Roar for Powerful Words

Despite owning and wearing this shirt, most days I don't feel like a great writer, or even a good one. In fact, you'll notice a lot of my posts lately have been heavy on the pictures and light on the words. I'm an absolutely horrible photographer, so maybe I should stick with writing. Anyway, Cyl from The Muppet Show bestowed this task upon me about two weeks ago, so here are three bits of writing advice, from me to you, many of them hearkening back to the days when I actually got paid to teach people to write. Incorporate them or mock me as you wish...

1) Consider Your Audience
I've been blogging for several years, but about a year ago, I came out to the people who know me in real life when I put a link to my blog in my email signature. Suddenly my aunts and cousins and godmother were emailing me about things I had written in my blog. Friends in town would refer to things I knew I'd written about, but I hadn't ever talked with them about. It was kind of eerie. Over the next few months, I realized that my writing changed. I could no longer complain about how my mother is ruining my life (not that she is, at least not right now) or about how much I hated the dreaded preschool co-op (not that I'm in it anymore). My grandma wanted to see pictures of my kids, so I gave her pictures of my kids. But people who come to my blog for reading and running ideas don't want too see too much of my four favorite smiling faces. So I feel a need to find a balance for all of my audiences. Gone are the days when I can whine and obsess for four months about trying to get pregnant, but I like the feedback from a real audience instead of just a virtual one.

2) Write when you don't feel like writing
Today, I'll admit, I don't feel much like writing. My knee is still bugging me. Isaac still isn't walking. It's 10:18am and I'm sitting in my pajamas. Eddie worked all night last night, which means that he'll be a fantastic romantic partner for Valentine's Day this year. At times like this, when I just want to complain, sometimes I feel like I'd rather not write (in the old days of the blog, when I didn't think people I knew would read it, I didn't care so much about complaining). But in order to keep an audience and in order to keep up the habit, it's still good to write every once in a while when you don't feel like it. Sometimes you'll be surprised and realize that your juices really get flowing once you park your butt in the chair. Other times, well, other times you might not feel so inspired. But don't give up.

3) Strike a balance between finding your unique voice and making your writing readable
My dad has commented several times that he hates to read my writing. "It's so casual," he complains. I know, I break a lot of rules. I start too many sentences with "and" and "but." I split my infinitives. I use way too many exclamation points and tend to overload the parentheses. But (see, I'm doing it!), I like to write this way. In my blog, I want to sound conversational, so my writing, for the most part, mimics the way I talk. However, I also think that the basics of capitalization, paragraphing, spelling and punctuation go a very long way in making a blog readable. I am guilty of not proofing as closely as I should (I often don't proof at all), but I try to make sure that I don't turn away my audience with a jumble of words that takes so much energy to find the meaning that they get lost.

I'd like to pass this award along to three of my favorite bloggers who are all prime examples of how my real and virtual worlds have collided in the last year. I knew all three "in real life" before I knew them as bloggers, and I've loved getting to know them better through their writing:

Lyn from Greetings From Texas-- I love Lyn's blog because she does what I aspire to do-- make my mommy blog more than just a mommy blog. She's got it all in Greetings from Texas-- family journal, delicious recipes, discussions of thought-provoking articles, as well as some random thoughts.

Courtney at 5 Under 5. Courtney has done a great job of creating personas for her children in her writing. I really feel like I know her five little ones. She's also a much better photographer than I am!

Sarah at Sarah's Quilt. Sarah and I bonded over reading, and she's one of the few people I know who reads as much as I do and whose book recommendations I really trust. She's also mastered the balance of how to talk about her kids in a positive way without bragging. And she's just about to have a baby, so maybe this will distract her.

And finally, if you want to read wickedly funny, intelligent mommy blogging, go back to the source and read Cyl's.