6-16-2019 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Five years can be a long time. It comes down to relativity, in one sense. Five years can be a long time in jail, or it could be a short time watching a child grow up. I'd like to think it to be the latter rather than the former in the case of my blog.

Five years ago, I had toyed with the idea of starting a blog to highlight my career as a historical interpreter and show off all the neat things I get to do or participate in. In some way, that is what this blog has done, so my original intent is still here.

2014 Ryan worked as a seasonal interpreter on a farm.

Over time, it became more of a place where I can show my depth of interest, concern, and understanding of the art and skill of interpretation and the issues surrounding it. Like all things in five years, it has changed. It has changed in becoming deeper, more impacting content than a fun and flashy "look at me" self serving showcase.

Because of this change, it has also been difficult to continue to provide meaningful content. The need to make content interesting, relevant, and important became a struggle to be able to do it. It is one of the reasons why the blog became less spontaneous and a more metered monthly publication.

2019 Ryan is still seasonal but with the National Park Service

Finding content and committing to a monthly deadline has been an education and a discipline that I have had to cultivate as the low hanging fruit of my imagination began to run out of readily available ideas and I have had to look for things that inspire from my career and daily life.

Over the five years, here are five things that I have learned in blogging:

1. Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you look back on my very first blog post, there is not one image. Actually, neither did the second post. Honestly, those were a little boring. They were my first ones, so that can be easily overlooked. More often than not, I have added too many photos and not enough text. I generally plan for between 5- 7 images but only end up using 4-6 depending.

Editor-in-Chief on location in Atlanta

2. You have to make your own noise. Not many people are going to be in your cheer squad, so recruiting people to share and spread is essential.However, I must admit this is an area in which I can improve. I presently only self advertise on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I have to learn more about Twitter. Networking with other bloggers and people who do things that you do helps create community and shared experience. It also seems less like "crying in the wilderness" where no one can hear me make noise. One way for me to improve is to explore better advertising and sharing platforms.

3.Editing matters! Writing is hard work, especially under a deadline. I try to use the Hemingway App to help improve my writing style. About my biggest complaint is that it does not like passive voice. Since much of the content I write about takes place in the past and sometimes by course of natural action and not active participation, the passive voice is simply part of the writing style. I also have an head Editor-in-Chief! She has helped me untangle some frazzled threads that made it onto an editable region on the blog software and turn it into something that makes sense to someone reading it. She has her own blog that she adds to when inspiration and time allow. 

David Connon, the author of the "Maserati"
guest blog post and author of his own blog
Confederates From Iowa

4.Snazzy titles. Perhaps I have yet to learn this one. My most visited and popular post was not written by me, but by a guest. The Me in a Maserati blog post just celebrated its release just 3 years ago. This post has been very popular in Europe, especially in Russia. I think it is because "Maserati" shows up in the title and the search engines worldwide pick it up. Or, maybe it is because David Connon's winsome blog post and his network far outshines my readership ."I think...that it has been your most viewed post because of the wording of the title, and probably particularly because of the word 'Maserati'. " I corresponded with David about the popularity of his post, initially to look at what made the post the most successful one yet but he also had this bit of advice about titles,"I think that writing good, snappy, and/or interesting titles is important if we want to attract readers. But it is hard to do, and sometimes it's like pulling teeth."
5. L shape writing. This kind of writing is similar to using the Hemingway App, in that the short curt sentences are broken up into smaller paragraphs that are easier to read. I still need to revise my earlier posts that use full paragraphs and break them into smaller chunks.

With all things, it is hard to say how much longer this blog will continue to bring the reader fresh content, but it is my intention to keep it up as long as I am able.

If you are a regular reader, then thank you for reading. Please continue to read and learn and give feedback. I appreciate all the help, support, and inspiration over the years!