Takuyafire's Blogs

Firstly a disclaimer:

When I comment on peoples blogs, I might sound like an arsehole but don’t take it that way. I’m just overly critical and easily irked by certain simple mistakes that could be rectified with about 5 seconds thought.

Onwards.

Essentially I decided to write this blog in hopes that at least one person learns from my mistakes and the mistakes of others.

By no means am I perfect, I don’t claim to that and I understand that people make mistakes so don’t hold that against me either.

I am an English dropout, I decided that English was a boring subject and left to do graphics and visual design...far more entertaining subjects, even-so I am still able to piece together a well-worded blog with thought and passion alone.

This is something people really need to try, sit back and think about what you’re going to write in detail. Plan it out, each point, each paragraph and you’ll be well on your way to making a well formed doc*ment. What I have below are seven points in no particular order that will help you on your way to writing a good blog.

First Point: Title.

Make a title, have it make sense. Don’t spend hours trying to think of some overly witty and obscure title, have it get to the point...sure involve a bit of creativity if you feel like it but if it isn’t relevant to your topic, you will lose audience straight off the bat.

Second Point: This ain’t no diary.

I want to point out a wonderful note here as found on the NZGamer FAQ: This ain’t no diary.

As it states, a blog might be about personal experiences but you must try involving your audience and helping them understand your point of view as you expand on it else it’s just pure opinion. As we have seen by my many ill-received comments, pure opinion in the vast universe of the internet is a terrible idea - if taken seriously.

Third Point: Expect hate.

Honestly, if you write a blog then you must realise that you write about opinion. Opinion leads to spiteful comments...no matter what you do.

Hell, look at my first few blogs, they’re terrible and I got terrible comments because of it...as deserved. I didn’t think and plan my way through things, I just wanted to kill time. It was a selfish motive as I also wasted other people’s time in a place that does not belong to me.

So expect backlash in hope that you also get some decent comments as well, don’t take it personally but simply keep your mouth shut and learn from it.

Comment back only if you want to ask that commenter to expand. Don’t go into an argument to “win”, go in to garner information.

Fourth Point: Pictures.

Seriously, use pictures. Wall’s of text are boring as hell unless you like reading like I do, so make use of Google image search and get something to pad out the blog else people get bored and start to skim read.

Even if the pictures are only vaguely relevant to the blog (like my ones are), they still give people time to look at something and think about what they have just read.

Fifth Point: Plan it.

Take the time to think about what you want to blog about. For example you want to make note of a particular game you are looking forward too, make sure to say why you think you want it.

Then take that game and cross reference it to other similar games, pull them all apart and show the audience what you see. Do not simply say: “I like it ‘cause it’s cool” else people like me will publicly castrate you and we’ll damn well enjoy it.

Have several points to make in your blog that are relevant to your topic.

In fact, my IT studies have given me a magical number for you to remember: Seven, plus or minus two. What this magic number means is that people only ever remember between five and nine points...which means I only have a max of four more points to go...but to hell with that, you’re likely already skimming through this blog.

Also make sure you research and read other peoples blogs, you don’t need to take notes or anything. Just find what you think attracts people and dwell on it, also look up things like NZGamer’s blogging FAQs as they provide invaluable knowledge.

Sixth Point: For the love of God, use a spell checker.

Seriously, just do it. I can handle rare typos but I lose my mind when people use text chat and poorly spell words constantly, it just shows that you are lazy and aren’t putting effort into your blog. On that note, revise.

At the time of writing this blog I can guarantee that I’ve missed typos and have made some stupid references that no one will get, so you need to go through and read it again.

I actually take note of a good option from a popular author Richard Dawkins (Who I’m going to see live in two days) who recommends that you get someone else to read your text out loud back to you just to see if makes sense.

Seventh and Final Point: Enjoy it.

While it might seem absurd to have “fun” while thinking so hard through your blog, it doesn’t mean it should be. Personally I enjoy writing and letting others know and comment on my opinions so the hard work to me is simply part of the process of doing what I love. I encourage you to do the same, if you truly love what you are discussing then take time and discuss it well so people can see it.

Anyway I think I’ll leave it there.

I want to point out again though that I don’t expect perfection, I expect passion.

Passion in your topic, passion in your writing and passion in your message.

If you can achieve this passion, then it will be visible to us readers and we will commend you for it, even if we don’t like your blog’s messages.

Even if one person learns from this wall of text then I will be very pleased.

Cheers guys and girls.