Write What You Want to Know
Nancy Graham
Owner, Petal & Twig Design Studio
Chester, New Hampshire
Squidoo: How did you decide what to make your lenses about?
Nancy: At first I wrote about what I was immersed in at the time: floral design and flowers. I had already created several lenses when I started having trouble with burn-out at work. After I went on leave from my job, I began to research what had happened to me. I knew I was not the only one having this problem, a fact which now is evidenced by the dramatic popularity of this lens over my others.
Squidoo was an obvious format for sharing what I had learned about my experience, with the hope that I could help others who were going through the same thing. At a time when not much else captured my attention and kept me going through the day, Squidoo was a great source of projects for me and I spent a good part of my days, at that point, creating lenses and updating them. I have since given my notice and am on to other things with work -- it was definitely a turning point in my life -- but I am still hooked on Squidoo!
S: Do you maintain a web site or blog otherwise?
N: Not yet, but I have just purchased some software to create a web site and am looking forward to doing that. Squidoo has played a huge role in encouraging me to to write and to gain the confidence to do more online and to see the value and endless and ever-changing possibilities of electronic media.
S: What have you done with your lenses that you can't do elsewhere?
N: The first lens I created was "Wedding Flowers". I was asked to write an article for a local newspaper on this subject and decided to plug that article into a Squidoo page. It was so easy and much more satisfying to be able to have control over how it looked and how it read. The ability to divide ideas into sections like an outline and work on each area, adding to it and improving it over time is such a great concept. It is dynamic rather than static. You write an article for a magazine or newspaper and it is edited. It ends up being set in time: static. On Squidoo, you are in charge and you are able to constantly change and rework the information, not just as a draft for yourself, but for others to read: dynamic!
S:Have you taken any cues from other lenses so far?
N: I love checking out other's lenses and I read the information in SquidU. It's very helpful to have this interactive feature. You learn from -- and along with -- other lensmasters. It greatly accelerates learning and improvements. I couldn't you give any specific cues that I've focused on because I am constantly getting ideas from the many lenses. They all serve to roll into my bag of tricks in one form or another and to try and remember any in particular is a challenge. It's all great.
S: What advice or ideas would you offer other lensmasters?
N: I don't think you have to just write about those things you are an expert on. Like I did with "Nervous Breakdown," you can write about things you want to learn more about. As you research it for yourself, you can share that with others.
Make sure you do write, though, rather than just setting up lots of links. That's boring. People want to see a little bit of you in the lens, not just a glossary list of informational sources. And read other lenses. I love to go through the top 100 lists and see what is working for people. Do it for the love of doing it and the learning. See where it takes you.
