On Writing and You

Photo by Paul Worthington

I thought I’d take a little time out from our regular content flow to write some follow-up thoughts on the post ‘Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online‘. It’s something that many of you had mixed feelings about and I seem not to have made myself as clear as I would have liked. When an argument is read in a dozen different ways by a dozen different people — intelligent people, too — that’s usually the writer’s fault, and I take responsibility for that.

For many, it was as if I had written a post titled ‘Why Writing Doesn’t Matter Online’. The word ‘Great’ didn’t figure in to it. I was at various points seen to be railing against grammar, spelling, and basic expression, advocating impenetrable, careless, or very poor writing, and devaluing anyone who takes pride in their writing work. These things are the opposite of what I hoped to communicate, and it shows that I myself have a long way to go when it comes to writing with clarity.

If this much isn’t known, writing is what sustains me, writing makes me proud, writing causes my life to bloom. If I couldn’t write, my world would be gray. To be seen as anti-writer and anti-writing (even by some) is never what I intended.

I had thought it was a thoroughly optimistic article — a response to the many bloggers who’ve told me that they love blogging, but they’re no good at writing, and will never succeed for that reason. 99% of them are in fact good enough writers. Not exceptional, not remarkable, but good enough to transfer great ideas to an audience online. Good enough to be outstanding bloggers. I wanted to tell those bloggers that they have as much chance at success as the great writers of the world wide web.

My thoughts on bad writing seemed to be the least clear of them all, judging by some reader responses. To clarify: if your writing is bad, your ideas must be truly exceptional to shine through, and you’ll forever be at a disadvantage because of that. My argument is that it’s possible to succeed with bad writing, but it’s unnecessarily hard, and it’s certainly not advisable.

Once your writing is good enough (not necessarily good or great) the strength of your ideas will play a much bigger part in your success than your ability to write.

My argument is not that anything goes. I’m arguing that greatness is not required. I’d also argue that very few of you would consider yourself great writers (unless you have an over-abundance of confidence, and in that case, I’d like to borrow some), and yet you still strive every day to create remarkable content and reach a wider audience, or connect more strongly with your existing audience. Not perceiving yourself as ‘great’ won’t stop you, though it may cause you to have doubts every once and a while. My argument is that it shouldn’t. (A note: While I’m sure that none of you consider yourself ‘great’ writers, some of you are, even if you don’t know it.)

Being a great writer is enviable. It’s not a worthless skill, it’s a highly valuable one, and it will help you in all walks of life. If you’ve got it, great. If you’re like most of us — if you’re OK, or average, or good enough, or even pretty good, you can strive towards greatness, but the points where you fall below it won’t matter online — as long as your writing doesn’t get in the way of what you’re trying to communicate.

I also want to clarify the way I use the term ‘ideas’. In this context, an idea is one ‘thing’ you are trying to communicate, whether it’s a story, a moral, an opinion, an argument, a tip, a rule to live by, a joke, a thought, a strategy, or a reflection. These are the things people look for online.

In retrospect, I’ll agree that my argument was somewhat too sweeping. Your metaphors and turns of phrases, similes and adjectives, crisp descriptions and well-chosen analogies can make good ideas better, and for that reason, great writing is a nice thing to have, if you’ve got it. If I could retitle the post, I’d call it: ‘Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter (Much) Online’. It won’t make or break your blog, but it can take a good blog to a level above.

I still maintain that it’s very possible to succeed without being great at writing, though. While it would be unfair to point out a dozen examples of stellar blogs maintained by average writers, examples do exist, and you will have your own pool to draw from.

If I could restate my argument simply, it would be this: don’t feel inadequate because you’re not an exceptional writer. Make the best of what you have, be clear, understand the way people consume information online and play to your strengths by writing with substance over style (if you can’t do both).

While I’ll take all responsibility for any confusion over the post, I do want to emphasize the dangers of being overly pessimistic about other bloggers. I’m not asking you to go easy on me, but on the notion of bloggers as a whole. It was implicit in many of the comments that most blogs are badly written, and that most bloggers write badly, and this is something I strongly disagree with.

Most of the writing we consume — if we read books, newspapers and magazines regularly — is written by professionals who devote their lives to writing. It’s unfair to judge bloggers by this standard. Most bloggers can’t match this level of polish, but for ordinary people — people who may never have wanted to be writers, but feel they have something to say — we do alright.

I’ve visited thousands of blogs, and I don’t think the argument that most blogs are badly written holds true. The writings of an ordinary, self-taught person who puts care into what they do, even if it’s a bit rough around the edges, is not ‘bad’ by any standards. Real bad writing (as opposed to what is perceived as bad by formal standards) is written without any level of care, and without consideration for the person reading it. At most, 1 in 100 blogs match this description.

Bad writing and bad blogging are not one and the same: bad blogging communicates unremarkable ideas. Bad writing is marked by a complete lack of care in how ideas are communicated. Many bloggers put a level of care into their writing, but make mistakes when it comes to choosing the right ideas to communicate. A lot of what is construed as bad writing is really just blogging that has missed the mark.

The dichotomy between ‘good’ writing and ‘bad’ writing is a false one. Some writing is good, some is great, some is bad, and a vast majority of it is good enough for what we, as bloggers, are trying to do. While great writing is a valuable and enviable thing, and something worth moving towards — even if very few of us get there — it’s not a prerequisite for success. You don’t have to look very far to see that online audiences value substance over style, and that style does not guarantee substance.

This post is only intended to clarify my own argument, not to bring everyone who disagrees over to my side of the fence. My goal is to make an argument to the best of my abilities, and to help you test your own assumptions, whether they stay strong or whether you see the merit in thinking differently. I write to encourage you to think — even if you end up thinking very differently to me :).

I don’t think I could say any more on the topic without getting boring. It would be unfair of me to debate comments on this post, considering I have all this luxurious space to make my argument and you only get a crappy comment form. To make up some of the difference, I give you the right to a completely unchallenged response, and the right to take as much time and space as you need to make it.

Thank you for being such an enigmatic, intelligent and thought-provoking group of people. All my writing here is an effort to repay you for that, but I think I will always be one step behind — and that’s what keeps me going.