

How to write a successful blog post - jgrahamc
http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/how-to-write-successful-blog-post.html

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mmaunder
1\. Buy this book. Then read it. [http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-
Guide-Newswriting-Pro...](http://www.amazon.com/Associated-Press-Guide-
Newswriting-Professional/dp/0768919797/)

2\. Avoid injecting yourself into the story. Before hitting publish, do a text
search for 'I', 'me', 'my' etc. You'll be amazed what you find.

3\. Read and re-read before publishing. Delete, cut, slash, burn. Make it
concise without losing the emotion or human aspect.

4\. Do your research! Data is the real value. Take the time to Google and
include links for readers that want to go into more depth.

5\. As you're writing, if you feel it's not coming together or you don't have
enough to write about, hit save-draft and move on. My save-draft button is
really my way of deleting a potential post without feeling like I lost the
sunk cost.

6\. Try to keep it under 400 words.

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one" ~Mark
Twain

~~~
swombat
Wrong. Blog posts are _not_ AP releases. Most of your tips are either
irrelevant or downright wrong if trying to write a successful blog post.

Regurgitating generic advice without adapting it to the current topic is a
very, very bad habit.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
His advice is mostly spot-on for the type I write. You are being a little
overly general and harsh there.

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SandB0x
I think you mean: "9 hot tips for a successful blog post".

See this guide on "Great literature retitled to boost website traffic":
<http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/27lacher.html>

~~~
cstuder
Hmm, I didn't catch all of them. Well, none, in fact, except the first:
'Animal Farm' by George Orwell.

What are the others?

~~~
SandB0x
The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, um not sure actually, 1984, The
Sound and the Fury

Edit: Google tells me it's The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

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ErrantX
_Spend offline time thinking about the post_

This is the one that has always bugged me; I am writing a novel at the moment
(when I get chance). Composing chapters in my head is really easy and I get a
good flow going - till I get home and sit down at the computer and it gets all
stilted.

I reckon I've "written" some chapters ten times over in my head before they
made it to the computer :)

~~~
joubert
I've heard the following tips:

\- write a first draft (not in your head)

\- keep consistent daily writing schedule: either time-based (e.g. 5 - 8am);
or output-based (e.g. 2000 words, no matter how long it takes)

\- write a lot

~~~
ErrantX
Cheers, I'll try those out. I do think, actually, that trying to write X
amount per day are a set time (or whatever) is one of the things that is
causing problems - I guess different things work for different people.

One thing I am trying is getting out my phone and recording it as dialogue
when it occurs to me - then transcribing it later. I really want something to
do that automatically but not luck yet :)

~~~
jasonlotito
The best advice I've ever heard about writing is this:

Write.

At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. Don't pussy foot around
and talk about feeling or emotion or mood. Sit down and write. Or stand and
write. Or lay down and write.

But write. There is no magic bullet. Nothing that will make the words flow all
the time, every time. Successful, prolific writers all share one thing in
common: they write.

You say you can think about writing, but when you sit down, you can't. Yes,
you can. The problem is you aren't writing. Writing is easy. The hard part is
accepting that what comes out isn't going to be highly polished glass. What
you write first is gonna be hard, grainy sand. It's gonna have rocks. It's
gonna have bits of dirt. It's gonna be rough, and it will get everywhere.
Later on, after you are done writing the entire thing, you can go back, gather
the sand, get rid of the rocks, dirt, twigs, dried figs and dead fish, and
start turning that sand into glass.

But write. Don't wait for inspiration. Write! Don't stop. Keep writing once
you start. So what if your writing might come out like Saturday night's
offerings to the porcelain god, that's why you rewrite.

But you aren't rewriting. Get the story out. Get it down. Get it done.

Write.

Edit: Because I wrote the post. Now I can go back and rewrite it. =)

~~~
ErrantX
Yeh, for the most part I agree with you (and stopping myself from writing is
becoming a problem). But I've sat down in with a clear construct of a section
in my head (that I've rehashed and rehearsed during the day) and what comes
out is garbage :D

I usually end up rewriting it a few times and then scrubbing it entirely. And
I can do that maybe three or four times before a section is complete.

I've partially figured out the reason for this; for some reason it is
difficult to "read" while you write. So what sounds great is actually awful
when you come to read it back.

I'm not a snob but I don't like bad writing - so I will just scrap it :P

It's just inefficient that is all and I'd love to hack a better way.

EDIT: plus I am determined not to fall into the typical genre of fantasy
writing: not particularly brilliant writing but full of sexual angst (and sex
scenes to make up for it).

