Posted by Let me give you some context here. I am No Spring Chicken. More of an Autumn Hen. Considering I am almost completely self-taught, I am reasonably tech savvy. I learned how to “word process” back in 1987 when I lived in Australia, so that I could type and send my newsy letter to a few people at one time. It also saved the recipients from developing Madness in The Head from trying to read my atrocious scrawl. I remember one telephone conversation (rare because it was so expensive) with my Dad, where I said I should really write more often than every six weeks. “No!” he said hastily. “Every six weeks is fine. In fact, it takes me six weeks to figure out what you have written!” Of course, this was all before the internet was a twinkle in the eye of its inventor. I have set up a couple of websites and maintain them. So I know how to do stuff, right? But I found myself getting bogged down by how I could improve my blog. The problem is TMI (too much information.) Also, my eyes glaze over at the finer points of SEO. I am a writer, and I want to write, not wrestle with technology. But being in the process of self-publishing my first book, I have to get over myself and leave my Luddite tendencies behind. So I did what I usually do when I need to learn how to do something: I went to the library. The library is a time machine. I go in for “just ten minutes” and stagger out, blinking, two hours later. Anyway, the first book I took out was WordPress for Dummies. Now, I am not short on a sense of humour, but I honestly object to the For Dummies series. The title insults the reader. Anyway, I got down off my high horse and borrowed the book, only to find out that WordPress uses a much newer version than the book describes. So it was of limited use. I googled “how to develop your blog” and nearly keeled over at the amount of hits generated. How is one to choose among so many options? So I ignored the blog for a couple of weeks. Yeah, that really worked well. Today I went back to the library and as I searched the catalogue I had an epiphany. Get a kids book on blogging. So that’s what I did. It’s for teenagers, and is called “The Quick Expert’s Guide to Writing a Blog,” and in a wonderful twist of the wheel of fortune, it is by an Australian publishing house. I’ve gone full circle. The essential information is in there, in readable form, and not an insulting Dummy in sight. Bliss.
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The Write of My Life 