Archive for June, 2008

I was listening to music while I was taking my shower, and *bam*, an idea for a post came along. The first song was “Red Letters” by dc Talk, then “Goodbye Earl” and “Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks (custom-made cd). The first song reminded me of the hope that can be found in the written words of a book, any book, if you let them. “Goodbye Earl” reminded me that a song, or post, can be humorous, while bringing a point across. “Not Ready to Make Nice” is a whole can of worms. It came about because of something the lead singer of the Dixie Chick’s, Natalie Maines, said.

Choose Your Words Carefully

Once you hit publish, everything you’ve typed is available for all the world to see. Even if you decide to delete it later on, someone, somewhere, had a chance to either screencap your post, or it could have been “harvested” by bots.

I’m not saying to beat around the bush. Trust me, I don’t, and my blogs are now read by family and in-laws. I’m honest with my posts, even though some don’t believe it. It’s easy to fake cheerfulness, or a neutral post, but most readers prefer an honest opinion, in some cases, no matter how brutal.

Don’t Fly Off the Handle

In “Not Ready to Make Nice“, Natalie says:

It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

Because of something she said, someone sent her a death threat. She took the smart way, though, and turned her shock at it into a song. She could have taken another route, refusing to leave her house, or something like that, but she didn’t. You have that option, instead of flying off the handle, take a step back and let it flow into a post, be it one that the world never sees, or one for all the world to see.

Be Yourself

You must always be yourself in your posts. Don’t just spin what someone else has written. Yes, you can use what someone else has written as inspiration or whatever, but don’t just spit it back out practically word for word. Besides it giving you no credibility, it gets mundane and boring reading the same thing over and over. Have fun with your posting and let the true you come out.