Blog Exercises: Writing Poetry and Recipes in Your Blog

Do you publish poetry on your site? Feature many quotes? Share recipes? Addresses? If so, you may need to learn how to publish content with single lines instead of double.

In WordPress and other publishing platforms with a WYSIWYMG interface, hit the Enter (Return) key and a wide or double space will appear. Each line will have whitespace between it. In poetry, quotes, and recipes, you may want the lines to appear on top of each other as a group.

Here is an example from a poem by my Great Uncle Robert Knapp called “Evenin’.”

Night drops down with usual calm.
The peaceful night birds cry.
The whippoorwill reiterates song,
Natures own sweet lullaby.

An owl hoots, from his lofty perch,
A hungry coyote whines,
Nocturnal animals in search,
Make chills go up one’s spine.

The Old Moon rises o’er the hill
Sends shadows every where,
Seems aid to night folks, greatly skilled,
On land and in the air.

This excerpt is a recipe from “The Best Fresh Fruit Recipe Ever” on Taking Your Camera on the Road.

Ingredients

1-2 kilograms (enough for four servings) of just about any fruit: strawberry, melon, pineapple, mango, cherry, apple, orange, grape, kiwi, banana, whatever
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
4 cardamom pods
4 star anise

In a pot on medium heat, put the sugar, lemon juice, and water and begin to heat it (not to a boil). Bruise the cardamom, which means setting each pod on a cutting board, laying a big knife over it on its side and gently smacking your hand down on the knife to flatten the pod to open just a little, or doing the same thing with a flat heavy surface like a meat pounder. Put the cardamom with the star anise in the pot, but I want to give you an option…

Both of these work better with no spaces between the lines. The reader sees them as a group, a block of content in poetry as well as a traditional form with recipes.

In the Visual Editor of WordPress, a single hit of the Enter key automatically adds spacing appropriate between paragraphs. To create a single line, called a line break in HTML, hold down the SHIFT key and hit ENTER.

In the Text Editor of WordPress, you must use two Enters to create space between paragraphs. Hit it once to make a line break. Or you may wish to use the HTML line break <br /> to force the line break.

For more examples and tips, see “Writing with Single Lines Not Double in Your Blog Posts.”

Your blog exercise today is to practice and publish something with single lines rather than paragraph spacing on your site.

If you have previously published recipes, quotes, poetry, or addresses without this technique, edit those posts to correct the line breaks.

If you wish to share this tip and blog exercise with your readers, include a hat tip link back to this post to create a trackback, or leave a properly formed link in the comments so participants can check out your blog exercise task.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is a year-long challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles.

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