How to Create Successful Blogposts: Revision

On Wednesday we discussed the planning stage of creating blog posts, and yesterday we covered the drafting stage. Let's move on to an important, but often overlooked, stage of writing: revision

Revision

When I revise, I first check the sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph flow of the post. I make sure I've made all the appropriate transitions to keep my reader engaged. For example, in the "Jorie Spelling" post, I wrote a lone paragraph about Jorie's nasty antics: particularly the smurf bites. I was all over the place with that paragraph, unsure where and how to connect it. I eventually decided to connect Mean Girls with Jorie's mean girl behavior before bringing the text back to the Donna Martin thread. In fact, this paragraph was written after the next two, but as I thought through my transitions and the logical progression of how I revise, I kept moving it up until it placed where it is.

After I check the post's organization, I re-read it several times, focusing on word choice. In fact, I'll continue to re-read it after its published just to be sure all the wording is the way I want it. The first thing I look at are how active my verbs are. For example, I originally wrote "there wasMean Girls, which gave me . . . " but changed it to "Mean Girls gave me." Subtle change, but those action verbs mean the difference between telling a story to the reader and showing the reader the story.

Once my verbs check out, I move on to adjectives. I try to come up with unique wordcombinations that leave my readers peeing in their pants with delight--see what I mean. Part of the reason I re-read and revise so much is I find myself so darn amusing. Seriously, I love to crack myself up and so as I write, I look for ways in which I can do just that. Adjectives bring writing to life and set authors apart from others. Why say I had a C-section when I can say Mr.Busypants was surgically removed from my uterus?

Which would you laugh at? Which would you remember?

Finally, I make it a rule to re-read the entire paragraph (and sometimes the one before it) if even one revision is made in it--every time. This may seem tedious and time consuming, but the revision process brings on those syntactical errors that you probably wouldn't make in an initial draft. It's important to read each sentence fully each time you revise to minimize these sloppy errors.

Using these techniques really help me write the best blogs I can write. The time pressure still keeps me from making them all that I want them to be, but I'm usually happy each post that I publish. I love making those unique connections that make my writing my own version of the Donna Martin original. Ah, I'm ending on yet another connection.

How to Create Successful Blogposts: Drafting

Yesterday we discussed the planning stage; now let's move on to drafting a blogpost.

Drafting

Once I've gathered enough compatible ideas, the drafting begins. Take my "Jorie Spelling" post. The Tori Spelling connection comes from the Donna Martin character, so my love for Beverly Hills 90210 became the logical starting point. Next, the voices in my head started shouting "Donna Martin graduates," which reminded me that while Donna was portrayed as a sweetie(and Jorie portrays herself as a sweetie), she also has trouble-making abilities (like someone else I know).

I started with the paragraphs about our wardrobe drama, but soon flashed back to my favorite teen dramas. Once I started writing about those, the connections came flying; it was almost too perfect. A rare event in the life of a writer.

First, there was the reference to my all-time favorite movie, Heathers, which I almost always contrast against its 90s and 00 wannabes, Jawbreakers and Mean Girls.

Once I knew I wanted to make these films connect to Jorie's nasty side, I started looking for ways to make that happen. The first, most obvious, came as I remembered hearing that after seeing Heathers, Tori Spelling mentioned Doherty to her dad as a perfect Brenda. Connection.

Next, I looked at Jawbreakers starringRebecca Gayhart and Rose McGowan. This film was a litter harder because it's a lesser version and is lesser known. I kept thinking of McGowan's signature line: "I killed Liz. I killed the teen dream. Deal with it." Of course, I didn't want to go there with my two-year-old, and I knew my audience would probably not make the connection to just "Deal with it," so after a refresher of the film's plot, I decided there weren't any connections worth making aside from Gayhart being a former 90210er herself. Then suddenly it dawned on me that Rose McGowan actually replaced Shannen Doherty as one of the three sisters on Aaron Spelling's Charmed. Cha-Ching! Connection.

Finally, Mean Girls gave me the perfect opportunity to weave in Jorie's newly developing mean streak. Connection.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow as we discuss the final piece of the puzzle: revision. You don't want to miss this one!

How to Create Successful Blogposts: Part 1, Planning

Ideas tend to fly all around me. When I don't write things down, I get frustrated because I forget really great writing material. It can disappear in a second.

That's where drafting comes in handy. On both my blogs, at any given time there are 8-10 drafts in the works. They start out as outlines of topics I'd like to write about like the numerous balloon stories I have on Mr. Busypants or a list of possible Tuesdays with Jorie topics.

For example, when I came up with the Tuesdays with Jorie column, I immediately started brainstorming catchy blog titles. I already had Jorie Costanza (George from Seinfeld) and Jorie Balboa (aka Rocky) titles, but I knew there were a lot of themes that worked well with a name like Jorie.

