Have you ever strained a muscle in your back? If you have, you know something about physical pain. Thanks to a hard 40 mile mountain bike ride in hot conditions yesterday, I awoke today with a severely strained back muscle. I planned to write today, but found even sitting and typing in my office difficult — felt something like a sharp stick poked into my side (by an angry sumo wrestler) every time I moved in my chair. The only position in which I can work is horizontal. So, I am lying here in bed with my PowerBook G4.

The pain in my back both slowed me down and irritated me, prompting me to pause and rethink the Presentation Zen site I was writing for. I mean, what is the best way to write and share ideas here? Blogging is not easy, which is why I guess many people begin blogs (that's easy), but end up giving up on it in less than a year. They never taught "writing for blogs" when I was in college. A 20-page term paper or a 300 page thesis — that was relatively easy. But writing quick, short, yet rich and tight content for a blog...that's something else. I need to brush up on my blog writing skills. So, this pain in my back is a good excuse to lie in bed and surf the web for great blogs and great blog writing from which to learn.

Here are a few good articles on how to write well for weblogs.

From A List Apart

10 Tips on Writing the Living Web by Mark Bernstein

How to Write a Better Weblog by Dennis A. Mahoney

From MarketingProfessionals.com (membership required, but free)

How to Write Compelling Blog Posts by B.L. Ochman

Don't Bore Me With Your Blog by Susan Solomon

Now, where did I put that aspirin...?