Letters to de Laclos

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos manages to create a transcendent and witty transcription of a cat-and-mouse game of love through his most defining work, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The most impactful aspect about this literary masterpiece is the manner in which it is composed; de Laclos elects to narrate this tale through the personal letters of the various characters introduced. Readers are able to peer into the minds of each individual and better understand their motives and desires. My absolute favorite character to hear from is Cecile Volanges. For me, I find her most interesting because of her quality of innocence and how it contributes to the progression of plot within the novel; de Laclos effectively introduces us to her in a scenario illustrating her naivety in a charming scene where she assumes the shoemaker visiting her estate a man there to marry her. I believe that the choice to conduct the story allows for de Laclos to truly expand the limits of narration by offering multiple views and opinions on the events that transpire. In doing so, he manages to stray away from focusing on the miniscule details and descriptions that most authors choose to include for creative literary purposes. Instead, the chief instruments of the novel are the roles that each person has in the fruition of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont and their personal biases and motives.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

My First Blog Post

Letters to de Laclos

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)