I don’t know why I like group writing projects. I know why I like this one I’m going to contribute to right now: What Is Your First Rule Of Writing?
I like it because it is hosted by the newly launched Clean Cut Blog, the younger “brother” of Hamelife (this last one is a good read if you are a parent).
I like it because it raises this question: will I do better if I only have some more rules?
Well, my first rule of writing is that there is no rule:
- I write only when I’m in the mood, despite some hundreds of voices who play the tune of sticking with a chosen posting frequency.
- The topics can be anything, from housecleaning, to hair removal, from my cat to happiness, love or Microsoft Excel. It is a blog about anything and nothing. I suppose many of you know the TV series Seinfeld. What is Seinfeld about? If a series about nothing can be so successful, I don’t see any reason why a blog about nothing cannot meet success.
- The layout can suffer subit transformations, titles overlapping or whatever other strange effects. That’s because it serves me as a php learning tool, although there are a few things which seem rather like SF than php. To give you only one example: try to right-click on a post title: if somebody can explain me why titles appear like programmed in Flash (and how to get rid of that weird thing), I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life.
- Not having rules makes me feel good. I like to make each of my days as it comes. Every morning, I look at the bedroom ceiling and I imagine how I want my day/life/blog to look like. Then I get up and make them as I have imagined.
These being said, I’m happy to see that at almost one year of age, this blog has welcome about 160,000 visitors, with an average time spent on site of almost 4 minutes. Given that comments are scarce, this means the 4 minutes were mostly used for reading. Not too bad for a blog about nothing, is it?
11 Comments
Thank you for taking part, Simonne - and another wonderful entry.
I have four entries so far, and each of them unique. I’m really excited about more taking part, I can’t wait to see what they say.
Thank you, again, and for the lovely words in your intro.
Another way of saying the same thing — do whatever works for you.
Rory, it was my pleasure. I’m also curious to read the other articles in the group.
It’s nice to have you here again, MomWithDogs. You’ve just said it in five words. If you decide to join this group project, I’d love to read your article on this topic.
Your rule about having no rules is quite good actually. If I do not feel like writing, I won’t. It’s better than posting something I don’t really believe in…But I did manage to feel awkward if I don’t post something one at least one of my blogs. And it’s working ok, I guess.
Hey Alina, this makes me think: if somebody came to me 5 years ago and told me that there will come a time when I’d have an website which I’d update daily, I would have said he’s crazy. Five years ago once an website was done, it was forever. Not anymore
Hey Simonne, I thought you did that on purpose - used sIFR for your post titles, didn’t you? That’s why they appear like that.
Here’s the JavaScript code that converts your titles to Flash:
if(typeof sIFR == “function”){
sIFR.replaceElement(named({sSelector:”#header h1″, sFlashSrc:”http://www.alltipsandtricks.com/wp-content/themes/simply-vic/lucida.swf”, sColor:”#000000″, sLinkColor:”#000000″, sBgColor:”#F8FAF7″, sHoverColor:”#999999″, nPaddingTop:0, nPaddingBottom:20, sFlashVars:”textalign=left&offsetTop=0″}));
Did it come with your theme, or did you set up sIFR later? There’s also a CSS link to an sIFR stuff.
Now, you do actually have a rule - it’s not playing by a rule
Thank you Inspirationbit. You saved my poor brain cells from death by frying! Yes, that thing came with my theme, and I noticed there were some files called sIFR, but I did not touch them, as I had no idea what that means :).
Having no rules, I still have one rule: if you don’t understand what some code does, leave it like it is, or you may never see your site again :).
… plus the rule you mentioned… this makes two rules, which means that I broke my rule of having no rules…
Simonne, glad I was of some help to you.
Go to this site to check out more on sIFR: http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/
and you’ll also find out there what files are needed for sIFR to work, so you could remove them from your theme.
Sorry, for breaking your rule, I really didn’t mean to
Great help! I think it is more than one month since I’m trying to figure out what’s the magic of those titles. I’ll check that link, as I’m now in a great mood for layout changes. If I’m lucky, by tonight the site will look more or less as I want.
No problem with the rule. Rules are made to be broken, anyway
Simonne, great article. Being a Saggitarian, I don’t much like rules either. I like variety. “Don’t fence me in” could be my motto.
Hi Patricia! I love Saggitarians and their freedom. Although horoscopes say that I’m not so compatible with them (I’m Pisces).