It seems these days, advising people on how to blog or how to write, is becoming the next big thing. And every one from kids in school to retired people seem to be jumping into this foray, even if they haven’t written any thing prior to their “new money making, online ventureâ€.
While this might be expected from kids, it surprises me when a person who ought to know better, does something of this sort. Take for example this guest blog post on Problogger, written by Rob Siders.
While the post is on 5 “killer ways†to improve writing, the first few lines were boring enough to prompt me to write this post, and that too only because in last couple of days I have come across quite a few blogs and blog posts of this nature and I am fed up with the whole trend of advising people on how to do certain things, which the author hasn’t done him/herself!
I didn’t read any of the tips that Rob offered and it is highly unlikely that I would ever read them, because when I want advice on writing, I will take it from a person, whose writing I appreciate and admire.
2 Comments
I’ve been a pro writer and editor for a decade. My client list is satisfied and I have plenty of work well into 2010. Still, I’m always working on my craft. That said, how would you have improved the short article of mine that Darren ran at ProBlogger? You said the first couple lines were boring. How would you have changed them?
Hello Rob,
The reason I found the initial part of your article boring, was due to the fact that while you say:
“One of the hallmarks of producing great content for your blog is writing it so it sounds natural, the way it would if we were chatting with each other over a coffee.â€
To me it didn’t felt like that you were adhering to it, in that particular article.
Add to that, first 132 words of the article are basically telling the reader (me) what that article is about, how this isn’t something new and your defense and qualification for still going ahead and writing that article.
I might sound like an impatient and selfish little kid, however I do not care about your qualification, and I do not care why you still need to write something which has already been written numerous times. What I do care about are the tips, which were nowhere to be found, 100 words into the article!
A blogger, community developer and entrepreneur like me, who has to go through several articles, well over 100 RSS feed posts, 100s of forum posts and emails every day, has to decide by reading the first few lines, whether or not an article is worth going through.
While this might not be fair to the writer, however in the age of information overload, this is the sad reality bloggers and writers have to live with and need to address by writing articles, which captivate the audience in first couple of paragraphs.
Regards
Yogesh Sarkar