Have you ever gone into a blog and noticed the writing format? How sometimes it's left justified like this paragraph. Or other times it is centered like the paragraph below.
How do you decide which way to go with your blog? It's a personal choice, like everything else, but this is one of those things I agonize over when I'm blogging.
I can't make up my mind.
On the one hand, I've read that it's easier for the reader if you format your posts so that they are left justified, but it's okay to center the title. Or maybe center a sentence in the middle to draw attention to the reader. Like this -
Read This!
Did you notice that I also made my text bigger? Some bloggers will make a word in their sentences smaller, too, just to make a point.
This was going through my head today because I'm taking a course called
Build a Blog You Truly Love ( you may have noticed the link in the right margin). Consequently, I'm noticing a lot of things that other bloggers do in their posts to create personality.
Especially how they change the way it comes across just by how they use punctuation, font size and paragraph formatting.
Some bloggers will always sometimes cross out words. Why? To add personality? To make it more creative? Or because they really made a mistake and don't want to hit delete several times, but prefer to just highlight and hit the cross-through tab?
Some bloggers write everything double spaced.
Every new sentence starts on a new line.
Absolutely no more than one sentence is ever written on the same line.
For fun, they'll center the lines, too.
Keeping them double spaced.
Makes it look a little like poetry.
How about those bloggers who write with periods where they are grammatically incorrect to make a point. Kinda. Like. This.
Or other bloggers will use words like lurve in their post. The first time I saw lurve, I couldn't figure out what I was reading. You lurve? What's a lurve? Then I got it. They meant love. They are just putting some kind of southern drawl on the word lurve....lurrrrve. Luuuuuuuuurve. Or maybe it's not a southern drawl. I'm not sure. I never "heard" the word "lurve" before until blogging. I don't lurve. I love. I like the the word love. Lurve is, well....lurve!
The funny thing about blogging though is that once you start to notice stuff like this, then you find yourself thinking that way, too. I saw something the other day and in my head, heard myself think, "Oh I lurve that!"
Whoa, back up! Did I just replace love with lurve?
I never say "lurve" in real life. Okay, what I mean to say is that I never say it outside Blogger Land. And, for the record, this post is the first time I've said it in Blogger Land.
What I do say in real life that I very rarely say in Blogger Land is "ya'll." I have been living in Virginia since I was 16 (some 30+ years now) and at some point and time my word for the plural "you," became "ya'll." But, for whatever reason, I struggle saying that in my writing.
I also tend to slur my words a bit in real life, especially if there is an "r" in the word. I didn't know this until my oldest son thought he'd be cute and played back a VM that I left on his cell phone. I was horrified to say the least, but most people are shocked when they hear their own voice, so I've learned to live with that one. Sorta. When you think about it, though, my slurred "r" kinda makes lurrrrrve a good fit for me.
There's really not a specific point to this post, kinda like Seinfeld. I'm just thinking out loud. Trying to find my authentic voice and personality in my writing. Don't judge me by this post as I'm not there, yet. Actually, do me a favor and don't judge me at all, k?
Notice the "k"? That comes from texting. Isn't it funny how the way we communicate face to face, in blogging and in text starts to intermingle.
That reminds me. Have you ever tried Fridays fried green bean appetizer? I love, luuuurve, ahem, think it's really delicious! Especially the wasabi dip! Yum. Not too long ago I discovered Fridays frozen variety at our grocery store and I bought some for dinner the other night. When I was reading the directions, I noticed it read "Allow green bean fries to stand for a couple of minutes b4 digging in!" I laughed because using b4 in their directions definitely goes with Fridays hip personality. But, it also shows how our techno desire to communicate quickly is showing up in other venues.
I guess that brings my post full circle for now. Trying to decide how to write a blog post is all about letting your authentic personality shine forth.
I probably could use some pics in this blog post so that it isn't all text, text text. I'll have to work on that.
Bye ya'll!
