This is a continuation of my Writing An Addictive Blook – Part 1 post, and if you haven’t read it yet it doesn’t really matter, since the points in part 2 do not build on the points in part 1. Part of these techniques require basic coding skills – after all html, css and xml are the underlying languages of the web. So, we’ll start off with something we’ve all seen …
Pullquotes
Pullquotes are especially effective to catch the attention of readers – and creating them requires very minor tweaks to your CSS style sheet(s). I haven’t implemented pullquotes in this blog (most of my time in Novelr is actually spent wrestling with the sidebar, grr), but trust me on this one. In blogger, for example, i did it with a blog called BUGS (example: here) and it took a total of 15 minutes to get everything the way i liked it. WordPress junkies can go here for a brief tutorial on implementing pullquotes in WP blooks.
Excerpts!
Don’t let your episodes run uncontrolled on your main blook page – personally i hate seeing a flood of words with not one pretty picture to break the monotony of the text. Instead, cut off your posts and place a Read More link – WordPress users have this built-in (the more tag), but Blogger blogs will require a CSS hack to do so.
Be Prolific
This is true of all blogs – the more they post constantly the more traffic passes through, the faster the story progresses, the happier readers are. There’s quite a problem here, though – writing a blook isn’t as easy as writing about, say, celebrities – you have to ensure the story is going in the right direction, that the characters say and do the right thing, and at least read through it thrice (that is, if you’re as much of a perfectionist as i am). Posting once or twice a week should be understandable if your schedule chokes the typing ability out of you. Truth to be told, i have let Janus rot for a month without posting once – real life just caught up with me.
Comment, Comment, Comment!
If readers can take the time to give encouragement, to give support or to just have their say, then it’s your responsibility to have a conversation with them! This is one of the benefits of being a small blog – it’s very easy to develop a connection with your readers, be it through comments, trackbacks or references. I’ve even heard of a blooker who asks for a comment per episode … or he doesn’t post. While i’m not exactly sure how this works, or how he does it effectively, the blogging medium opens up different, often exciting ways to connect with readers in ways that cannot possibly be done through books.
And there you have it … a collection of 8 surefire ways to stickify a blook – which works as long as what you’re dealing with is online text. Once your blook hits the shelves in physical format, however … everything changes. The text and the story/content is now what matters, but let’s get into that on another day, shall we?
