Normally, I'd be laughing about the Lake Effect Snow™ in Michigan. But it's forced the cancellation of the Twins-Tigers game, so I guess the joke's on me.
It's on to other things, then. When I wrote up the previous post I figured that, at the very least, I would learn something about this website and something about writing. So what did I learn? On both counts, not a whole lot.
The post generated the most traffic on a single day in this blog's history. Granted , this isn't much given that my "regular" readership consists of no more than what, five people? But it's enough to give me a good look at what people that might come to the site are using as far as browser type and resolutions are concerned. For example, fully one quarter of the hits to the site were done on a computer with a resolution of 800x600.
You may be saying "So what?" at that little tidbit of information. But if (um--when--I meant to say *when*) I ever get around to redesigning this site--because you can almost see the dust bunnies quite frankly--I'll know that I'll have a canvas roughly 800 pixels wide to work with. Okay, it's actually more like 775 pixels what with borders and scroll bars and all. But I think you get the picture.
So what did I learn about writing? First, that it's terrifying to write for a wider audience. Second, that it's an incredible rush to write for a wider audience. The feeling is "I've got this cool idea, and I'd like to have it out in the open for everyone to see, but what if it sucks runny, rotten eggs and they come to my house, tie me to a chair, board me up and take away my internet access? Aw, screw it. They don't know where I live anyway." I used to wonder how published authors could write like that and still be able to sleep at night. But I'm beginning to get the picture.
Third, I've learned that feedback of any type is a rare and precious thing and should be treated like gold. And any piece of feedback that's more than "I like it" or "Th1S SuXs!!!1!1!eleven!" is occasion for tears of joy and frolicking in the wheat fields without a care in the world. Not that I'd actually do that. There aren't any wheat fields near my house.
Fourth, writing in someone else's style (even though I don't write enough to have a style of my own) is *hard*.