Composing a Theme Song
In a recent entry I wondered who is my audience. Today I wonder what is my blog’s ‘theme’.
Reading and rereading my favorite writers I notice each has a sort of ‘niche’. They not only write in a style all their own but stick to a general topic. Some examples<
Ellis < writes about Catholicism
Vowell < history
Sedaris < his family
Perry < life a gay man
Holland < the joys and sorrows of every day items.
You get the drift. Even my ‘colleagues’, the few bloggers I know and read regularly, each hae a general theme; one writes about his daily happenings. One writes about fish and “B” movies.
Trained first as a biologist, I think of writers and bloggers as successful plants that found a niche through a sort of evolution (and survived the lesser fit rivals). Nice metaphor. That leaves me in a mercurial state. I haven’t developed a style, let alone a general leitmotif. I wonder if one is born with the knack for scribbling out thoughts, or does one develop such over time (the evolution thing again; influenced by my current (slow) read through the original “Origin of Species”).
I’ve had two mistakes at the onset. One is to try to talk about this/that and everything. It may appeal to my tiny ADD wired mind but the blog comes across flighty, like a hummingbird. The other error is trying to write/emulate like my favorite writers. I think this is complimentary, but perhaps some would consider it unoriginal if not copycatting.
Well, like evoluation, it is a slow process of what works/doesn’t work and what survives. How this will look a year from now may be radically different; it may have died out even.
Meanwhile, I poke about and think and snoop for ideas and inspiration.
Readers of Spo, what would you want to see and hear?
Reading and rereading my favorite writers I notice each has a sort of ‘niche’. They not only write in a style all their own but stick to a general topic. Some examples<
Ellis < writes about Catholicism
Vowell < history
Sedaris < his family
Perry < life a gay man
Holland < the joys and sorrows of every day items.
You get the drift. Even my ‘colleagues’, the few bloggers I know and read regularly, each hae a general theme; one writes about his daily happenings. One writes about fish and “B” movies.
Trained first as a biologist, I think of writers and bloggers as successful plants that found a niche through a sort of evolution (and survived the lesser fit rivals). Nice metaphor. That leaves me in a mercurial state. I haven’t developed a style, let alone a general leitmotif. I wonder if one is born with the knack for scribbling out thoughts, or does one develop such over time (the evolution thing again; influenced by my current (slow) read through the original “Origin of Species”).
I’ve had two mistakes at the onset. One is to try to talk about this/that and everything. It may appeal to my tiny ADD wired mind but the blog comes across flighty, like a hummingbird. The other error is trying to write/emulate like my favorite writers. I think this is complimentary, but perhaps some would consider it unoriginal if not copycatting.
Well, like evoluation, it is a slow process of what works/doesn’t work and what survives. How this will look a year from now may be radically different; it may have died out even.
Meanwhile, I poke about and think and snoop for ideas and inspiration.
Readers of Spo, what would you want to see and hear?
posted by Ur-spo at 7:43 AM
2 Comments:
More entries about Godzilla. That's my suggestion.
Strange, I couldn't help but feeling you had hit your niche, your niche is your passions, you speak about the things you love and why, (then again I suppose we all do, don't we) it's a beautiful blog and well done I feel, can't wait to read more. You definitely have a writing style too, slightly erudite but completely unpretentious.
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