Future Mrs. Biker told me the other day that there were only 7 basic stories in the world with only variations on theme that diiferentiate from the masses of stories published. This discussion ensued due to one of my favourite ramblings on the 'unoriginality of Harry Potter' and what is basically a collection of different ideas collected from C.S Lewis to the 'Worst Witch' books that I remember from when I was a kid. At this point, I would add that, though I have laboured to stay true to my principles, I have, like many millions, actually got quite addicted to the books.
Anyway, back to my point about originality. Though I don't have much to back my better half's statement, the idea that nothing is original is rather an obvious one, the more so when it comes to blogging when you add the many millions of people who decide that they have something to say. I read once, that the age of traditional journalism has been superseded by amateur editorial's brought on by the web 2.0 phenomenon and blogging is by far the most journalistic medium that people are using to express themselves. However, what is evident is that a great deal of us can't all be unique and original in what we post.
The only original content that bloggers really can aspire to providing is unique knowledge of which there is little going around. The successful bloggers in industry are usually in places where they have access to important knowledge, so people like Vanessa Fox, Matt Cutts etc. have a healthy position to base blogging on. The rest of us have to base our blogging on conjecture and debate and where a person is without a source of unique knowledge of interest to others, their success is based on interpreting, debating and cogitating already known fact in ways that appeal to other people.
The sign of a good blogger really has to be in the ability to read and then formulate new ideas. Since I started blogging, the greatest time that I have spent is in reading other people's work, and that I think is one of the secrets to being a successful blogger. Time will tell if this experimental blog will become popular but I know the direction that I should be going.
Labels: blogging, social networking
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Some would argue that in terms of basic story themes there is really only one: the clearest example of this is possibly Shakespeare. No matter the subject matter, whether it be a comedy or a tragedy, all of the story lines would start from a point of order; chaos would then ensue with the aim of order once again being established by the end of the story either in the form of a union/marriage (the comedies) or a death (the tragedies). The theme is order, then disorder, then order. No matter whether it be good versus evil, a romance of a woman trying to find her perfect man (or vice versus) each protagonist has to go through stages in order to reach a conclusion, namely the end of the story.
That is certainly a common theme that runs with most stories. However, if you look at ancient greek tragedies and comedies some if not most actually follow a theme of just mainly chaos. Aeschylus' Persians was a play that centred around total destruction and didn't end well either. Sophocles Oedipus and Antigone both end quite nastily with a liberal sprinkling of doom and destruction as a nice filler. So at least there is two themes.
I agree that one of the most important parts of writing for a blog is to read the work of others. I probably spend an hour browsing before I decide on a topic for that day's post. Of course, by the time I finish blog-hopping I've often found two or three topics and save one for the next day.
Reading others in your niche and commenting on their blogs lets people know about yours as well as helping give you inspiration. This is particularly valuable for beginners like me.
I too also spend an hour or so browsing, almost wandering aimlessly like a bloodhound sniffing for a scent of something good to write about.
My problem sometimes is that this can lead me off on a tangent and after a while I am completely lost in someones blog and have forgotten my original purpose.
Wonderful article. And yes, the classics do contain most of the plots and ploys that we read (re-read) today. History has a habit of repeating itself and the more things change the more the stay the same. So nice to read English the way it was meant to be read, and from someone with an education. No slur against those that don't fit this category.
A good blogger would just know stuff from doing whatever it is they blog about. That makes a blog good.
I disagree JimJam. knowledge is one thing but the ability to write that knowledge in a way to appeal to readers is another thing. Not only this but I think that any person, expert or not, will find it hard to discuss anything without referencing other work. In the same way that a novelist would be hard put to write a novel if he hadn't read a book, or an essayist would find it hard to convince fellow specialists without discussing other essays in that field, I think good bloggers generally read other blogs in their respective area's.