When I was invited to convert my dormant website into a Blog site, I jumped at the chance. Once it was up and running, however, I began to wonder precisely what I might say that was worthwhile given my imminent arrival in Blog-world and my limited knowledge of the media. Of course, I have written many letters over the years; infrequently, I have sweated over impassioned pleas, demanding recompense from some wayward business I have had the misfortune to deal with. When I lived in Eastern Europe, I circulated amusing, informative newsletters as a means of staying in touch with friends and family. I’ve written a dissertation at University, and a whole book to boot, plucked from a landscape in some obscure part of my imagination from where I hope to find yet more inspiration. But what exactly is in a blog? Bemused, I did some research, Google’ing ‘Blog’ and ‘How to write a blog’ and such like, and was somewhat astonished to discover sites and people willing to teach you how to become the finest blogger the world has ever known. From celebrities to the celebrated, anyone who is anyone is at it, shouting to be heard, blogging without mercy lest they be forgotten, offering their considered opinions on almost every subject under the sun. My conclusion, when I had waded through page after page of internet detritus sufficient to wean the keenest reader off the written word forever? As Cole Porter wrote more than seventy-five years ago ‘Writing prose, Anything Goes’.
Copyright © David Thomas Cochrane 2009