"The notion that such persons are gay of heart and carefree is curiously untrue. They lead, as a matter of fact, an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats."
- James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Call me a Knight of Template

As part of this Blog-o-Day-o-Rama, I will, at some point, have my blog reviewed by others. We call it a critique, which is fine, except that it sounds so critique-kal, n'est ce pas? Along with content, ease of locating archives and links, and the ability to get updates, appearance is reviewed. I'm genuinely looking forward to having feedback on whether my blog is ready to support a blog book tour.

Here's the thing... while I try to make sure my blog page is chock full o' information, it's served up in a rather plain brown wrapper. Or, a plain green one. When I was first building my blog, I chose a template that was inconspicuous, I guess in an attempt to let the words shine, without the benefit of bells or whistles or dancing monkeys.

Not that I don't enjoy dancing monkeys.


So, I went looking around the internet for a template that would spruce up my blog. I searched through several sites, until they all began to look the same. A couple of templates caught my eye; they were made to look like pages in a journal. That would be a nice look, except when I clicked on them, all of the reviews were in Spanish. I feared I would download a template I couldn't talk to, and my words might be lost forever.


In the end, I chose to keep my sea of green tranquility, because I like it. If I really wanted to make it special, I'd mimic the look of my website, with a header, like this:





And then, a spiraled page look to the entries. It would be nice to have the entries in my own handwriting, except no one could read them. I can hear the discussions now:
"What's she trying to say? She flubbed her frying monikers?"
No, people - I love flying monkeys.


Maybe Ariel font is just as well.



I'm a smart enough cookie, so someday maybe I'll do this. After I sell Freezer Burn to lots of people, write another one to sell, meet my newspaper deadlines and see my son off to college. I'll set my alarm for a couple of years from now.

6 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Actually, I like your background. It's different from everyone else's color scheme. I probably need to look at templates myself (I wasn't wild about the Blogger ones, so I went with the minimalist look!)

Elizabeth
http://tinyurl.com/ojpo4o

Jane Kennedy Sutton said...

Checking out other templates has been on my to do list for a long time - I must have used your alarm clock! Anyway, I think yours looks fine and it's the content that counts the most.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/

C. Margery Kempe said...

I use the same template for my podcast blog, so I think it looks nice. I don't tend to worry too much about templates, but some people are adamant about having one that stands out. C'est la vie.

Dani said...

There are links to other template sites at the BBT loop. Be careful though, because some will make your blog load really slowly. And, Gayle, you are definitely ready for crit. Critics, get your guns. No, just kidding. ;)

Dani
http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com

N A Sharpe said...

I know what you mean about the template, I fear mine looks a lot like a lot of others out there too ... well, I did enter a header that ties in with my site.

I do like the look and feel of your blog :)

Nancy
http://nasharpe.blogspot.com

Karen Brees said...

I change my template on Blogger from time to time. Actually liked the look of some of their older (and no longer available ones). Variety is the spice.

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