I Broke My Blog Plus One Writing Tip

It is almost 1 am and I just spent more than one hour breaking and fixing my blog. I am tempted to kick my own ass for the sin of deciding to wander into deeper waters after 11:30 at night.

WTF was I thinking?

I am glad that you asked because I want to answer. I don’t like the way this place looks and I got a bug up my behind that said I might be able to tweak a free theme into looking the way that I want.

You see a while back I moved from Thesis to Headway. When I made the move it was with the understanding that Headway was about to roll out a major redesign and that I would be able to take advantage of the additional functionality at a lower price. Made good sense to me to join up and I have no regrets.

Headway Themes also announced that as part of the roll out they would provide some child themes at no additional cost. They aren’t ready yet and I got impatient so I tried to make some temporary changes and in the process I broke the blog.

For a short time it was completely inaccessible and then I went storming into the logs to find the bug that was creating the issue. Well I found it and I squashed it. I definitely broke this SOB but I fixed it too.

I am pretty damn proud of myself for figuring that out. It is more proof that tinkering and the ability to read make for a good combination. They are also dangerous because it gives me confidence to take on a bit more than I should, but that is ok.

If you want to learn than you need to do, just ask Kaarina. OTOH, Jayme might suggest hiring a professional and that is not a bad idea. Her redesign is beautiful.

One Writing Tip- Make the Reader Relate To You

Sometimes people ask me if I can give them insight into how I am able to blog every day. I think if you asked my friend Jens he would say you just do it. When I talk to other parent bloggers they usually tell me that if they focus on their children they can always find something to write about.

There is a lot of truth in that. I have been outraged and angry about the shooting in France. My children attend a Jewish Day School. Sometimes people ask me if I think I am making them into targets by sending them there.

I say no and I mean it. I think that there is danger everywhere…if you look for it that is. There is a greater chance of them being involved in a serious car accident than a terrorist incident. Does that mean that I ignore it? Hell No.

Sometimes I think about it. Sometimes I remember when my son was very little and he told me that if bad people came to our house I needed to “kill them dead.” Last year my daughter asked me if I would kill someone who was trying to hurt them and I said yes without hesitation. It is not a question. I am their father and that makes me the shield, the knight and the superhero.

But I made a point to talk to her in great detail about her question. I wanted to understand what prompted it. Turned out that she had heard some story on the news so I wanted her to know that if someone broke into the house I would protect her. She asked me how and I told her not to worry about it. Just trust that I will.

It was enough for her and she went to sleep. Haven’t heard a peep about it in almost a year now.

Did You Catch The First Writing Tip?

That first writing tip was simple- make the reader relate to you. I don’t mean to sound like an arrogant jerk but I am betting that many of you have been nodding your heads while reading this post. That is because so many of you are bloggers and parents.

You recognize the challenge of trying to make a blog look nice and probably relate to some of the technical challenges I listed.

If you are a parent you understand the horror of something happening to our children. There isn’t anything worse. But I am willing to be that if even if you aren’t a parent you could relate to that story. I am willing to bet that you understand the need and desire to protect those we love most.

But Wait There is More!

Just when you thought that you had received an enormous amount of value from this post I come back and give you one more tip. It is not as cool as The Ginsu knife but it is pretty neat.

One of the best ways to make readers connect with you is to pretend that you are writing a letter to one person. I have done a lot of that with the stories in this post. I have pictured a few people and written the story as if it was a letter to them.

It helps me set the tone and to create a mental image in my head.

And now I must go to sleep. I am up much later than I meant to be all because I broke my blog. And since I broke it I figured I had to blog about it for the Just Write project. Go visit Heather and tell her that I said thanks for organizing this each week.

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