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What William Tully Said … About Great Writers and Great Bloggers

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A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

Who Influences the Way that You Write?

We study writing. We can read the work of great writers we admire. We ask for the advice and help of those who’ve mastered some skill, but in the end, all of that advice and input is influence not a handbook. Every blogger and writer finds his or her voice without much help. We practice until we discover which rules work for us. A great writer, a great blogger, gets to be one by doing to it.

Here’s what William said . . .

1. why are ‘great writers’ typically associated with fictional stories?
2. is writing not a form of art left to the eye of the beholder?

I’m told that Hemingway is a great writer… What about Orson Scott Card, Bill Bryson, or even the one writing this blog or this comment?

I agree that we (as writers) should be reading great writers, yet I completely disagree at the same time. For example, I have a very unique style of writing… The style is simply a reflection of how I speak and teach. Same pauses, inflections, and YELLING… sometimes.. Yet the last thing on my list is to sit down and read some Shakespeare, simply because the style is absolutely nothing I can relate to.

Douglas Adams (Last Chance To See) is perhaps the single book with a writing style that I can COMPLETELY relate to and respect. Now, is he a great writer? Certain circles, he is a respected author. This book? Relatively unknown. Bill Bryson is another author, who in my opinion, is absolutely brilliant!

I guess I’m not entirely sold on reading great writers helps with great writing. I think having a grasp of your chosen language is key, and just simply reading is key. I would sooner read something by a great THINKER than a great writer…

William Tully from a comment on April 5, 2007

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

William Tully Shows Us How in Canadian Living Magazine

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One of the Best on Blog Basics

Successful and Outstanding Blogger, William Tully, is featured today in Canadian LIving Magazine. His article on How-to Blog is one of the finest written on the web. It’s informative, entertaining, and best, it makes (what can be) confusing topics clear in a minimum of words. I’ve not seen a better short segment on comments and trackbacks written for nonbloggers. The whole article shows his expertise. Click the logo to go there.

If you’re trying to explain blogging to someone, after you share your metaphor. This article is a great next step. It has just the right amount of information and links to give a helpful start without overwhelming the reader.

YEA, Bill!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
The Metaphor Project: What’s Your Blogging Metaphor?

One Question, One Answer

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You Might Recall

Tully said on the phone last night that people do things and then sort of hold their breath waiting to see whether Liz would let this one go through . . . Oh no!!! I did it again!

You might recall that last week, it was Tuesday. Tully posted a meme that was astoundingly clever and stunningly well-thought. He had found a way to get bloggers to ask relevant questions in such a way that the question would be answered by a blogger who knew the answer, and the answer would be written on a blog where such an answer belonged. That’s no small feat if you think about it.

Without planning, some guy might ask a question, the blogger who answers would write the answer on his or her blog. How likely is it that the blog will be about the same topic as the question? Not very likely considering how much bloggers like to help.

Ah, but Tully figured how, in the construction of his meme to avoid questions being asked of a blogger who had a blog where an answer didn’t belong. Voila!

I only had one problem. I needed the directions called out. So I sent a question back to Tully in answer to his question. I know, you’re not supposed to answer a question with a question. Sorry. It was called the One Question, One Question blog. Tully answered with the One Question, One Answer – How To

And now that I know how to . . .

I move the One Question, One Answer meme further along.

My Question, My Answer

The question that Tully passed me is a good question, I think. You’ll understand why I say “I think,” and not “I know” when you read my answer, well sort of.

Tully’s question:

Liz, as a full-time/professional blogger, a great deal of your day is spent reading other blogs (direct or via RSS feed), commenting, and blogging – you no doubt have a system that you have been developing for some time now that works well for you.

What ADVICE would you give to relatively new bloggers who are feeling swamped yet only have limited time to read, comment, and blog?

My answer:

Wow! There’s a hidden assumption in that question. It’s that the bulk of my day is spent reading other blogs. I don’t know for sure that I can say that is true, It’s certainly not true every day. Some days the bulk of my day is spent talking to bloggers via voice. Hmmmmm.

Where do we get this notion that we have to read every good blog? I can’t read every great book ever written. I can’t listen to every wonderful piece of music ever composed. I can’t watch every play, see every sunrise, enjoy every movie, attend every concert, taste every wonderful wine, or meet every person I might want to meet before my time is up. I’m only one person and to try to do more than one person can do is silly at best and leaning toward downright disastrous if I tried.

Writing is my work. I build my day around that. I pick the times during the day that I write most effectively and that’s when I write. I keep a list of a limited number of bloggers that I find inspire me. I read them in between the articles that I write. On Thursdays and Fridays, I read all of the posts of the week from many bloggers — it’s more efficient than switching from blog to blog every day. I often read late at night when all of the bloggers have long since gone to sleep.

I only comment when an important thought comes to me or when I have something I want to communicate. Sometimes what I might have commented turns into a post that I link back.

There you go, Tully. Not the answer that you’d expect, but then you expected that by now, I suppose. 🙂

My turn to pass on a question and the How to rules to the next blogger.

Roger von Oech You are Tagged

Here’s what you do.
Read Tully’s how to rules for the One Question, One Answer Meme and then if they work for you link to them when you answer this question for me.

How do you feel when you are in a place where you cannot be creative? What do you do to keep your spirit going at times like that?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
One Question, One Question, 1/2 Meme . . . Overly Started, But Not Begun

One Question, One Question, 1/2 Meme . . . Overly Started, But Not Begun

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A Great Question Deserves

. . . a question?

Once upon a time . . . well, actually it was yesterday . . . Tully designed and suggested a new sort of meme. . . .

This meme, called, “One Question, One Answer,” is brilliant. . .

. . . It’s meant to get the right questions to the right people and the right answers on the right blogs. . . .

It covers every contingency, except for one — Tully chose to start the meme,

. . . with me.

You Should Have Known, Tully

You see, I’m the sort who . . . likes to have fun with these things.

I always change memes from what they were to something else.

Tully, I don’t mean to be a pain. . . though I don’t mind worrying and wheezling though a loophole . . . for some fun.

I’m a global thinker. Details overwhelm me. They overtake me with feeling that I might overlook something that I should be overseeing, and that makes me overly careful about things I shouldn’t be fretting over at all or ever. I probably should just get over it.

You see?

That’s why I have to ask my question.

Could you go over that again?

Um . . . er. . . What I mean to say is,

. . . Could you, would you, write the simple how-to steps

so I know exactly what to do?

I’ll link to them as the how-to do this meme.

I’ll answer question, pass the meme on, and be smiling, just as I am now.

After all, I am the nice one. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss