Lesson Three: Digging Deeper
“Digging Deeper” suggests that there is a surface level of your blog that you can touch and never go beneath. Imagine fishing with a short line; if you keep casting into deep waters with a shallow line, most likely, you’re only going to draw the type of fish that would swim near the surface. So, it’s natural to assume that you’d keep catching this type of fish, unless you changed something, namely how deep you cast.
The internet is a broad audience; these are “deep waters.” And if you don’t go beneath the surface with your writing, it’s going to get lost with a bunch of other bobbers floating on the top of the water. What does staying on the surface look like?
Wander through some blog mechanisms to get a feel for this – maybe even your friends’ blogs. Meander through Blogger, Xanga, and MySpace. It shouldn’t take long to see what most people are doing. They’re talking about themselves – what they ate today, which classes they’re skipping, and what kind of music they’re listening to. Not only that, but they’re doing it in a way that often reflects a journal, with nothing very compelling to say.
To go deeper, you’re going to have to give your blog some weight – something of substance to hold it down. I’d like to suggest that you tell stories. Why stories? Because almost everyone can practice good storytelling. Not everyone can write a Pulitzer-winning article on the problem of world poverty or the pandemic of AIDS. But you can talk about what happens to you and draw significance out of it.
As you develop your voice (that is, how you tell a story), you should avoid two pitfalls. Trying to sound like someone you’re not (i.e. pretension) and concentrating too much on one character. In regards to the first, be authentic; don’t try to copy or mimic the best writer you know. You’ve heard it a million times before, and it’s true – just be yourself.
In regards to the second, you don’t want to write too much about yourself, and this may be more tempting than you’d think, especially if your story’s compelling (i.e. traveling around the world). Also, don’t write yourself out of a story.
If you’re doing an interview, you can be a clear personality in the story, fueling questions, getting more information. And if it’s first-person, write about your interactions. There’s no drama if there’s no interaction; there’s no drama if there’s too much of you or the other person. You need characters to produce drama.
My quick suggestions for telling good stories in a blog are the following:
- Keep it short; break up into parts if necessary. I do this on occasion when I know a few hundred words won’t do the experience justice.
- Make sure that you tell it in your unique voice.
- Spend the time finding a good story. If you’re using your blog to mostly tell about yourself, you may just have to wait for the story. Nonetheless, take notes and journal events, because you never know what may become a story.
Spend the time writing the story. There is no good shortcut, and if you genuinely want to become a good writer, you’ll have to spend significant time writing.
