Pondering the world

maybe now I can become a writer

I was astounded the other day to see that I had 162 posts on my blog.  That means essentially I have 162 short stories, essays, journal entries--call them what you will.  Somehow by writing a blog entry practically every day, I have finally become a writer.

Everything I've ever read or been taught about writers is that the good ones write religiously every day.  Maybe it's the first thing they do in the morning.  Anyway, good writers do this without fail.

However, I fail.  I don't write well longhand any more because my hands cramp up.  I can type until the cows come home, but don't ask me to write much more in longhand than an address on an envelope or jot down a phone number.  I also have a tendency to jump out of bed in the morning and get started on my day.  Patience is no longer my strong suit. I’m already thinking about the two dozen things I need to get done before 8:00 a.m., so getting up and writing in a journal just isn’t going to happen.

But here I sit with 162 posts and counting. I would never have thought I would have this many entries in one year.  Maybe it’s because I focus on one thought or event at a time instead of looking at the big picture.  Sometimes it’s good not to see the forest.

How do you eat an elephant?  One piece at a time.

How do you become a writer?  One entry at a time.

Yes, we have no banana!

I just finished reading The Big Red Fez: How to Make Any Web Site Better by Seth Godin. It’s another one of his small books with a powerful message. The beauty of this book is that he picks dozens of web sites as examples—both good and bad—so you can see exactly what he’s talking about.

The premise is that there’s a trained monkey wearing a big red fez. You can get that monkey to do nearly anything as long as he gets the banana as a reward. But he has to be able to find the banana easily. So on any web site, the “banana” is the call to action: Make a purchase now! Book that reservation now! And face it, most web sites are selling something, from products to information. 

Then we looked at our web site—where’s the banana??? We just spent a bunch of money and lots of time designing a great web site with a banana… that’s hard to find!  That banana should be on every single page, right at the top, in the same place: “make a reservation!”

Seth Godin also talked about some companies that changed their web sites to get that banana right out in the open—top, front and center. One guy increased his sales 200%. Wouldn’t that be nice!

So, we’re not quite back to the drawing board, but we have some work to do to get that banana out there.