The Purpose-Driven Blog

Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Book of Proverbs, The Bible KJV.

I have been meandering through a variety of posts on this blog these past few months. There has been no one set theme to my writings. Of course, I gave myself wide latitude in the naming of the blog, Gumbo Ya-Ya, wherein I could scribble posts about whatever topic I happened to light on that week.

In general, writers with a particular focus and intended audience tend to be more successful.  The reader knows what to expect from the printed, or in this case, digital page. The reader then can anticipate and look forward to reading something that fits in the general subject area of the writer.

For example, one of my favorite columnists, Rick Bragg, writes a monthly feature for the magazine, Southern Living. Bragg focuses on humorous, folksy stories about his life in Alabama. His writing tends to center around his family, most notably his mother, or food, or sports. Another one of my favorite writers, is Anne Lamott. She writes achingly personal details about her life with a heavy emphasis on the spiritual lesson that she learns in some way from the conflict in the re-telling of her life’s small (and sometimes big) dramas.

What is the central theme of the Gumbo blog? Who is my audience save for the paltry few whom are shown in the comments and stats?  I am re-thinking the focus of the Gumbo blog. Perhaps, no focus IS the focus. I don’t know. Feel free to offer counsel or comments.