26. Skip that part

Writing a long post -- for me, more than half a page is long -- it has to be organized right or it doesn't work.

Break it into shorter parts. Work the first part until you can't see it any more. Then move on. Work the latter parts as best you can, Don't worry if they're not perfect. You know you'll come back to them.

Eliminate obvious crap.

Eliminate or combine duplications. I often make notes that end up as alternate versions of something I've already written for the post. I try to compare them and combine them and keep only the best parts, and end up with one. You don't want it in there more than once. That's confusing.

Put descriptive headers on all the parts. That helps me know what they are about without reading through them every time and getting bogged down in that.

Use the headers to help organize chunks of text. Revise the headers as your understanding of your text improves. The headers help you split up the text into chunks you can put in order. Take the headers out when you're done, if you want. I usually do. They're for my use, not for my reader.

Don't get bogged down in it. Skip that part for now. Move on to an easier part. The hard part will make more sense later perhaps, or maybe you won't need it.

And... drink mtn dew. :)

Don't Worry, Be Happy

I'm always happy with my posts. You know, you work on 'em 'til you're happy.

What that means is, you can't judge your performance by your product. I can't, anyway.

I always want to do better.To do more. To improve the ideas, the words, and the style of presentation. Because I'm driven to do that, I don't mind taking a minute now and then to say Yeah, this feels good. But I never depend on that evaluation.

Mix 'em up

Recently finished a three-part series of posts, the "How Debt Works" posts. I'm happy with'em, they're short and clear and strong. But they took a week or more to write.

This morning I read 2½ paragraphs of the Billy Blog, and had to write a spontaneous post (even though I'd planned to leave the "How Debt Works" posts near the top of the landing page for a while).

The "Billy Today" post came out fast and good, and I think it has a "spontaneous" feel to it, which the others lack.

I could be makin' that up.

Anyway, I think it's good to mix'em up. Follow a long post with 2 or 3 short ones. Follow a methodically-worked-out post with a spontaneous one. I think that's good.

Symmetry in Words

Given:
Having achieved greater size, the economy demands an increased quantity of money.

Better:
Having achieved greater size, the economy demands a greater quantity of money.

How I Write

Well, for one thing, if I have something good, I'll use it more than once. For example, I came up with something good in an e-mail to my sister, and I'm gonna use it again right now:

Oh! ...Don't bother with the old posts. The old ones are too long and difficult even for me to read. As a sort of 2010 New Year's resolution I decided to make them shorter. Then after a few months of trying, they actually GOT shorter.

Some time last May I figured out how Blogger's post scheduling thing works. (You can't just click the bright orange PUBLISH POST button. You have to click the easily-missed "Post Options" link, click "Scheduled at," and enter a time and date. It's only hard because if you click the bright orange button, you can't then "schedule" the post for later!) After I got the scheduling, I started doing a post a day.

When I write, I usually go off on a tangent or three. What happens now is, I split off the tangents into separate, short posts. That simplifies the main post I'm working on. And it gives me some nice short posts to schedule in before the main one appears.

Idunno what anybody else thinks, but I think this works really well.

Most visitors only read the newest post. So if I have some relevant older post, I link to it from the new one. It lets me point the reader to selected older posts... Plus, because I write short ones now, linking to them works well. Each short one is just one topic or just one thought, pretty much. Perfect for a link.

Oh, also, even if I re-use something, I always tweak it and try to improve it.

23. Generalizations are always wrong

If this rule is true, then this rule must be false

"More like guidelines, really."

22. Entice, or fail.

It's political. It satisfies some perverse urge to read (or say) something that makes your opponent look like a fool. But it's not productive.

If you're trying to convince people that your economic point-of-view (or, whatever) is the right one, making your opponent look like a fool will be cheered by those who already support your position. But it won't win you any converts from among your opponents. It's not productive.

That's what I think.

//

First use.