Nebzs last blog post..Much ado about comments

If she does not, then no blogger who writes about effective blogging does. Compared with all the other bloggers out there, including problogger, I find her advice to be the freshest and most compelling.

I agree with the thrust of this article. However, there is a self improvement blog who has over 50,000 subscribers, and I’m unsure if I’ve ever once seen a semicolon in his work; his lack of using it has never turned me off either.

As for myself, I had the benefit of reading the two posts together, and overall enjoyed what Skellie had to say and appreciated that she was bold enough to say it. The message I got “Great writing is a valuable skill to have on the internet, but don’t let your (perceived lack of) writing skills keep you from sharing your ideas; good original ideas are even rarer and more valuable than great writing.”

But who am I to talk? I’m the guy who took a program at University that didn’t require an English class! I keep a blog as a way to share my ideas, and the writing practice is that: practice.

Your point about writing being one aspect of quality is absolutely true. This blog focusses on writing, so that’s the drum I beat day in and day out. Still, I recognize that it’s only one (albeit integral) part of a successful blog.

I thought that Skellie’s post was just dreadful. I wrote a rude comment (no swearing in it, and there was no personal attack it it) which she deleted. I stopped subscribing a couple of day later.

Just one point of Skellie’s that clarity is part of bad writing is enough to show how stupid the whole post was. Maybe it was just an attempt to get a lot of attention. If so I hope the attention led lots of other people to stop reading her too.

If we don’t want to become known as a bunch of scammers and get-rich-quick hucksters we need to care about the quality of what we do. I think the long-term future of blogging depends on this. Writing isn’t the only aspect of quality, but it is certainly part of it.

Evan’s last blog post..Intimacy: how to get more of it

I was intentionally surfing for a blog or two that I might add to my blogroll.

Exhale. You made the cut.

Back to the topic: I seldom subscribe at all because the blogs that seem to have really good content don’t seem to add to that content often. But when I do subscribe, it is because the material was interesting and reasonably-well presented.

The writing doesn’t have to be ‘great’ in the sense of Steinbeck or Buck or (fill in the blank). Nor does the thinking have to rival Hume or even Rand. But there has to be some meat in the thinking and some savor to the writing.

I found that here. The writing isn’t great, but it -is- workmanlike. The topic I am commenting on is negatively written … and that is weak writing. But the community commenting on it lifts the piece.

Oddly enough, I was on James & ??? blog a few days ago and wasn’t impressed. But the comment from them posted here is compelling me to take a second look.

I don’t write especially well yet. But effort and practice should go a long way toward developing a personal voice and honing its expression.

Bill

BTW, I use & recommend CommentLuv, too. Good choice!

BillinDetroit’s last blog post..The Fresco At Herculaneum – John Taylor Gatto

At any rate, I get what you’re saying. Good writing doesn’t draw readers in, but it does convince them to stay.

And that’s the thing: Good writing isn’t supposed to bring new readers. That’s the job of social bookmarking, search engines, and marketing in general. Good writing, though, keeps people. It keeps them coming back. It helps to create brand loyalty. In most businesses, one loyal customer is worth four one-time customers. It’s as true with Internet writing as it is anything else.

Still, poor writing being more popular than great writing is rare. I can’t think of anyone who would rather read something boring rather than something interesting.

I totally agree! I don’t think it’s our place to criticize unless a writer has asked our opinion–and even then we want to tread softly. (The writer’s ego can be so fragile!)

At the same time, encouraging writers to be the best they can be is something we can do in a positive way–without resorting to criticism. That’s something I always strive to do at Writer’s Notes and is in fact one of the four goals of my blog: to provide information, inspiration, encouragement, and resources to help writers succeed in their craft. (It’s a little different, of course, when a writer asks us for a critique than when we offer unsolicited advice. Yet, we always want to use sensitivity, doing our best to phrase our comments in a positive way.)

While I do believe in lavishing encouragement on writers, I also believe in inspiring them to reach for the sky. I definitely don’t believe we should ever tell them it’s OK to be mediocre…average…blase. (Sorry, Skellie!)

Thanks for your reply to my comment! Glad I discovered your blog!

Cheers!
Jeanne

I like what you’ve said here: “let the writer know that mediocre writing makes a writer expendable.”

We do someone a disservice by telling them it’s all right instead of helping them to improve. At the same time, I’m always hesitant to criticize unless I’m willing to help (if asked).

