301 lists become a story
Some people are amazingly creative.
A few days ago I wrote about the group writing project being run by Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. He invited readers to submit a list – on any topic. He received 301 entries. I have started trolling through these for ideas and hints, especially those relating to writing.
Liz Strauss on her Successful Blog has started writing a story called A List Becomes 301 Links in Story . So far she has published 4 chapters.
How to be miserable
Rick over at his blog called Shards of Consciousness has written a list of Five Ways to Make Yourself Miserable. (Sorry – the links no longer work.)
Ouch ouch ouch.
He’s touched on a few sore points there. I seem to regularly make an art form of these habits, to the point where I feel miserable if I’m not miserable.
Time to go out walking and birding.
That usually cures me for a while.
Thanks for the wake up call, Rick.
Check out my birding blog here.
Updated November 2013.
Short Fiction #9 The Refusal
No Comments »20th August, 2006; Category: Short Fiction
The Refusal
Adrian was becoming impatient.
“Why hasn’t she rung?†he muttered.
He paced the floor. He tidied the magazine rack for the third time. He swept the kitchen floor again. He readjusted the flower arrangement.
The telephone rang.
“At last!†he shouted. “Hello, is that you dear?â€
“Yes,†she said.
“Well?â€
“Sorry. I won’t marry you.â€
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel
Read more of my short fiction here.
Creativity
2 Comments »19th August, 2006; Category: General
Creativity is not a topic I have specifically written about on this blog. I’ve just been reading the post on the blog YourCre8tivity about writing and creativity. The writer has written a post about ways of stopping creativity.
The article is called 5 Ways to Block Your Creativity and it is in 2 parts:
- 5 Creativity Blockers
- Unlock Your Creativity.
I particularly liked the last two suggestions:
- Keep your life in balance.
– Spending all your time at work or playing video games narrows your field of reference. A balanced lifestyle gives you a wider palatte to draw your inspiration from and ensures that you have the energy to follow up on those inspirations.- Follow your own vision.
– Your best creative efforts will coincide with the things you care most about. That’s when energy, desire and effort are all harnessed together.
I find life throws me out of balance on far too often, and coping with the disappointments, the trials, the challenges and the demands of others can sometimes take so much energy that the creative juices run dry.
Furthermore, on reading this article I realise that I have not read through my vision statement for more than six months. I need the energy supplied by my vision to reinvigorate me, as well as keeping me on track, always aiming for the goals I have set myself.
Getting Readers into Your Blog Archives
One of the problems facing most bloggers is getting readers to access the archives sections of the blog. As bloggers, we might spend many hours researching, thinking, planning and then writing our posts. Once the post hits the internet, it sits there on our front page for a few hours or perhaps days, and then the post sinks down the page before disappearing into the archives of the blog. Depending on the profile of your blog, that post you agonised over may have a dozen or so readers or a few hundred if you are lucky.
What to do about it?
Related Posts
One of the techniques I use is to include a related posts listing at the end of the post. This directs readers to other posts I have made on the same topic. This seems quite an effective strategy because many visitors to this blog are reading multiple pages and not just the latest post.
Series of articles
Another technique I use is to write a numbered series of posts. These are on a theme or in a particular genre. For example, I am regularly posting some of my short fiction. These are numbered and also all of them are listed on a page in the navigation section, drawing readers’ attention to previous posts. Another series I am writing I have called “Writing Hints.” As these are posted the links draw the readers to other pages. In my birding blog I have written a series called “How to be a Birder.” Again, this is a numbered series which I hope will draw readers into the archives to read more.
Internal Linking
Another technique to use is internal linking. I used this technique in the above paragraph, linking key words (eg short fiction) and categories in this blog to other sections of the blog. (Note: In the previous paragraph I also used external linking to another of my blogs. The crossover between my blogs shows up as a strength in my statistics.)
Related article:
The motivation for this article comes from Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger. Darren has a long and very useful article on all the different techniques he uses to encourage readers to read in depth within his blogs. The article can be found here: