Believe it or not I’m more than halfway done with the book!
Yes, I know I haven’t been very chatty of late, nor have I been “on track” (much to my editor’s dismay), but I’m only three chapters away from being done.
Right now I’ve hit Chapter 8: Portfolio blog and I’m at a bit of a cross-roads as I see it.
This is how I’ve introduced the chapter:
Portfolio blog:
When I was first working on the outline for this book, I put the various chapters in place to (somewhat) build upon each other. Yes, I know I wrote in the preface to this section that each chapter is supposed to stand alone, and they do, but if you were to read all the chapters in order you might notice how they do build off one another. To that end, I’ve been looking forward to writing this chapter for some time. It’s almost a treat to “finally” get to it. You see that as a photographer and occasional poet (don’t ask, I’m not telling where that stuff is hidden online), using the Internet to showcase my work is rather fulfilling. It’s like being able to have a whole section of a gallery, or a whole gallery to myself. Not only that I get to design every inch of the gallery to suit me and my art. This chapter is written with a bias towards showcasing the visual arts (photography, sculpture, paintings, jewelry, etc), but it could very easily be applied to speaking, acting, or music. You’re a creative person, run with it! The whole idea and philosophy is to design a site/blog that showcases you . You know you’re worth it, so let’s do a good job of it. Roll out a canvas, because we’re going to paint your work, writ large, across the Internet.Content:
Very much like the personal blog of Chapter 4, a portfolio blog is all about you . Your art and creative works might be taking center stage, but if you’re like me, your creativity and art is as much a part of you as your hair or skin. The goal of a portfolio blog is to showcase your works in the best light possible, but also to have it reflect you and the art itself. Let’s take photography for example. Having a blog with a black background, a scrolling slide show of your pictures, and shadow boxes to look at a particular picture makes each image stand out. The colors and contrasts can easily be seen and appreciated. For an actor, having a selection of video clips or audio segments that when clicked zoom to focus on that example and blur out the rest of the site, makes that performance stand out front and center. Now, imagine being a writer and the contrast between the background and text is poor and there is no way to find out how to contact you, yes not very effective. This chapter isn’t going to have much about writing or creating your works, but it is written from one artist to another. Written to help you create an online showcase and portfolio.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. He is the author of Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Blogging Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro and Using WordPress.
