Newbie bloggers are hammered all the time with the advice to write “quality” posts. But, what constitutes a quality post? Let’s answer that by examining what a quality post is not.

Length
Some bloggers apparently believe that bigger is better. Well, sometimes bigger is better, other times brevity is better. Length in and of itself is not a measure of quality. If you ramble on and on, people will tune out. Do not say in five paragraphs what you could say in five sentences. Do not say in five sentences what you could say in five words. Do not get so wrapped up in keyword stuffing that you forget about your reader! People tend to read a number of blogs each day, and your post is not going to be read if it is long and boring. Get to the point!

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have lengthy posts; just that your posts should be only as lengthy as they need to be.

Repetition
Newbie bloggers are encouraged to post frequently, daily if possible. That’s fine, but if you’re just rehashing the same material everyday, people are going to get bored. This is a great example of why recycling can be bad. You may think you’re doing your readers a favor by “emphasizing” certain things, but really you’re just encouraging them to skip your blog. If you write that “apples are red” on Monday and “red is the color of apples” on Tuesday, sorry! That is not fresh content. That’s yesterday’s leftovers you’ve reheated and dressed up in an effort to trick your reader into reading the same thing again. You’re only fooling yourself.

Useless Disguised as Useful
If you’re passing along a warning about the “I LOVE YOU” virus or some other ancient virus, scam, phishing attempt, etc., then–YAWN! If you’re going to share with us that Coke is going to eat our stomach lining, or pork chops are full of worms, or some ridiculous conspiracy theory involving kittens, bad lemons and 9/11, please don’t. It’s bad enough we get friends and family resending us this stuff on a near-daily basis, but now you’re going to post it to your blog as well? No thank you.

If you are guilty of any of these things, maybe now is a good time to pause and regroup. Don’t blog for a while. Claim solidarity with the striking WGA or something.

This past Saturday, Ann awarded me The Colors of Friendship award. The creator of this award has been lost to us, so if anyone knows who it is, leave a comment!

Thanks Ann!

I am behind on my re-awarding of other awards, but this one was an easy one to determine who deserves it. I pass along this award to…

• Rolando
• Jon

This is for their efforts to help their friend Bobby. Judging by his last post, perhaps the situation wasn’t quite as grim as it had appeared. But, words on a page don’t convey feelings very well, regardless of the author. Why take chances if you feel a friend may be in need?

There were many others who did what they could to help, but Rolando and Jon are the first whose blogs I saw the details on, so I bestow these awards on to them.

Okay, so I missed a Monday, but I had a Thursday update, so I think that counts.

Anyway, the next task mentioned in that Thursday update is still underway… Plan to have it mostly finished this week. This one is a bit more involved, and includes tracking down some information I’ve had stored but haven’t touched in a while. (”A while” as in 15-23 months when I last worked on this part of the project…)

In any case, I am steadily marching closer and closer to completion.

So, while I get back to work, you might want to check out The Nerd Handbook. No, it’s not a how-to book for nerds; rather, it’s a guide for the people who love them.

Joanne tagged me with the “7 Things You Don’t Know But I Do” meme. I don’t know who started this meme; the backtrack trail ended at Life of a Valley Girl, which was playing “Built This Way” by Samantha Ronson–a song and artist I’ve never heard of before, but it was a cool sounding song. And “Valley Girl” is apparently a Mac user, so we’ll give her a point for the song and a point for the Mac. Not that the points have any meaning, but there you go.

Anyway, on to conquer the meme! I’ll cheat a bit by using Joanne’s answers as inspirational material.

1. I don’t get enough sleep, generally.

2. Destiny is irrelevant. I think there are passages in the Bible that say the things in the Book of Revelation do not have to come to pass, but will come to pass if people do not change their ways. Nostradamus wrote that his prophecies of the future were possibilities and could be avoided. Astrology tries to anticipate the future in the hopes of using that information to our best advantage. And there are those who believe that destiny and prophecies are all a bunch of hogwash. In any case, they all agree that we determine the future through the choices we make. Predetermination? Destiny? Pure chance? Whatever may be, while prognosticators may predict future outcomes based on past and current behavior, all choices are ultimately ours, thus making any notion of destiny completely irrelevant.

