Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Keep it simple?

I know the advice offered up by Dean Rieck in his "Ultimate Blogger Writing Guide" is exactly what I should be doing to increase the readability of my blog and widen my audience. But I find I tire easily of blogs written in small words, with short sentences arranged in short paragraphs. I long for complexity. I crave writing that requires thought and digestions before I decide if I agree or disagree. I love it when an interesting article sends me off to my dictionary to look up a word, which will then be added to my working vocabulary and is certain to show up in a future blog post of my own. I recently used the word "ponder" in a facebook status and had a high school sophomore seriously asking what it meant to "ponder" something. Perhaps, if we were not all trying to write to the lowest, widest common denominator, more readers would be stretched and grow. Then again, maybe they would just stop reading what we have to say...

2 comments:

  1. I'm with you. Big words, big thoughts. Writing for dumbasses may be profitable, but it is otherwise unrewarding.

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  2. I'm fine with big words, but I'd read/comment much more faithfully if you still posted directly on Livejournal. Going to another site means I have to make an effort, even with the RSS feed. It's not that I don't think you're worth it, but I'm less likely to read your entries by chance, and then have to type a captcha to comment, etc -- it's just all a bigger barrier to participating.

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