"How to Write a Blog Post People Actually Want to Read"

From this reading, I learned there are four things needed to create a perfect blog post; a catchy title and sub-headers, interesting images, helpful/factual information, and personality.
Let's be honest, bloggers typically write about the same general topics. To differentiate yourself from other bloggers, you need to take those "basic" topics and tune into specifics about them. This will give your writing a different spin then the writing of other bloggers, ultimately attracting the readers attention.
The appearance of your blog is very important for drawing readers in. Presenting them with a huge block of text will often scare away your readers, but by using headings and white space, you are able to give your writing a better image. Break huge blocks of writing into different sub-sections, and label them all with a specific title. It's also helpful to add bolded phrases into your writing or give your main ideas a bigger font.
It's also important that you write with personality. If you want your readers to relate to what you're saying and genuinely enjoy reading your blog, you have to let them know that there's a real person behind those words. A few ways to do this are by eliminating choppy sentences, using jokes or phrases you say a lot, and telling real, personal stories. It's also helpful to use different font types. For example, you can italicize or bold words for emphasis that you might emphasize in your real talking.
Lastly, it's important that you use images in your writing. People relate better to visuals. When choosing images to incorporate into your blog, you want to make sure that they add to your writing and that they are clear. Readers are often turned away by blurry or unclear images, it gives them the impression that you have a low-quality blog.

Grammar Girl #646

Personally, I never knew the difference between "blond" and "blonde" and always assumed it was simply a cultural difference in spelling. From this podcast, I learned that the two forms of the word actually originate from old french language. Each correlate with a gender. "Blond" is the correct form when referring to a fair-haired male and "blonde" is the correct form when referring to a fair-haired female.
 
As times have progressed, referring to a women as "blonde" can be considered sexist but is still considered correct in proper English. Additionally, most prevalent in the United States, when used as an adjective, "blond" is more common. The form "blond" is also used when referring to intimate objects, aside from Starbucks who uses the feminine form to refer to their drink the "blonde roast coffee."

Writing About Yourself

As a writer, it's important to understand the importance of individuality. Writers are often influenced to write what their teacher or editor wants, when they should be writing what they want. I learned that we shouldn't write what other people want to hear, but what is familiar to us. When you write for yourself, you will reach the people who you want to write for.

When writing about yourself, it's important you are able to distinguish the thin line between "ego and egotism." Confidence and pride are important as a writer; you won't be able to get far without it. On the other hand, being too egotistic will only bring down your writing. You want to make sure that all of the details of your memoir are moving your story forward.

A memoir shouldn't be a summary of your life, which is what autobiographies are for. Narrow it down to specific moments, and build up to the person you are today. Use important details from your past to give your readers an insight on your life, but do so without describing an entire timeline.

People should be the real focus of your memoir. Small details, perhaps the smell of your childhood home, are important to painting an image of what your life was like, but not as important as using real people and experiences. Use people to pave the way for the main focus of the writing, yourself. Give an idea of how certain people impacted you.

Writer's Options (Unit 3)

The relative clause, a tool useful to revising your writing, helps create more economical sentences and control focus in your paragraphs. By replacing a noun or noun phrase with a pronoun (which, that, who, whom, or whose), you are combining two sentences and constructing a relative clause.

When replacing nouns with pronouns to construct a relative clause, you must choose carefully. The pronoun you choose should be based off of whether or not the noun refers to a human. For example, when it does not refer to a human, you can use the pronouns that or which. When referring to a human, it's better to use the pronouns whom and that.

By determining how the clause relates to the meaning of the sentence, you can determine the punctuation you should use. When using a relative clause without commas, you are implying that the information in the clause is true of only certain things or people mentioned in the sentence. When you use a comma, you are implying that the information in the clause is true of all things or people in the sentence. When using a comma in a relative clause, you must use who, whom, or which.

Relative clauses also allow for sentence clarity. When two sentences sit next to each other, it can be unclear which sentence is the main idea. Adding a relative clause gives a clearer picture of what's the main idea and what is merely supporting information.

The Writer's Options (3-14)

Although all writer's have their own style, most utilize the same composing process - prewriting, drafting, and rewriting. Many authors will move back and forth between these steps as they write, and they'll even repeat steps. Prewriting means to plan and think before you begin drafting, drafting is to get your writing down on paper, and rewriting is to modify your written draft. It is important to use these steps in your own writing process.

Listing, focused free writing, and the reporter's formula. Three solutions to your writer's block. It's difficult to know where to begin when you are first starting a piece of writing, so it's helpful to have a starting point. List ideas of things you'd like to write about, and list information about those things. It will help you brainstorm and give you many writing options to choose from. Focused free writing is to write nonstop for a certain period of time. It's possible that a majority of it won't be helpful, but parts of it will spark new ideas, and get you started on something much bigger. The reporter's formula is to ask questions used by newspaper reporters, "who, what, where, when, why, how?" Ask yourself these questions to generate ideas for your writing and to learn new information about it.

Once you decide who you're writing for and the reason you're writing, you'll be able to determine which main idea you want to focus on. Once you focus on one main idea, everything else becomes "blurred out" in a sense, so it's important to pick an idea relevant to the purpose of your writing. 

Writers on Writing

This article talks about several different ways to improve your writing, some much more specific then others. For example, his first point is to "never open a book with weather." Your readers are looking for details on your characters, not what the weather is like.
He also talks about never using a verb other than "said" to carry your dialogue. When you get too wordy or use words that no one knows, you'll lose the interest of your readers and interrupt the flow of your story. Keep it simple.
The same goes for using adverbs to modify the word "said." If you do this, you'll become too wordy and complicate your story. You may lose the attention of your reader.
I also learned that you want to avoid detailed descriptions of your characters. It's important to provide description of your characters, but keep it simple. By keeping it simple you aren't over-complicating your story, but you are still giving your readers the chance to understand your characters.

Lastly, you don't want to go into too much detail describing places and things, similar to your characters. By rambling on about the setting or the brisk wind, you are interrupting the flow of your story and losing the attention of your readers.

Bird by Bird (123-150)

In this final section, the author teaches us about finding our voice. Many beginning writers tend to use popular authors as inspiration for their own writing, which is good to start off, but you should always be focused on adapting your own voice. She also goes into depth about finding your truths. In order to find your voice, you need to write about your own experience. As said by the author, "the truth of your experience can only come through in your own voice." Dig deep into your past. Write about things that caused you pain, joy, made you cry, or made you laugh.

This goes hand in hand with placing real emotion at the center of your work, another message the author portrayed. She talks about writing things that truly shaped you. These could be things that you may have never told anyone, or things that seem too dark to put into writing. Use them to express your voice and your story.

Lastly she talked about using your writing as a way to give. You should give your readers material that they can relate to. Write about things that are considered too real or too raw and emotional. Write your truths, because there are people out there who have experienced similar situations. If it feels right, write about death, or sickness, or tragedy. If you've experienced something that you think other people could relate too, write about it, and pour your entire heart and soul into it. Use emotion in your writing. Give to your readers material that will make them feel not alone in their own struggles.