Blog advice from a pro

I love our great old dining table, but it took me years to realize it's the perfect spot to blog

This week I heard an Interweave seminar on Build a Better Blog with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Something happened and I couldn't get the video, but I learned a lot anyway. Afterward, it dawned on me that one reason I didn't miss the video much is because I already have a mental image of Julie; I got it from her blog, which is cheerful and full of bright colors.

Maybe you, like me, have wondered how to produce a blog that is interesting and useful to you and your readers. He're are some of Julie's tips, in random order:

1. Think of a real person to write for. (Since the beginning I have been writing for myself; I want -- as Joan Didion has said --  to find out what I think. Often I put recipes in after someone has asked for one. And lately I've been thinking of all my friends who are, like me, searching for their identity in art.
2. Put a link to your blog on your email signature. (A few years ago I rejected this idea as self-promotional. Which is the idea.)
3. You can write posts early and post them automatically according to a schedule you set. Do this when you're going on vacation … or having a baby.
4. Your blog should have a voice, which you can't just manufacture. Or maybe you can, but you shouldn't. Julie (I just can't call her Ms. Balzer … ) Julie says style develops over time anyway, so start a blog and after a few months look back for common strands, and that's your voice. Focus on strengthening/ clarifying that.
5. Post about what makes you you. Let it flow from your life and then it won't be a chore and it will be authentic.
6. Notice which blogs you love, and learn from them.
7. Schedule your posts so you are dependable to readers. (I'm sticking to MWF. .. and if you say you didn't notice, well … I just started.)
8. Use a monthly calendar to plan your entries. 

OK, thank you, Julie!

AND …
If you live in Tallahassee you should know there will be at least one collage artist at the holiday art sale downtown Saturday -- FSU professor Carrie Ann Baade.  Her work unites old masters with mythology and psychology. I expect complexity.