~~~
jasonlotito
The problem is, you spend time rewriting during your session.

Let me help.

Everything you write is garbage. Everything I write is garbage. Everything
Robert Jordan wrote was garbage. Everything Stephen King writes is garbage.

Writers write garbage.

However, the good writers are the ones that can take that garbage, and turn it
into something nice. However, you can't do that while you are writing.

"plus I am determined not to fall into the typical genre of fantasy writing"

Ignore this. Just write. You can do this during your rewrite. For now, just
get the story finished. Getting a story finished is worth more than twenty
rewrites of chapter 1.

~~~
ErrantX
No, this isn't great advice (at least according to writer, even the ones you
list, interviews I've been investigating for tips).

Yes you should write a lot and constantly - but you should also rewrite
consistently. There is very little point writing a 15 chapter novel (with a
couple of versions of each chapter) and then trying to shape it into something
- you will end up having to write the book 10 times over just to get it
finished.

The way I have always seen it is that you need to assemble a set of raw
material and then refine it into a piece of prose. Then assemble all the prose
into a book.

> The problem is, you spend time rewriting during your session.

I'm currently writing about one chapter a month (this is pretty productive for
me). I write for around 4 or 5 sessions a week (when I get time). That breaks
down into, say, 3 sessions of pure writing in which I will complete a couple
of sections - but end up writing each of them up to 5 times. Then a session
refactoring/rewriting, then a session building it together (this is a bit
vague - I tend to get to the end of the month with lots of rewrites ready for
a "build" in one go). What I want to do is cut down the amount of pure writing
I need to do.

One successful thing I have done is get a three big whiteboards. One tracks
the story as a whole (this is somewhat redundant because I've had the story in
mind for about 5 years :)), One tracks the chapters I am currently working on
and the last one I sketch out the current section/chapter.

At the start of the session I review the first two boards (and my memory) then
start drafting ideas/timeline onto the third board. I deliberately pick points
in the timeline that are "fixed" and start with them - drafting out a quick
list of how it will work. Then you fill in the blanks with writing sessions.

This avoids the major problem with "just writing". In the past what has
happened is I would sketch out a couple of chapters. Then I'd want to change
something and it would mean that a whole lot of the chapter had to be
reorganized. Or something had to push back into the previous chapter to make
sense. Or.. You get the picture.

Writing a novel IMO needs one of two things: extreme natural talent (King et
al) OR planning :)

(good discussion!)

~~~
jasonlotito
> No, this isn't great advice (at least according to writer, even the ones you
> list, interviews I've been investigating for tips).

Actually, that advise was basically ripped from Stephen Kings book, On
Writing. He basically advises to write. Finish. Set aside the novel for
several weeks, then pick it up and reread it fresh.

Read that book. It pretty much get's it down for you.

One thing to keep in mind is that interviews are pretty bad for finding tips
on writing. In On Writing, Stephen King pretty much says that what he says in
interviews is made to sound good, because the truth isn't as interesting.

But seriously, that book right there pretty much nails it in the head.

Now, at the end of the day, you do what works for you, of course. But at the
end of the day, it's all about writing. If you've found some other method to
get your writing done, great. Who am I to argue. But seriously, the best
advise I can give to someone having trouble writing is to just write. You
don't seem to have that problem, if your schedule is set and you've been doing
it.

I guess my advise is more geared toward those who aren't writing, and want to.
They ask the questions like: what word processor do you use? or do you use a
notebook and pen? or when do you write? Questions that sound interesting. It's
soft of like the GTD fad. Everyone is so consumed with the tools of GTD and
ignore actually getting things done!

=)

