| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > O/T Off Topic > Topic: Feedback, ideas, input? or just interest or praise |
Topic: Feedback, ideas, input? or just interest or praise
| Author | Message |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/2/2008 5:44:48 AM | show profile | email poster My fellow writers, I have a new blog and I'd like you to check it out. (Please be kind? ;) http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ |
| nellie bly | Posted – 2/2/2008 9:36:50 AM | show profile dear w.o.w.- your posts here on mediabistro have always struck me as among the most consistently helpful, literate and creative. it's great to be able to read more of your "voice" on your new blog. I'm sure it will be a great success for you. Lovely view of the water from your porch, too! my only suggestions are purely technical: Change the color of some of the font (or background) to make it easier on the eyes? On the Harlequin post, I found it very hard to read the red font against the grey background. Also hard to see the poll choices (faint green font) against the white ground. Make it bold? At bottom of page: I'd omit the repetitive "Read" from the list of linked articles. It says Read My Articles in bold at the top, so a list of titles/links after that will be clear. I just noticed you have four other blogs?! wow, w.o.w.! Are you planning to see which one takes off or keep them all going simultaneously? |
| nellie bly | Posted – 2/2/2008 9:45:33 AM | show profile oops, forgot to sign my letter... your fan, nellie bly |
| nandy | Posted – 2/2/2008 10:27:31 AM | show profile OK, I liked it enough that I've put it in my Blogs folder in my browser bookmarks. Only the ones I read regularly go there. Easy to read, and very like-able. I especially liked the ones about writing the romance novel blurbs and falling asleep at the radio station, but agree with Nellie that the red type is hard to read on the chosen background color. I don't know how much design leeway you have in setting up the blog, but since you seem to have some choice of color, definitely pick something else. The background seems to be a green-gray (at least on my monitor). Red is the direct opposite on the color-wheel (complementary), and it seems to be about the same value. So you end up with vibrating type. You have to change the contrast (go either much darker or much lighter) and shift the hue so it's isn't a complementary color. Sorry, maybe you wanted more feedback on your writing, but I'm a graphic designer, so I felt I could only legitimately critique the color issue. But as an avid reader (of books and blogs), I like your style. |
| sue ellen mischke | Posted – 2/2/2008 10:56:25 AM | show profile Yeah...I agree with nandy...I can't read some of your text because it is too light or contrasting. Also, you come across as being a tad too self-promotional. Sometimes we freelancers do that naturally because we have to pitch our own business, and that sometimes comes out in our personalities when we are in less businessy situtaions. I would save the "sell" for your pitches and tone it down a bit on your blog. It's a little bit of a turn-off. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/2/2008 4:43:56 PM | show profile Thanks for the feedback -- all so helpful. The text color issue comes as a result of me experimenting with templates, and having a pain resetting the text contrasting in the body of the Harlequin piece. I will take care of it -- thanks so much for the advice. Donna, thanks for the great advice re: promo-y tone. You're so right--sometimes it's hard to stop selling. Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks all for your helpful words and reading. Always lots of insight from my fellow MBers. Appreciate that daily. Writes |
| Thabit | Posted – 2/4/2008 10:02:45 AM | show profile Agree with NB, you're one of the people who always weighs in intelligently, I'm glad to be able to read more of what you have to say... I had the same screen problems others mentioned -- and trying to add your blog to my rss just froze it... |
| Unemployed-gal | Posted – 2/4/2008 11:18:59 AM | show profile Hey, I really like your blog. Your writing there, as here on these forums, is always fantastic. I love the quiz on the sidebar, but I have one suggestion: changing the font color. As it is, it's a little too light and difficult to read. Keep on blogging! KSH http://atreegrowsinbrooklyn-kasthu.blogspot.com/ |
| voracious reader | Posted – 2/4/2008 12:20:53 PM | show profile Ditto! Good luck! And you sure look as great as your writing! |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 12:25:35 PM | show profile | email poster Sorry about the freeze == may have been because I was updating my blog. Nell,nandy,donna,thabit,ug, thanks SO much for your input and kind thoughts. I am TRYING to fix that doggone color on the sidebar quiz. I was just curious to see when people wrote and where, and I'm not surprised by the results. I am consolidating the blogs down to three main ones. This is a hoot, an old dog like me learning new tricks! ;) I decided to do one blog that pulls together different things I've done that pop up on different sites. As always, appreciate y'all greatly. http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 12:26:29 PM | show profile You're way kind, Voracious ;) Thanks ... |
| mad fingers | Posted – 2/4/2008 2:46:54 PM | show profile Très cool! (Nice pix of u!) |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 3:00:20 PM | show profile Merci, Mad! |
| wineaux | Posted – 2/4/2008 3:44:44 PM | show profile I don't have much to add, other than ditto about the fonts. And, I'd make the text larger and bolder. I like the photo, too. It's very readable. You know how some blogs can really sound like it's random thoughts and can drone on and not have much organization, so it's nice to see one with a plan. It's a really well-put together blog. And it's cool that you added Astera's on there. I enjoyed reading them both, putting a face to the screen name. I want to put together a blog myself sometime in the near future, so I admire you for doing it the right way. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 10:52:27 PM | show profile | email poster Thanks for the note, Wineaux. When you do a writing blog, leave a link for me! Writes http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 10:55:52 PM | show profile | email poster Since I write such diverse stuff, the only way I could think of to make a blog coherent was to have several of them. I'd love to know how anyone else handled this, short of having a website. What I was astonished by was the ease of setting a blog up. I have only half-attempted to do a website, although I have multiple domain names reserved. Is there any way to make a website as easy as a blog? http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/4/2008 11:32:17 PM | show profile | email poster Capone, Bookends, Astera BTW, the other writers' blogs linked on mine are also MBers -- Don Capone and Bookends. If anyone else is thinking about diving into blogging, let me encourage you. It's incredibly easy. Set-up takes about 5 minutes, and then after that you whittle away at it as you have time. And don't forget to send me a link! http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ Best, writes ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| Astera | Posted – 2/5/2008 1:15:06 AM | show profile I like it! I thought the post about writing a romance novel blurb was very interesting and fun to read. The polls are a nice touch, too. The font could be a little darker, though. And I'm going to check out your book about how to become a party planner. I'm sure it's a lot of hard work, but I need something--anything--to get me out of my horrendously boring current job. And thanks for the link, by the way...now I'll have to post on my own blog more frequently! ------ www.adventuresofastera.blogspot.com |
| UGoGirl | Posted – 2/5/2008 10:40:42 PM | show profile Your blogs are quite beautiful IMO! Also, I agree with Nelly Bly, your posts are always thoughtful, calm, and well-written, of course -- a calm and rational voice amidst the occasional chaos here. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 2/5/2008 11:04:16 PM | show profile | email poster Oh, you guys made me cry! :) Seriously, thanks for the encouragement -- it's been a topsy-turvy week around here. Appreciate you. ------ http://writingporch.blogspot.com/ http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/ http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ |
| wineaux | Posted – 2/6/2008 12:23:11 PM | show profile Ah, I like the new sage green! looks very soothing. I love the article about the Santa-looking child molester. |
