MY LIFE AS AN ARTHRITIC SNAIL
Contrary to the opinion of some of my friends who avoid social networks, Facebook isn’t a place where people gather to talk about the number of snails eating their begonias. I’ve learned a good deal more than that from my web friends.
(Yahoo Images)
Recently, I read an entry about blogs. As I’ve come late to my writing life, I’m always eager to learn a trick or two, so I clicked on the link provided. It contained information about how to grow a personal blog into a super blog. The author is someone named Martyn Chamberlin.*
One of Chamberlin’s ideas was to give each post a snappy title — as I’ve done here. If you’ve come this far, then his advice worked. Another suggestion was to not only write the post but rewrite it until it is clear. I liked that idea, too, but I’m ahead of Chamberlin on that score. In one of my working lives, I was an English teacher. Any former student will tell you the word “rewrite” was stamped across my forehead.
After I’d studied Chamberlin’s blog, I decided to do a little research on the author. He’s a young man, a quarter of my age, who probably plucks rather than shaves his beard. I envy his early success as an artist. I’m not above mortal sin. Still, my heart sings to find people who are in love with their language. The school teacher lurks inside me, somewhere.
Of course, the beauty of social networking is that someone old has an opportunity to learn from someone young.
Hats off to you, Martyn Chamberlin, for broadening my world. And as for snappy titles, you ain’t seen nothing’ yet!