3. My first animation project (outside of little drawings in the corner of books or pads of paper that you then flip through to animate) was on an Apple IIe. It was a combination slideshow and simple animation for a school project. I also did the voiceover. I had to route the computer video directly to the VCR instead of the computer monitor. There were limits on the size of a computer program, so the whole project took three programs. In between each one, I had to type in (without being able to see it on-screen, which would mean I’d have to start all over if I had a typo!) the command to run the next program. Unfortunately, for some reason the audio was recorded at a low volume, which meant in class we had to have the sound all the way up and use sheets of cardboard to direct the sound toward the class. That is until the last couple minutes, when the audio kicked in full volume.

4. I rarely drink coffee. Once a year at most, though I don’t think I’ve had any for a couple years. And, when I do have coffee: no cream or sugar, thanks.

5. I wanted to learn Latin since I was in elementary school, because it was the language that scientists spoke. (And, at that early age, I think I thought they meant that literally.) It was finally offered when I got to high school, so I took two years of it. They didn’t have offer a third year until my fourth year, and since I had already planned my schedule for my final year before my “counselor” told me Latin III was available, I didn’t take a third year.

6. I’ve never worn make-up. But, I did want a make-up kit when I was younger. It’s probably not what you think. I wanted a theatrical/special effects make-up kit, so that I could make people look old, maimed, alien, etc. (See 7 for more details.)

7. When I was a kid, I wrote, directed and acted in stage plays, in my backyard. Two or three of my neighbors were performers in them as well. First year, we had an audience of about five people–not terribly unlike this blog.

Now, who to tag? Who to tag? How about Phil, Jason and Pete because he’ll have to find a way to do it in GPS Camera Phone pictures.

Not sure if it’s technically a tan line, but it’s in all natural line. Before Doug gets curiosity gets too piqued over the headline, it’s a potted plant.

“Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers,
   That lately sprang and stood
In brighter light and softer airs,
   A beauteous sisterhood?
Alas! they all are in their graves;
   The gentle race of flowers
Are lying in their lowly beds,
   With the fair and good of ours.
The rain is falling where they lie,
   But the cold November rain
Calls not, from out the gloomy earth,
   The lovely ones again.”

from “The Death of Flowers”
by William Cullen Bryant

In an effort to estimate reader interest in my WiPs, in your comments, please place these stories in order of preference as to which you would prefer to read first. Asterisk (*) any stories you wouldn’t be interested in.

1) Darnella (fairy story)

2) Orphan girls search for their grandparents while being followed by people who want to kill one of them

3) An eclectic group of explorers search for universe’s earliest civilization while a dangerous menace grows

4) A teenage serial killer faces off against an even worse killer

5) In the far future, a centuries-old conflict re-ignites as mankind marks a new era of technological progress

Naturally, there is more to each one, but I tried to narrow things down to a simple tagline that wouldn’t give away too much of the story.

At the one extreme, there are students that go off the deep-end and harm or even kill their classmates. At the other extreme, we have schools that ban stuff like tag at recess. And, the list of things you cannot do in school seems to keep growing.

When you were in K-12 school, what did you do that might get you in trouble today? Besides tag.

When I was in grade school, we used to play a game at recess called “Kill the Man with the Ball.” I’m sure that would be allowed today…

In junior high, we used to play a game called “War.” This was all done on paper. You had your tank; your opponent had his. You’d take turns firing at each other with a pen stroke, until one had decimated the other’s tank. I think we may have had little armies of people to kill off too. I’m sure that would be allowed today…

In high school, I’d write short stories, and had a couple novels in the works (who didn’t, eh?). One took place at a school where students were being killed off one by one. Yeah, I bet that would get me sent to counseling in this day and age. But, you know, you’re supposed to write what you know, and what do students know about if not going to school?

On the one hand, I understand the need to be cautious and preventing tragedy. But, on the other hand, I worry that sometimes creative students may be discouraged by school officials who are themselves unable to separate intent from fiction. Sometimes writing “dark” things may be a sign of trouble or a cry for help; othertimes, it’s just a budding writing career.

So, what did you do in school that might land you in trouble today?

So, Joanne wants a teaser. Okay. This one is in the Fantasy genre though. Don’t forget to vote for Joanne, the Laidback Buddhist! I think today is the last day!

Now, to our story…

Darnella

Darnella drifted through the lush forest. While her sisters loved the varying shades of green from the dark colored oak leaves to the bright green buds of new growth, she preferred the sensations. The caress of a mandrake leaf against her skin delighted her. She giggled at the soft, squishy feel of moss beneath her bare feet. The gentlest wind in the open meadow could not compare to the diffused breeze she felt filtering through the leaves of the trees, wisping around the tree trunks.