As I type, I have an entire draft of titles just waiting for stories to match. I'm certain I will come up with great posts to go with "Jump for Jorie," (we do have a trampoline) "Jorie Gilmore," (the mother-daughter relationship) and "Give me the Jorie Details" (which I may just tie in with my recent viewing of the mystery event Harper's Island and my love for the film that resurrected teen horror genre, Scream. This I could somehow connect to Jorie's recent bout of blood-curdling screams).

In fact, I will often review this list and write notes of stories that might just go with the title. It's how I came up with my latest Tuesdays with Jorie column, Jorie Spelling: Fashion Diva. The drafting process went like this:

The Initial List

Recently I've noticed that Jorie has strong feelings about wardrobe. It's the basis of most of our arguments. As I saw these battles increasingly occurring, I started making notes on which outfits created the most drama. Eventually, I decided that because of her role as Donna Martin, fashion designer, that the Jorie Spelling title would work well with this subject.

Notes and Connections

One thing I'm constantly looking for as a writer is connections. The kid stories generate throughout the day as those writable moments occur; I write them down somewhere--anywhere. I try to carry a small notebook in my purse. Other times I have a larger spiral in my work bag. I've also been known to jot ideas down on tiny pieces of paper that I pool together into a master list. And now that I have the iPhone, as I drive, I create voice messages. I get some of my best thinking done in the car.

When looking for connections, I look for similar themes or symbols, pop culture references that work well with the subject, and timely events that pull things together well. For example, it's really rare that I would go over a day in the life. While a story that chronicles the days events can work, I prefer to look for a specific theme (like fashion and fighting), symbol (like megablocks and the toilet), pop culture reference (like my favorite teen dramas/dark comedies), or events (like the Fourth of July).

Tune in tomorrow for How to Create Successful Blogposts: Part 2, Drafting, and then again on Friday for How to Create Successful Blogposts: Part 3, Revision.

Might As Well Face It: I'm Addicted to Podcasting

I was supposed to launch my first online class at College 2 on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, but it was cancelled because no students registered. Every other online section filled, so I was incredibly disappointed. Even the day, I waited anxiously for the registration love all the while wondering if any of the following reasons kept me from filling up:

1. The college changed my 8-week, June 8 start to a 5-week start with six days notice, so not only is my class not published in the catalog, it wasn't available for all that long.


2. Students had to pay for the class as soon as they register, so I was left wondering if some would register at the last minute for financial reasons.


3. The link in the School Online section for my class was developed by another instructor, so my teaching-style was not reflected in a place where students go to make decisions.

Nonetheless, I worked like a crazy woman to get the class ready on the off chance that it would be a go. I only needed five students, but it wasn't meant to be.

I'm pretty proud of the class. It's organized, intuitive, and since I had to re-create an 8-week curriculum into 5-weeks, I decided to use my own assignments rather than the ready-made course I was given.

During all the training I've received to get started at this college (College 1 isn't as advanced in it's Blackboard capabilities, so I'm learning a lot), I discovered Podcasting.

The first thing I did was download free software for recording and sound edting at Audacity. It was a quick and easy process.

Then I just hit record and started talking. For some of my podcasts (I recorded five) I wrote scripts so there wouldn't be long pauses as I reviewed my lessons. For others, like the ones where I simply tell the students what they're going to be working on in the current unit, I just talked.

They take an eternity to upload onto Blackboard, but since I record and upload on my laptop, I can move over to my desktop to continue to work.

Now I also blog at The Adventures of Mr. Busypants, and with all these newly acquired podcasting capabilities, I decided to have a little fun. When Mr. Busypants came home from school, I pulled up all my blogposts that had his artwork and interviewed him about it. Some of his artwork included books he wrote that I scanned in, so I had him narrate.

He totally got into it, and like his mother, he couldn't stop podcasting.

Now we both have our mark on the world of podcasting. Every time I play one of his, he grins from ear to ear and listens to himself intently.

Say It Forward - Meet Beth L. Gainer

Say It Forward, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom, is a new weekly carnival at 5 Minutes for Mom.com where bloggers feature their loyal commenters!

I can't say enough about my blogger buddy Beth Gainer. She's my #1 fan. She dutifully comments on both The Writer in Me and my main blog, The Adventures of Mr. Busypants. She's the one who got me blogging again, so it's totally appropriate (and an honor) to name her as my first loyal commenter.

She writes about medical advocacy at Calling the Shots. My all-time favorite post of hers is A Train Car Named Quagmire, which is a narrative about her advocating for herself on her cell phone while the entire train listened in. I cried, and considering the amount of crazy/meds I'm on, that's quite a feat.

She also edits a blog written by her cat, Hemi, called Hemi'sphere. It's hilarious--and I'm totally not a cat person, nor did I ever think I'd ever enjoy such a blog.

Beth is a breast cancer survivor and advocate, teaches writing and literature full time at a Chicago-area college, and is in the process of adopting a little girl from China.

Check her out!