

Obsession Times Voice: How to do online writing right. - jballanc
http://daringfireball.net/2009/03/obsession_times_voice

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raganwald
WIth respect, jballanc, this is why the HN guidelines discourage
editorializing by changing or embellishing the headline. This post is about a
lot more than online writing. It's also about startups and hacking and just
about anything else where there is a tension between expressing yourself and
making a fast buck. The author's experience _happens to be_ with writing, but
there's a deeper truth here that could be lost if a reader skips the article
because their interest lies in writing software rather than in writing words.

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jballanc
Thanks for the advice/admonition. Admittedly, I was hesitant to
editorialize...I almost never do. It just struck me that the original title
revealed almost nothing about the topic of the page.

I readily agree, though, that the concept is widely applicable, not just
restricted to writing.

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raganwald
Now that I think about it, perhaps the problem is that _I_ jumped to the
conclusion that the word "writing" is too specific. In what way is writing
software not writing?

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jwesley
It's easy for him to say "just write passionately and the money will come"
because that was more true 4 or 5 years ago when he first launched Daring
Fireball and Merlin launched 43Folders. Since then the market has become
overcrowded. People starting out today don't have the same early mover
advantage. Even a passionate and well written blog has to fight for attention
against thousands of more established competitors. Bloggers have also gotten
more competition conscious and stopped linking as freely as they used to.
Twitter, Facebook, et al are sucking up a lot of the attention that used to go
to blogs. The reason you see so many Digg-bait type articles isn't necessarily
because these bloggers lack passion, but because sensationalism and social
media channels are one of the few remaining ways to gain a foothold.

I find it a bit ridiculous when successful people say "just do what I did and
you'll be just fine". It's just not true. Today is a different market and the
strategies that worked a few years ago won't work today.

That being said, I do agree with the overall premise that success comes from
passion and differentiation. Your best bet is to own a specific niche, even if
it's small, and write with a strong editorial voice.

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mustpax
I love the end: ”The entire … “pro blogging” industry … is predicated on the
notion that blogging is a meaningful verb. It is not. The verb is writing. The
format and medium is new, but the craft is ancient.“

This is true, but note that Daring Fireball is one of the most masterfully
executed blogs around. From the RSS feed to the the way John Gruber picks
excerpts when linking, everything has a unique simplicity to it. For example,
the RSS feed entry titles link to source articles, not the blog itself; how
awesome is that? This kind of simplicity does not happen without painstaking
attention to detail.

So maybe there's something to understanding and working with the medium as
well. But that probably comes after you make you peace with the ancient craft.

~~~
jballanc
I once asked a musically knowledgeable friend what he thought the modern
equivalent to classical music would be. His reply was movie soundtracks:
"After all, Operas were just the movies of the day back then..."

Dickens wrote _Great Expectations_ originally in serial form. There's no rule
stating that short story, column, or even serial writing is not as valid an
art form as the novel or epic poem. Gruber seems to get this (and, as you
point out, he really is one of the better bloggers in terms of form).

