To say we are aimlessly meandering through life is an understatement. Our future plans are, well, not planned at all.
We never really know where we will be more than a few weeks in advance and so writing our blog has given us a great platform to keep you all informed of where we are and what we have been up to at any given time.
If we ever suddenly go missing at least you will now be able to give the police a starting point in their search. ” They were last seen arguing with a policeman ” or ” The last I heard he was breaking into an apartment block” – you get the gist!
When we first decided to embark on this ‘adventure’, writing a blog was not part of the deal. Our initial idea was simply to pack our bags and just to move around for a while with no particular route map to follow. It never occurred to us that anyone would be interested enough to want to know where we were or what we were up to.
However, as soon as we started to mention our idea to family and friends many suggested that we start a blog. At first, I was a little reluctant. Karyo is working Mon – Fri so I knew the blog would be my responsibility.
I wasn’t completely sure what a blog actually was, I have very little writing experience and have pretty much zero I.T. skills. All these seemed to me to be fairly important attributes necessary in order to do a blog with any remote level of success and so initially it all felt like a bit of a non-starter.
Then I thought how hard could it be? Rattling on about our daily lives, trying to make it sound a tad more exciting than it actually is, adding a bit of humour along the way. So I agreed to give it a go, and on the whole, I have to admit that it turned out to be not such a bad idea after all.
It has proved to be a great way to keep me busy and, more importantly, from under Karyo’s feet whilst he is working. I have enjoyed writing it. It’s helping my ever failing memory to remember events, people and places that we encounter along the way and from some of the lovely comments we have had, it seems some of you have enjoyed reading it.
So far so good. However, what I did not expect, is how critical technology is of my writing style and ability! It is akin to having a teacher looking over my shoulder pointing out errors and suggesting I alter everything it deems not to be absolutely correct.
For those of you that don’t know – and I previously was oblivious to this! -When writing a blog post, everything you write is getting analysed for its ‘readability’ score.
Is your grammar correct? spelling? Are your sentences/paragraphs too short or too long? Are you writing too much in a passive voice? ( I previously had no idea there was such a thing )
Not only am I getting my knuckles metaphorically rapped with each sentence I write. On top of this every time I write a paragraph I am ‘awarded’ ( or punished!) with a coloured dot.
- Green – Perfect – well done
- Amber – Hmm, room for improvement
- Red – You are really shite at this writing malarkey
It’s a minefield of literary lambasting!
At first, I didn’t care, So what if my sentence structure stinks? Will anyone really notice that 34% of my sentances are too long?
After a while though, I found myself getting sucked into trying to appease the demands of the automated corrector. I was spending ages frustratingly writing and re-writing paragraphs. Trying to change a red dot to green dot. Though the end result, in my humble opinion, was exactly the same words just in a different order?
Shortening sentences, lengthening paragraphs. not enough subheadings, too many transition words? ( another thing I had to google!)
Now, on top of all this, I’m getting ‘hints’ on how and why I should be improving my SEO. I had to google that too, it’s another language to me!
For my last post, I made an extra effort to get it all right. Writing it took me ages but in the end, I was as pleased as punch to get a full house of green lights. I felt like taking a copy home to stick on the fridge door. I wanted a virtual pat on the head. Unfortunately though, when I re-read it, It seemed as if somebody else has written it. It just was not my style at all. I had stopped my rattling and it showed.
So I now know that writing a blog is not as easy as I first thought. It’s really easy to quickly forget the original purpose and lose your way somewhat.
So I’ve made my decision for the day. (and this was the purpose of writing the post, thanks for sticking with me so far! )
My big decision is to go out on a limb and from now on to ignore all remote ‘suggestions’ to change anything I write. I apologise in advance for any grammatical goofs or seriously short sentences. My posts are not likely to be perfect but they will definitely be my words you are reading. You’ll probably realise this by the smattering of bad jokes!
Oh pfft Colin I love reading your blog, I thought you come across as quite intellectual actually and I for one am amazed that you did a blog, like you I wouldn’t have a clue. I always look forward when I have an email to see (have a nosey) at your journey and great stories and photographs so I am sending you a virtual pat on the back. Keep up the blog, stuff those with political correctness, enjoy and stay safe xx
Thanks Paula x
Very sensible decision, Colin. Your voice needs to be authentic and show who you are, how you think, what makes you laugh, what matters to you. Some computer-generated grammar police widget will knock the stuffing out of what brings people to your lovely, entertaining blog, and what a shame that would be. Carry on as you really are! No one died because of a split infinitive!
Wise words Rachael x
Good for you Colin . Don’t be dictated to.
CheersRod – Hope you are keeping well x
I read your blog for its interesting content 🙂 not to critique your grammar or sentence length.
Be yourself, share the adventures 🙂
Best, Barrie
Thanks Barrie –
Keep up the good work Colin, you can see from my Facebook posts, I don’t have a great command of the ‘Queens england’ either, ha ha. Take care, stay safe
Thanks Brad – Look forward to meeting up again …whenever that might be! xx
Cool dude. These things are ego distractions. Forgive and move on. Thanks for sharing.
I love writing. My second language is English. I am a little dialectic. I like to ramble. Without a family member (my daughter who grew up English) edit my work. Not ideal. But better than people critiquing my mistakes.
Thanks Johan – I too tend to ramble, thats not a bad thing though;-)
I think that all your posts have been great, very entertaining.. it would irritate me having some robot correcting my work, so I would just do your own thing.
Thanks Bernie – I got used to seeing the red pen at school so no change now haha x
I love your blog, Colin. It’s got character to it and makes me chuckle. Keep those posts coming and safe travels! John x
Thanks John – Hope you are keeping well x
Well Colin, it’s funny you should mention it but both my brother and I, who really enjoy reading your blog, did say that our enjoyment was somewhat tarnished by the fact your sentences were 34% too long. 🙂 Hmmm I think my sentence was 100% too long!
Seriously though, your blog brightens up my humdrum existence. I love love love it! Keep blogging.
I think the more polished it is the less authentic it feels 😘
I agree, its backto rough and ready again from now on !
One hundred percent agree.
You’re doing great Colin! Keep it up xxx
Cheers Mark x