Today we’re going meta. I want to take a look at a blog post written by my friend Jeff. He talks about his process for writing blog posts, which he asked me to review before he published it. Jeff is a computer programmer; he is detail oriented, well organized, and he approaches his work and his writing in a highly structured way. And that’s exactly what he has done with this post: he has described his writing process in a detailed and organized fashion. So I would strongly encourage you to take a look at it here.
Process and discipline make for good writing. And while some of this stuff might seem basic, it’s good to remind ourselves of the basics now and then, so we don’t get sloppy. I want to do some thinking about the writing process, and Jeff’s post provides some good topics for discussion. Jeff and I take different approaches to writing blog posts. Consider formality and process. My blog posts are casual, conversational, written off the cuff; Jeff’s are formal, planned, and highly structured.
I did some editing for Jeff on some earlier drafts of this post. In those versions he had included an abstract, and we had some interesting discussions regarding its role. I felt in this case it was somewhat redundant to a solid introduction; however, I felt one could also make the argument that it plays an important role in Jeff’s writing process and style. Jeff’s blog posts tend to be longer, more essay-like, so the structured approach would be more fitting. Ultimately, Jeff chose not to include the abstract, but keeping it would have given a full demonstration of his writing style.
As you can see, Jeff and I make different choices in our writing approach; editorial is about following rules, but it’s also about making good judgment calls. Sometimes you’re faced with a decision, and both choices can be acceptable. The key to making good choices in those cases is knowing why you made the choice you did and reinforcing it as you go forward in your writing.
Jeff’s writing style fits his subject matter; he works in a highly technical field, writing about highly technical things. Structure is important in his posts for clarity and precision. I, on the other hand, am writing a casual blog where I pull half-baked thoughts out of my ear like spaghetti and throw them at the wall, hoping something will stick. Maybe someday I’ll write a blog post like Jeff’s, just to prove I can actually do it, but until then, I’m a lot more interested in asking questions. A structured approach like Jeff’s isn’t necessary for my purposes.
Enough of my thoughts. Go read Jeff post.