Check Out My New Look

It’s hard to stand out from the crowd—particularly when it comes to blogs. Well, it’s not too hard but it does require a bit of additional work.

“US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months.” With literally millions of blogs, how do you stand out from the crowd? It’s a challenge—especially since the blog and space is free. I know bloggers love to come to a place with a unique look and feel to it.  In the past, I used a free template. These free templates are a tremendous service to the blogger community. 

One of my friends sent me a link to another blog called Writer’s Blog—that used the same free template and at that time had the same color scheme. When I saw that other blog, I didn’t feel too different or too unique. Yes, my words were different but not the look.

Several weeks ago I learned about Chameleon Blogskins, the work of Darlene Schacht. I met Darlene because she redesigned Shannon Woodward’s Wind Scraps blog. I love the result of Shannon’s redesign. I checked out Darlene’s portfolio and was impressed that each of her designs were unique to the individual.

As a writer, I understand the creativity, listening ability and pure talent involved to capture another person. It’s the type of skill set that I’ve had to tap each time I work on a collaboration project. Darlene echoes this same type of creativity, listening ability, pure talent and attention to the smallest details.  As I’ve written about before in these entries, with much of publishing, the devil is in the details. Darlene knows and understands how to capture these details in her design work. I was amazed.

With one of my suggestions, Darlene had to work some HTML magic. I loved my Book Proposals That Sell  on the computer keyboard. Could she make that book “clickable?”  Yes, she figured it out. It’s a remarkable (and rare) quality for any designer. Today I’m celebrating what I’ve learned from this new friend who has distinguished The Writing Life from the crowded field of blogs.  

As I move into this new look, I hope you will plan to come back tomorrow (and the next day). There is a great deal more to be said about the writing life.