Incidentally, today’s post is my take on the whole “crap posts, regurgitated content and typically sub-standard fare” thing going on. Hope you (all) like it.

Also keep in mind that the most popular blogs today aren’t ones with sub-standard writing. True, Skellie noted a technology blog that didn’t have the best grammar going on, but I think that success of that kind is rare and not typical.

And I disagree that Skellie herself believes poor writing is acceptable.

1, she earns her income through writing. Would she do the same if she was a poor writer?

2, she crafts her blog posts rather carefully. If she didn’t think conveying the message properly was important, would she bother?

3, if Skellie started dropping her writing standards, would her blog still be as popular? I doubt it.

She doesn’t come up with newsbreaking ideas or content that truly gives everyone pause for thought. Her good writing saves her ass many a day.

Hey, and thanks for liking our blog. I see yours is relatively new, so I’ll keep an eye on it

At any rate, I agree with what the two of you are saying. Certainly the attention was a part of what Skellie was going for. I get that, too. I don’t agree with it, but it is standard fare out here. I can’t horribly fault her for starting controversy in order to get hits, get inbounds, and start a buzz. I hope I won’t ever do it, but some of the best bloggers have.

Still, the more I read the comments she wrote, I think she really does believe that good writing is not a necessity for blogging success. That is disturbing, more than the hype itself.

I think it is most disturbing to me because, on balance, Skellie has always had a decent perspective. This one is so far off the mark that it throws us for a loop. It would be akin to the archbishop of Detroit saying, “You know what? Contraception isn’t a big deal if you are Catholic.”

I think like Joanna does – it was a ploy to get controversy, inbound links (bet she’s liking the PR she’ll get from it) and get people talking about her. Not cool. Not cool at all.

I had mixed feelings about her post, which is why I didn’t respond to it there.

I am slightly uncomfortable with her intention, which I think was to provoke discussion and get talked about. (Similar to reaction provoked by her anywired piece on landing pages – which wasn’t based on facts, just opinion, though it wasn’t written that way.)

The headline exaggerates her point, for effect.

Within the piece the argument is more subtle, along the lines of great writing isn’t the most important thing, ideas count, as does clarity.

I’d go quite a long way to agreeing with that. A lot of people stop themselves from blogging because they’re not confident in their writing, think it’s not ‘good enough’.

It’s probably a lot better than they realise. It will improve as they go along. If they’ve got a powerful message, some big ideas, some positive thoughts – I’d say it’s better to communicate than keep them to yourself.

We do respond to things beyond the writing – ideas, emotion, authenticity, heart.

You could say they matter more than ‘great’ writing.

On the other hand bad writing, sloppy writing will undermine all of that. And I think that’s the point that she underplayed.

Joanna

Like you, I disagree with Skellie. While we certainly don’t want to discourage writers whose skills may not yet be well-developed, in my view telling them that mediocre writing is acceptable is not the way to help them. Mediocre writing isn’t the kind that gets noticed. It’s not the kind that brings the reader back again and again. Nor is it the kind that brings a client back to the same writer for more content over and over.

We should instead, I think, let the writer know that mediocre writing makes a writer expendable. If nothing in a particular writer’s style distinguishes him or her from every other writer, why should a client–or a reader for that matter–continue to return to that writer over and over again, rather than seeking another, superior writer?

We definitely want to nurture the innate talent and as-yet-unrealized potential of new, inexperienced, and less-than-sophisticated writers. There’s no question about that. We want to encourage them, build their confidence, and recognize their latent talent and enthusiastic, inspired, yet often-awkward attempts to create a fine piece of writing. But telling them that mediocre writing is fine is not the way to do this.

I believe we should rather help them have faith in their own ability to continually challenge and stretch themselves as writers, gradually improving their skills until the caliber of those skills begins to approach the degree of the raw, natural talent and inspiration that they already possess…until the inner desire for written self-expression that urges them irresistibly forward is finally rewarded by a fine, polished piece of writing that’s every bit as pleasurable to read as it was to write.

Regards,
Jeanne

@John – You’re right about photo blogs. Video blogs would fall into that category, as would podcast blogs. But for written blogs, the writing has to be good to be successful.

@Lindsey – Omer, now there’s a town I bet has never been blogged before!

@Melissa – Thank you for stopping in. Like I said, I think I agree with her sentiment, just not her conclusions. One of my main purposes with this blog is to help average writers become good, and help good writers become great. I’m all about encouragement, and I really think that was all Skellie was trying to do.

Excellent comments, everyone!