And yes, good discussion. Wish I could give more karma!

~~~
ErrantX
_I guess my advise is more geared toward those who aren't writing, and want
to. They ask the questions like: what word processor do you use? or do you use
a notebook and pen? or when do you write? Questions that sound interesting.
It's soft of like the GTD fad. Everyone is so consumed with the tools of GTD
and ignore actually getting things done!_

Yeh I hear you; that's a good point :)

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nate
A cross post of my comment on the OP's blog:

Great list and advice. A couple things I'd add:

10\. As a mashup of points 3 and 6, Start Talking to Yourself. Pretend you are
on stage at a conference giving a talk, and just talk. Then write that stuff
down. You'll find the stuff that you write down from your talk sounds a lot
more like you really sound. And you start finding some of the things you are
thinking about don't hold water when you say them outloud. Or the opposite,
things are much clearer when you are hearing them come out of your mouth.

11\. You should be nervous hitting the publish button. It's like releasing
software. If you aren't a little nervous about how this post will be received
or criticized or you aren't a little nervous you just pushed some boundaries,
you might not have tried hard enough. It's similar to point 7. You're creating
something new here. If you aren't nervous, if you aren't a little
uncomfortable, you probably are just regurgitating someone else's lessons.
Making something new usually involves putting something very sensitive about
yourself out there for people to crap on or love. :)

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Tycho
Blogging is kind of a mystery to me. Since discovering Hacker News is probably
the first time I've regularly been reading news/information in the form of
(good quality) blogs. Even here, though, the discussion is just as important
to me as the blogs.

I'm planning to put together a website to showcase my various projects (for
employers' sake), and was thinking of putting up my own blog, or at least PG
style essays, after having worked on them for a few months. The goal being to
be more impressive to employers, who can verify that I actually care and/or
think deeply about this stuff.

Is that why most people blog? Or is it to make money? Or just cause they like
writing (/want to practice)? Or like the attention? It seems like a major
amount of effort/energy is spent on blogging and I can't say I know why.

~~~
jamesbritt
I write because it helps me think. Actually, it helps me learn what I'm
thinking. It's one thing to have some vague ideas and beliefs floating around
in your head, quite another to put it into words and make a cogent point.

I could do this for myself, keep it private, but the idea of making something
public pushes me to be at least somewhat more rigorous. And getting feedback
is fun and often educational.

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giu
_Reread your blog posts aloud_

One of the more important points in that list IMHO. Also, don't write and
publish a post before going to bed; you'll read your post again in the
morning, and yes, you're going to alter it (yes, that's actually me
sometimes).

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leftnode
I'm by no means a popular blogger by any stretch, but I love writing (even if
I'm not great at it), so I collect ideas in a notebook, specifically a
Moleskine notebook because they're made well
([http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/classic/soft/plain_soft_n...](http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/classic/soft/plain_soft_notebook__pocket.php)).

I'll save up about 10 potential blog entries and then start to write them out.
Ones that flow naturally become posts, ones that I struggle to come up with a
few sentences are just deleted.

To me, the hardest part is finding things to write about that haven't already
been rehashed a million times before.

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pramit
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chasingsparks
_First, a quick clarification of 'successful'._

This should almost be one of his points. (I agree with his enumerated points.)
Figuring out what you want from blogging or writing or anything really is half
the battle.

~~~
mindcrime

      This should almost be one of his points. (I agree with his enumerated points.) 
      Figuring out what you want from blogging or writing or anything really is half
      the battle.
    

That's a great point. Half (or more) of the blog posts I write are actually
more of me "thinking out loud" than anything. So they're full of stuff that
you would normally look at and say "well that's rubbish." Well, it _is_
rubbish if the goal is well-written prose designed to convey a message with
some particular aesthetic sense. But if the goal is "give me an avenue to
think through this problem, while potentially communicating something of value
to somebody thinking about the same things, and maybe elicit a comment that
helps my thinking" then what I write is (more or less) adequate.

~~~
chasingsparks
We agree: <http://pathdependent.com/2010/04/29/why-i-blog/> ;)

My metric is comments and emails elicited.

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iamdave
How to write a successful blog post: Know your material.

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hxa7241
This might make a good or well-written post, but for successful -- defined as
he says by page-views -- he is leaving out half of the story.

Popularity is largely dependent on promotion or communication of some form.
You have to tell people about your blog -- widely and often, for best effect.
It won't simply follow from the content.

~~~
jgrahamc
I agree. I almost added a section about the importance of channel and
promotion, but decided not to because that's about how to promote your blog
post and not how to write it.

~~~
hxa7241
Oh, well, you must post that next week then!

(From which we may perhaps draw another guide: focus on one topic, and break
substantially separate items into separate posts -- where they can be properly
addressed . . .)

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thefool
The advice seems pretty similar to any other sort of writing that is done for
other people.

Here is a blog full of advice on how to write admissions essays:
<http://blog.gurufi.com/> which follows many of the same themes.

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j_baker
This leaves out the most important part! If at all possible, get someone else
to review your post before publishing it. This helps you find out if the post
is really as well written as you think it is.

