Blogging is like…The Blues

“You play blues? That music is so sad.”

Blues legend Buddy Guy recalls the words of a couple who approached him in a hotel lobby while he was on tour. Guy gave the couple tickets to see that night’s show. After the set, the couple approached him again.

“You didn’t play one sad song,” they remarked with a mix of surprise and disappointment.

That’s the blues. The blues were born of the anguish and suffering of slaves and tenant farmers in the Deep South. Yet as a form of storytelling, the blues tell a story of hope and of faith.

Here’s why the best blogs are like the blues:

• The best blogs tell a story.
• The best bloggers embrace their own vulnerability.
• The best blogs drip with emotion.
• The best blogs are sincere, genuine, real.
• The best bloggers let their instrument be a part of the story.
• The best blogs aren’t a solo, but a conversation, like the conversation between a blues singer and his guitar.
• The best blogs peel away the layers.
• The best blogs touch on something universal.

Liz Strauss asks us, “Can you be brave and vulnerable?”

It’s hard to be brave without being vulnerable, I say. The best posts, like the best blues licks, expose us. They lay us bare — the writer and the reader. They cut through us and touch our pain. They show us that, because of our pain, we are not alone.

How is your blog singing the blues?

Up next: Blogging is like…jazz

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