This last weekend I received my first piece of advice on this blog, in person at a party. Coincidentally I received the first piece of advice in a comment section from someone named Mark, his first comment since April. Welcome back Mark.
The piece of advice at the party was from a good friend of mine, Dade, a highly intelligent man with excellent writing skills who has his own blog. Here's his post on the party in question, http://dadecariaga.blogspot.com/2008/10/jene-verrckte-deutsch.html
Clearly Dade Cariaga is an excellent writer, with a well presented blog which I take great pleasure in reading. His piece of advice was to use more "White space," to not have such long paragraphs and to have space between them for ease of viewing. Dade was clear that he thought this would be better even if none of the words were changed.
My initial reaction was what everyone who knows me might expect, I simply said I wouldn't. As I have said before in this blog (http://hopefulmuser.blogspot.com/2008/04/few-words-on-religion-and-childhood.html) "I think my natural personality abhors not having autonomy, being under the power of others, and that was present from a very early age." Even something as simple as changing a format of a blog on the advice of a fine writer feels like giving up autonomy, as if someone else has decided something for me.
Coincidentally (perhaps) the last time Mark commented on my blog was in that April post. "More white space" and "Incessant windbag" having more than a little in common, I have used this blog to try out this more-white-space approach.
My initial reaction is that I detest it. It fragments my thinking, grinding it down to the simplest possible statement, removing associative thoughts, paring down the subject matter to bullet points or a power-point presentation.
6 comments:
Well, I like the white space anyway. :-)
Thanks for the nice comments, my dear friend.
Oh.... Danny Boy!!!! The pipes the pipes are blowin! Don't you change a thing you one pectoral wonder boy you! I spent many an evening listening to your incessant wind, and since you seem to think you have an actual fan, other than dade that is.... but I digress, you simply have not figured out that a spectre of your past has come back to haunt you, and to have a bit of fun reading and responding to your ramblings. I just cant't keep up man! So I'll meet ya in the beer garden or maybe we can wander the woods, shake some trees, and make it rain on your head. I promise no religious discussion, just some Davey Spillane and a spliff we'll save the liberty caps for another day.
Mark, I had a strong feeling that the ghost of portugese nobility was haunting me. The Traverse City beer reference was the big clue (it's actually Kalamazoo).
Be true to yourself dear brother. I also feel happier writing in long paragraphs. I like to read your ramblings minus the political stuff which for me is similar to the story bits in a porn book, possibly good but not what I'm looking for after a long day! Oh and what does :-) mean? Is it really just a sideways smiley face or am I missing something?
...yes my good fellow, Kalamazoo, but I got the chunky floaty bits part right! Hope all is well with you and yours on both sides of the pond.
Dan, you're overly logical left hemisphere has betrayed the right and made a binary decision. A lot more white space instead of some more white space. Instead of bullet points, perhaps artistic layout would help the reader. I presume your intent is to impart the content of what you write. Making your musing easy to read facilitates the transfer.
May I suggest you write as you always have. When your done, consider its layout. Perhaps a single space between paragraphs, on long posts perhaps grouping paragraphs with subtitles. Inserting an occasional enhancing graphic, etc.
Thinks of it as complementary parts of exposition. Verbal and visual. Distinct skill sets. The cleaver thing would be to integrate the pair.
...jgk
Post a Comment