Blog Boggled: Vacuous Verbosity

          Do you ever feel like your blogging is just talking to be talking?   You're saying something,  but you're taking too long to say it and using too many words to express what you're saying.  For many of us blogging is a highly conversational unstructured form of writing--stream of consciousness with minimal editing.

         I don't know that there is too much wrong with that style as long as it flows in a comprehensible manner and has a relevant point to make.  Even in non-blog writing a certain amount of rambling and repetition can be a good thing.  I often hear the recommendation to keep one's writing succinct and precise.  I do agree to some extent, but then again part of creative writing involves creating images and painting word pictures.  Unless we're writing an instruction manual or something else that is very specific, I like a little bit of verbosity to draw out the reading experience and fatten the descriptive process--if it's done well and with originality.

         Advertising copy, business correspondence, trade articles, instructions,  and other similar types of writing demand terse exactness.  Most blogs are not trying to achieve this.  In most cases I am looking for personality in a blog post.  I want to establish a connection with the blog author and be able to converse in the comment section.  A dry condescending tone or an overly erudite approach is off-putting to me.  What comment can one leave to the person who already knows everything including that they are smarter than you are?  Unless the information I derived is so valuable that I dance away giddily with new found knowledge, I am more inclined to want to leave a sarcastic wisecrack or some other strange retort, which is to be differentiated from my normal weird retorts.

         I can only hope that my writing is usually construed to be entertaining or interesting and not overly verbose or vacuous.  And if anyone ever feels that I am being vacuously verbose I don't mind if they tell me so and tell me why they think that is the case.  And this doesn't even begin to explore some of the rather long comments some of you may sometimes get from me at times.  Blah, blah, blah.

          How about you?  Do you feel that sometimes you ramble too much in your blog posts?  If so, how do you keep your verbosity in check (or do you)?  When a blog post is long, what keeps you reading all the way through and what makes you quietly sneak out before the show is over?  Would you be bothered if someone were to critique one of your blog posts?  Do long comments bother you?

How about helping to reach some magic numbers?

In this last week of A to Z, we can help some follow bloggers reach some milestone numbers.  I'm sure you know how it feels, right?   If you wouldn't mind, visit a few of these blogs and become a follower.    Here are a few blogs that (as of this writing) need just a few more followers to help them reach some magic numbers:

Beaded Bear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time  One more till she hits 100.

Writer Person  She's only asking for 2 for her to reach 15, but I bet we could get her to 20.

All in the Mind of a Belbin   Can we get her up to 20 as well?

Glen's Blog Spot   4 more will bring him to 10.

Life in my Shoes  This young student only has 11 right now.  Can you make it 15 or even 20?

Juan Velez Photography  This busy college student is stuck at 7 right now.  Can we get it to at least 10 or more?

Dream Weaver  I was having problems getting Debra's URL in the blog roll so she's been down in the supporters section so some of you may be missing her wonderful posts.  Let's try to get her followers up to 40 or even 50.

This Journey Called Life  Tori just needs a few more to hit 30.  And she's been so good at commenting.

Rags by Sock Monkey  Ginny would be at 25 if she got 3 more followers.  How about it?

Blabbin' Grammy   Ruby will have 50 with just 6 more.  If you haven't been reading her blog you have been missing some real fun.

This is just a handful that I've run across, and I think most of you would also like to have a few more followers.  If you do, follow these and ask them to follow you back-- you should be able to add 10 to your list by doing so.  If you have a special goal that you'd like to reach by the end of the A to Z Challenge, leave it in the comments of this post and we'll see what can happen.   And don't miss my post tomorrow about "What's Next?".