World wide words
March 14th 2009 00:42
One of the things novice bloggers don't get warned about is the danger of touching people.
I have a friend who wrote a non-fiction book which sold well around the world. I have a relative who was talking one day to a woman terminally ill with cancer, who said one consequence was that she had stopped reading fiction and had turned to books which taught her something about the world. And then she mentioned my friend's book as an example.
I reported this story to my friend, the author of the book, who paused a moment and then said, "You write something, and when you are finished it takes on a life of its own."
If you create a blog and write in it, the same thing will happen. It may be to a greater or lesser extent, but the words in your blog posts will go out into the world and touch people. And you will have no control over the process or consequences.
A few months ago I wrote a post on Vyoos about a 16-year-old boy in England who had been fired from his part-time cleaning job because he was, according to English regulations, too young to operate a vacuum cleaner. The boy recently found my blog post and left a friendly comment, saying in part that he had been surprised at how much publicity the incident had received.
More recently I wrote another Vyoos post about a New Zealand chocolatier who produces some exotically innovative products, including an aphrodisiac chocolate. I advocated a fountain-of-youth chocolate for her next project. A few days later she left a comment on my blog thanking me for the suggestion and inviting me to sign up for her newsletter, in which "your comments will always be welcome".
The most recent, and the most special, was a comment on a Zoomies post by fellow Orble blogger Queenie, who has had a lifelong fear of greyhounds after bad experiences in her childhood. My blog about my two gentle greyhounds, she said, had after all these years banished the fear. That is awesome.
So if you are new to blogging, let this be a warning to you: your words will take on a life of their own; they will march out into the unknown and touch people in unexpected ways.
image: www.treehugger.com
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Comment by Spike 2
Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter
By the way, your blog is lucky Karl was 16, or it could have gotten arrested for touching him.
Comment by Chris Champion
LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Comment by Chris Champion
LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
well done on the compliments you are getting, i think it is also a reflection of how accessible your posts must be through the search engines, what you write must be rating highly in search results
Comment by Chris Champion
LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Hey, I get mocked for caring about spelling and apostrophes. Let's start a needlework blog, then they can smock us.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
whats life without a few pricks?