KB101: Please Don't Be Boring

Please don’t be boring. Be creative. Strive for originality. Focus on quality. Limit your rants. Offer raves to those who deserve it. Make fun of yourself. Blog stuff that you are passionate about. Blog stuff that you are not passionate about. Blog stuff that passes by your stream of thoughts, no matter how stupid they are. Check your spelling spelling and grammer grammar. Write in the tone of your target audience. If it’s academic, use an academic tone. If it’s for technology, be geeky. If it’s for mass consumption, use simple words. Refrain from using cryptic highfalutin jargons like AQAL, integral methodological pluralism, and whatnot. Mix and match writing tones. Discover your own tone. Learn creative writing. Read Stephen King On Writing and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Inject humor more often. There’s a humor formula. Use it.

There was a lot of tongue-in-cheek in the above injunction, but I really mean it. There’s nothing more boring than reading blogs that are well, boring. Since blogs are for the most part in written form, the only antidote for our writing fears and monotonous tones is to learn how to write it down the bones.

We could learn this the hard way or we can take time by first learning the craft of writing. There are lots of reference materials out there on creative writing. Feel free to add your favorite materials on this thread.

Below are my top picks. Check them out then get ready to let to the blogs out!!

William Strunk Jr.: The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition