The Secrets of a Great Post

Many of my readers are also distinguished MRA Bloggers in their own right. The following letter by the great English poet John Keats gives many clues to the writing of a great Blog post that 'strikes the reader true'. Although he is describing poetry, many of the same principles apply:

I think Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity — it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance — Its touches of Beauty should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural to him — shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the luxury of twilight — but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it — and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

Letter to John Taylor (February 27, 1818)

These principles have always been close to my heart whenever I write a post, and I apply them thus:

I think a great Blog post should surprise by a wealth of arguments and not by singularity — it should strike the reader as a wording of his own finest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance — Its touches of Truth should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of the arguments should like the Sun come natural to him — shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the luxury of twilight — but it is easier to think what posts should be than to write them — and this leads me on to a final axiom. That if a Blog post comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

Anglobitch Blog Post (January 7, 2010)