I suspect that one of my greatest blogging flaws might be my tendency to eschew very limited-scope and highly-focused blogposts.
I submit that this is an area where, for example, Texas Fred absolutely excels, hence his great popularity. He has found a blogging formula that is sharp, focused, logical and popular: identify a specific topic or individual story, feature its source, provide the requisite links, then weigh in with salient commentary that either supports or negates the primary point.
It is, frankly, an excellent model for a blog. You may not realize it, but that’s precisely what Texas Fred does on a daily basis. That’s his model.
I admit my flaws up front: I wish I could do this. Focus like a laser beam. But the way my brain is patterned, I find myself primarily unable to strictly limit my posts in a Texas Fred kind of way. And therein I have to publicly recognize the success of TF as opposed to the “hit-and-miss” nature of my own microscopic address in the Blogosphere.
I just find it so damned difficult to narrow my focus whilst my brain literally explodes into any number of — what I consider to be — tangents from an original theme.
I guess I just can’t lock in on a limited topic. Perhaps it’s what people now call ADD. Back “then,” it was called “just being a boy.” Perhaps I am simply undisciplined.
Which brings me to now:
It’s time that I try to identify how there are so many national and global “dots to connect.”
In DC, the Demorats are like “girls gone wild.” One party Demorat said, literally, “fuck the president“; another (Rep. Jerrold Nadler of N.Y.) said “we can’t trust him.”
House Demorats completely rejected out of hand Mr Obama’s tax deal with the GOP (Whip Count here).
Further, Demorats decided to shelve — at least for a while — the DREAM act.
On the other hand, what was the final GOP count from the November midterms?
Final House Race Decided; GOP Net Gain: 63 Seats.
These are truly tumultuous times, America. . .
And they are, in my opinion, about to get bloodily violent.
BZ
P.S.
Question for my dearest readers:
Should I take a tip from Texas Fred and other bloggers who more closely focus their blogposts? Are my individual posts too wide and too unfocused — as to my current themes?
Is it time to abandon my scattershot model and more narrowly focus my posts?
Would you want to read more narrowly-focused posts?
For what its worth, I like your blog as is.(I visit pretty much daily)I too, am all over the place with my blog, with some politics, some humor and some general interest.
I will admit I don’t get many, if any, comments but I post for myself as a way to vent. I really don’t care if I don’t get a lot of traffic.
You do fine writing and seem to have a decent fan base so don’t worry about it.
Oh yeah, Merry Christmas
Thunderstick: thanks for weighing in. I predominantly write for myself but, in assessment, I try to craft my posts in terms of making them more efficient for casual browsers.
Though I don’t like to compete, I am, in effect, competing. And I respond to competition.
If I can make my blog more efficient or more readable or more smooth or more easily accessed — then I am all about that.
With this caveat: there is a BIG change coming in 2011.
BZ
Hey, Homes!
What Thunderstick said, and how. Kurt Vonnegut said to edit without mercy. Its your blog. I hope it is more fun than work.
DM
No issue is an island. one thing leads to another, and a single problem has many factors.
Your fine as you are Sir. Say true to yourself and stay the course.
I say you have to be yourself.
BZ… Compete? You have gotta be kidding? I have to use a thesaurus to just get CLOSE to what you write… This is about individuality, and you are one hell of a unique individual, NEVER change that man, EVER!
The only thing you need to do is get a better blog platform, Rob has it waiting for you, both he and I will help you in any way possible, and we’ll show you how to nuke trolls like Deacon Blow…
Deacon Blow? I am indeed a racist, but it’s awfully observant of you to point that out, but you forgot one extremely important part, I’m an equal opportunity racist, I hate everyone equally…
Except for you DB… I don’t hate you at all, I pity you and your pathetic little life as a troll…
I read nearly every post. I read TF occasionally too but yours is a standard. I, personally, like the very candid style. Funny though, after reading through some of my own posts I thought YOU were the focussed one.
-jinksto
My opinion?
Fred is good at what he does. He wants lots of traffic. What Fred does works well for Fred.
(I just wish he wouldn’t feed the strays.)
I could give a flyin’ flip about traffic. I don’t have ads on my blog ’cause I don’t want ’em. I don’t really care how many folks drop by. I hope they like what I write enough to leave their thoughts. Have comments changed my mind about anything I’ve written?
Not damned often.
