6 Comments to 'And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say'
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And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say
Posted By Sam
You can blame Webstock 08 for the motivation to finally put virtual pen to virtual paper and begin regular updates here. This thing we do, this communication, this freedom is amazing. Although the undeniable truth is: I am going to need to practice.
The first obstacle is writing style; trying to figure out whether to conform to an older school of long and intricate sentences, which wind slowly across the page, incorporating ideas and associations and weaving them into a palette of floral understanding.
The alternative is much shorter. It conveys ideas directly. Hemmingway and Vonnegut attended this school. I use this style at work.
Beyond style comes voice, the point from which a blog is expressed. This is much easier to achieve if the audience knows the person to whom the voice belongs, but on the webs we would close doors to rely on personal relationships.
At my age you would hope I have the basic skills necessary to train and achieve my own style, but I worry about the voice. At the end of the day we are all many things to many people, but through this place, I hope to become something else to you.
Feb 25th, 2008
Hi Sam,
Love the new site. Interesting post about the voice it will take in the future. After only 9 posts and a few weeks you can already see it taking some direction. No mentions of the car yet?
Looking forward to keeping an eye on it…
P.S This is way more fun that just turning around and muttering to you as normal…
Thanks AJ - I think will refrain from mentions of cars in the short term, to avoid the unwanted attention of road safety authorities.
And also personal contact can be overrated, but excited to have another run at trying to get Pipelines built…
Great to have you back Sam. And I, for one, would encourage long, complex sentences that demand attention and respect; there is something about reading subordinate clauses on a blog that is just so, well, perverse…
Thanks Jason - I have a better handle on what I want to do here now, which is basically give it time and let it evolve on its own, rather than making it conform to some rigid plan of this blog must be this.
It could well be a sign of my personal growth over the last 12 months in relation to accepting the web is never going to be an almighty tool to achieve communications goals, like it was in the good old days…
My personal style tends towards complex syntax; but then again I am one of those people who think the wrong way around and naturally write in the passive voice.
Sam
Just write the damn thing already and stop over-analysing!
Of course, I should take my own advice.
Thanks Mike - Webstock has precipitated so many ideas about this whole internet thing and between you and I, I am staring to believe there could well be something in it after all.