Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Answers to questions from a reader
Thank you for the e-mail, anonymous, it had some good advice. I'll answer two of the questions because I can. Others will have to wait till I've thought about them.
Why are your posts so long?
I'm no professional writer, obviously. Every run-on sentence probably cries out "college paper". And, as I found out on my third day, A man who has himself as his own editor has a blogger for a client.
Another reason is that the subjects require fill exploration. My chosen themes are what went wrong for the left, what we are doing that is counterproductive and how we can fix those. I could say, "just use plain language (to which you'll answer, look who's talking), or "stop asking for the impossible" but it takes longer than that.
I know that length cuts down on readership. digby, the best writer I know on the leftist blogs, doesn't seem to have the number of readers that some of the others have. I suspect it's because you actually have to read his articles. The quality of his comments show that he's got serious readers that make up for the smaller numbers. My topics are more limited and I'm not as good a writer. Maybe I'll learn to be more brief with experience.
Why aren't you posting on today's news?
I didn't think it was a good idea to try to reproduce what Buzzflash does so excellently now. They are my first source for news and I recommend them to everyone I can.
The blogs that post mostly on the current news are even more numerous. That beat is covered. I love those blogs and their commenters but a lot of them have essentially two messages: "Ain't it awful," "If those Dems don't do what we want right now we're not voting for them,". The first we already know, the second is complete idiocy that has worked to weaken the left and put George W. Bush into power. And it's gotten old.
I would rather have fifty readers who are doing something useful than a quarter of a million people who are just going to sit around and type the same old things into the internet. I hope you find some useful ideas here and that they help you to take effective action. If you don't, please find them and let me know so I can read them too.
Thank you for the e-mail, anonymous, it had some good advice. I'll answer two of the questions because I can. Others will have to wait till I've thought about them.
Why are your posts so long?
I'm no professional writer, obviously. Every run-on sentence probably cries out "college paper". And, as I found out on my third day, A man who has himself as his own editor has a blogger for a client.
Another reason is that the subjects require fill exploration. My chosen themes are what went wrong for the left, what we are doing that is counterproductive and how we can fix those. I could say, "just use plain language (to which you'll answer, look who's talking), or "stop asking for the impossible" but it takes longer than that.
I know that length cuts down on readership. digby, the best writer I know on the leftist blogs, doesn't seem to have the number of readers that some of the others have. I suspect it's because you actually have to read his articles. The quality of his comments show that he's got serious readers that make up for the smaller numbers. My topics are more limited and I'm not as good a writer. Maybe I'll learn to be more brief with experience.
Why aren't you posting on today's news?
I didn't think it was a good idea to try to reproduce what Buzzflash does so excellently now. They are my first source for news and I recommend them to everyone I can.
The blogs that post mostly on the current news are even more numerous. That beat is covered. I love those blogs and their commenters but a lot of them have essentially two messages: "Ain't it awful," "If those Dems don't do what we want right now we're not voting for them,". The first we already know, the second is complete idiocy that has worked to weaken the left and put George W. Bush into power. And it's gotten old.
I would rather have fifty readers who are doing something useful than a quarter of a million people who are just going to sit around and type the same old things into the internet. I hope you find some useful ideas here and that they help you to take effective action. If you don't, please find them and let me know so I can read them too.