(Jinksto got me to reconsider a gif of our flag displayed upside-down once. I believed then and believe now that it was appropriate, but took it down because I wanted him to sleep soundly that night!)
Write for yourself BZ.
You make me think. You cast light sometimes where I need illumination. You sometimes bring me to tears.
Carry on carryin’ on.
You write well enough BZ, you’re just misguided like most of the uber right.
BZ –
Your blog is perfect the way it is. You care passionately for the things you write about and you write well. You shouldn’t change a thing.
And I agree with GB – let’s all ignore the trolls, except for the comic relief they provide.
cjh
Don’t worry about what others do BZ, do what feels right for you! I do, and I really don’t care what people think 🙂
BZ, kindred spirit, stay your normal way. Your own thesaurus is fine,and you do not need Roget’s.
Your posts are thought provoking.
That is what shames the trolls out there.
About your question….Find your own style, and vary it at will. I do like your blog, BZ — and Texas Fred’s too.
I think I know how you feel. Every time I do a post on something, I am determined to keep it limited to the most salient points, but then I end up including one link of salient points after another. It’s aggravating, but I feel like if I limit my scope I’m cheating my readers, all two dozen or so of them.
Well there ya go, folks, I think I see something of a trend here. . .
Thanks VERY much for weighing in.
I’m just a (insert Steve Martin voice here) “ramblin’ kinda guy.”
BZ
BZ,
Do more posts, one right after another if necessary, but make them tighter.
Imagine you have been hired to serve as editor for this blog, and word count, clarity, and topic are your primary concerns.
This frees you to write expansively, just letting words and ideas flow, because that mean old editor is coming along later to lash your outpourings into shape.
ASM826
BZ, you gotta be you man, you gotta write about stuff you like to write about or it’s gonna come out fake. Kind of like liberpuke blogs, fake out of reality, stupid and dead wrong on damn near everything.
You have a new system awaiting you to enhance your blogging experience and NOBODY wants you to change your style of writing NOBODY. And if there is someone that does tell em F.O.
You write your blog for yourself and what matters to you. Make for an interesting read.
I will keep blogging even if nobody reads it. Helps me unclutter my mind (what there is of it).
Keep up the good work.
I’ll tell you something that might help, if you can stick with it. Twitter. There you are limited to so many characters per post. It’s a good way to get experience editing yourself in order to say what you want to say in the best way possible but with as few words as you can manage to say it in. You’d be surprised how easy it is to chop down a long sentence into a much shorter one and make it still read just as well, sometimes even better.
FOCUS, you don’t have to change your style to do one subject per blog…focus and keep them shorter. (and please make it easier for me to come, comment, and back out! I have to shut down Yahoo every time I leave because I can’t ‘back arrow’ myself out of your blog for love or money!) I hope that ‘big change’ has something to do with that!
You’re a terrific blogger … you pick exciting subjects and good images..focus and shorten. xxx
Z: I wish to hell I knew how to help you with that. No one else seems to experience that.
I may — possibly — have a solution for the coming in the New Year.
Just don’t go away.
I think you’ll dig it.
BZ
Well Mr. Z, I blog from orbit, not 30,000 and not hugging nap of earth… there is a place for each of those in the blogosphere, just that the widest perspective tends to get lost to those at the nap of earth level. Readership tends to stay with the immediate, lowest level… the higher up you go the fewer readers you get.
I do highly involved, researched pieces for fine detail, like terrorism or organized crime, but then must step back, then further back to understand how those pieces of the puzzle fit into the larger system. If you do too much detail, people just get lost… although I’ve received messages from Iran, Ukraine and Iraq that ask where, exactly, in the country I live. Their country, not mine. That detail gives meaning to those on the ground, but I do my best to then put all of that into perspective. Not a Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative but a ‘What the hell does this mean?’ perspective. I don’t blog for the ‘now’ but for after ‘now’ in case this material is needed… if the world goes senseless you can see it in perspective and trace back problems and why they matter.
There are no saints in these venues I go to, and treat all men equally and put up their faults and strengths as best I can… and if you only hear about a man’s strengths and he seeks power, any power, you had best get a handle on his negatives as we all have them. Liberals cricize me for my views and purport their leaders to be blameless… strangely I get the same from the Conservative venue, too, though with less childish name calling and demeaning verbiage.
In the end I can only tell it like it is as I see it. That is what blogging is all about – what makes sense to you. Remember all the political blogs are still outnumbered by Catblogs…