
- Great Headlines Are Overrated
- The Rules Of Blogging
- The Best Blogging Tips I Never Wrote
- The Business Of Blogging
- Why I Recycle Old Blog Posts & You Should Too
Maybe it will be a combination of all of those things and maybe it will be none of those things.
There are several simple solutions for fixing the problems created by this mess:
- 1) The obvious one is to select all and then click delete. Simply “nuke it” and start over. It is a quick and easy way to correct things.
- 2) Take a few minutes and break that bad boy up into bite size pieces. Once you do that you can trim some of the fat off and sew it back together.
- 3) Review the three things a story needs and then modify to fit. Those three things are beginning, middle and end.
I don’t have one standard response but it is worth mentioning that I save all of my drafts. I find them to be very useful. It is not unusual for me to pull out sections and use them in new posts. I also find drafts to be a good tool for devising ideas for new posts. More thoughts about this in a post to come later.
Jack, thx so much for sharing this example which reads so unlike your other work.Â
How good it is to know that even someone with your talent rights an occasional rambling and disjointed post.
Jack, I also appreciate your suggestions to fix it.
Best wishes for a Happy Father’s Day. Aloha. Janet
@twitter-45938040:disqus Hi Janet. I am just like everyone else…guilty of writing a poorly constructed post. I like sharing the good and the bad because it is educational.
I do it more for me than anyone else. It is easy for me to see where I went wrong and what I should have done. Much of my blogging is done for the sole purpose of trying to improve my writing.
Thanks so much for the Father’s Day Wishes.
Jack, thx so much for sharing this example which reads so unlike your other work.Â
How good it is to know that even someone with your talent rights an occasional rambling and disjointed post.
Jack, I also appreciate your suggestions to fix it.
Best wishes for a Happy Father’s Day. Aloha. Janet
@twitter-45938040:disqus Hi Janet. I am just like everyone else…guilty of writing a poorly constructed post. I like sharing the good and the bad because it is educational.
I do it more for me than anyone else. It is easy for me to see where I went wrong and what I should have done. Much of my blogging is done for the sole purpose of trying to improve my writing.
Thanks so much for the Father’s Day Wishes.
I’m all for option 3. That’s my usual approach.
I think that three is usually the smartest move. It provides the best results.Â
I’m all for option 3. That’s my usual approach.
I think that three is usually the smartest move. It provides the best results.Â
It’s all over the place. But there’s some interesting bits and pieces.
Why don’t you tell us the three things that you think makes it a bad post.
It is a convoluted mess that has too many ideas and lacks the coherence it should have had.
It’s all over the place. But there’s some interesting bits and pieces.
Why don’t you tell us the three things that makes it a bad post.
It is a convoluted mess that has too many ideas and lacks the coherence it should have had.