Her sisters would frequently bathe in the clear water of the nearby pond, but she felt safer showering in the forest. Darnella had recently learned her old friend Janyst had been eaten by an alligator while bathing. Or was it a giant salamander? She could never keep the two straight.

In either case, neither one were to be found deep in the woods. Far from the open pond, she felt more secure, and hidden away from prying eyes. During a rainstorm, most people stayed indoors, providing less opportunity for Darnella to be seen than on a sunny day at the pond, when her sisters preferred to bathe.

She stopped beneath an oak tree. As the heavy rain fell through the leaves and branches, a gentler shower dropped under the tree. Darnella cautiously looked around her. Assured no one could see her, she tossed her silky pale blue dress over a branch and closed her eyes as the falling raindrops cleansed her.

After a few minutes or more—she had lost track of the time—she thought she heard something and opened her eyes. Folding her arms to conceal her breasts, she looked around. She could see no one.

She resumed showering, but heard muffled voices moments later. Teenage boys, she thought. Except for wings and a height of only four inches, fairies were anatomically identical to human females, making them a viewing target for hormone-driven teenage boys. They might get caught with their fathers’ pornographic magazines, but no one would ever suspect—or believe—they were spying on bathing fairies in the forest.

Most children completely forgot about fairies at the onset of puberty, but a small percentage would retain those memories even into their teen years. Some would spend hours pretending to be fishing while keeping a watchful eye for a fairy in need of a bath. Apparently, others would even withstand a downpour for the glimpse of a showering fairy.

Darnella realized they were likely harmless, only wanting to see her nude form. But she did not appreciate the violation of her privacy, and reached for her dress. Before she could grab it, a huge “thud!” surprised her, and she found herself trapped within transparent walls with a giant hand at the top.

She pushed against the wall, and she fell as it toppled over. She slid down the wall and hit a transparent flooring. She heard another sound as something metallic shut out some of the light above her.

“Got it!”

Darnella looked around, only to see three pairs of giant eyes staring back at her.

She slid across the flooring as a pudgy, dark-haired boy grabbed the jar and began to open the lid.

“What’re you doing?” asked the fair-haired boy who had caught the fairy. “It’s mine! Don’t let her out!”

Darnella felt a bit of fresh air as the jar’s lid opened and immersed herself in the scent of freedom. Her hopes were soon dashed as chubby fingers grabbed her and pulled her from the jar.

The dark-haired boy smirked as he fondled the little fairy’s nude body. Darnella struggled to break free, but his grip remained tight. After a few moments playing with her, the boy flipped her over. She could see the ground just feet away—enough of a distance where she could take flight before hitting the dirt.

She shrieked as she felt her left wing ripped from her body. Then again as the boy plucked her right wing off. The boys heard only a buzzing comparable to that of an angry wasp. The dark-haired boy let the wings float to the ground and tossed her back into the jar.

“What did you do that for?” the other two boys asked.

The dark-haired boy sealed the jar tightly, and pushed it back into the hands of the fair-haired boy. “Now you don’t have to worry about her flying away,” he said.

Darnella lay at the bottom of her transparent prison, feeling a throbbing pain on her back where her wings had been. She bled very little, and the wounds would quickly heal, but a fairy’s wings never grow back. She put her face in her hands and cried with the realization that she would never fly again.

As the boys walked off, their prize in hand, a pair of dark green hands grabbed the tiny blue dress and a pair of deep brown, almost black, eyes peered at the footprints the teenagers left behind.

End Part 1

Copyright 2004 Dan C. Rinnert

I previously asked for a “Show of Hands for SciFi” to which Joanne, Chris, Sam, Patch and Lewis Empire responded. How about that unexpected link love, eh?

So, this quarter’s question will be same topic, different outlay. Would you pay to read new SciFi (actually, SciFi, Fantasy or Horror)? New content would be posted weekly, and you could subscribe for x number of weeks.

Why subscriptions instead of ads, like Google AdSense? Because AdSense pays in pennies and writers like to be paid in dollars. It just doesn’t balance out.

So, that leads to the next question, how much would you be willing to pay? Basically, you’d be able to read a new short story each week. In some cases, a longer story may be serialized.

I’d summarize for those with short attention spans, but if your attention is that short, short stories are probably too long for you, so the odds are your answer is “no.”

And, you do not have to have previously replied in the “Show of Hands for SciFi.” Hopefully, I’ve gained readers in the two months since that question!