matt dash low dot com

No Stock UI’s been open for a little over a month now. We’re barely able to maintain our 3 post a week schedule. Real life likes to bite all of us at once.

Writing for NSUI’s much different than writing for World of Matticus. The ideas are much easier to come by. I attribute that to a lack of posts and blogs about the User Interface that WoW offers. Writing a post on NSUI can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several days.

Let’s use the recent tooltip post as an example

What’s the topic?

This is the first question I’ll ever ask. What am I going to write about? Ideally, I want to answer that in ten words or less. Anymore and I’ll deem it too complicated. That’s when I either scrap it, simplify it, or divide it (into two or more topics for the future). The thing with the idea question? Ideas can come at any time. I know I’ve lost my share of ideas in the past and I’ve started walking around with a Five Star mini-notebook so I wouldn’t lose track of it anymore.

What’s the post type?

Once the topic of choice has been determined, it’s time to figure out what post type to use. Lists have always been my most favored of post types. Why? They’re easy to digest, easy to write, point-by-point, and a lot of fun. I won’t shy away from opinion pieces, news, reviews or straight-up image only posts. Do I want a micro-level, in-depth post or a macro-scale, broad spectrum post?

As an example, when I decided on tool tips, I could have gone in extreme detail about one specific addon or list the different ones available related to tooltips.

I opted for the latter. Specific addon posts can be filed away for the future. In the end, the purpose of the post was to expose readers to new tooltip addons that they might not have known about before.

Research

Welcome to the longest part of any post. Heading over to Curse and WoW Interface, I’ll look up and browse tooltip addons that are available. Any hits not tooltip related are off the list. Not updated for 3.1? WOn’t bother. From these, I’ll start inserting links and quick feature highlights into the post. As I’m doing this, I’ll start retrieving and installing the different addons into my client.

This is an extremely painstacking process. I have to continuously log on and off in order to enable and disable addons. At the same time, I try to vary up any screens I get in game by placing myself in different situations. Often times, addon authors provide shots that explain the addon capabilities far better than I can and I’ll resort to those instead.

Such a process takes several hours to several days depending on the topic. Something like raid frames would take considerable more time since you have to be in a raid group and in a raid situation. By contrast, a post about achievement addons would be a little different (and quicker).

Writing

Now the post writing actually begins. Notes I’ve gathered become expanded as I inject my own voice into them. Screenshots taken during the research phase are added in. I start with the body before writing the conclusion. The introduction is written at the very end. Writing introductions has always been difficult for me. It’s akin to writing the intro paragraph or thesis for a term paper. My formula for introductions usually involve what I’m writing about and why I decided to pick that topic.

Polish

How does this post sound? Is there anything that can be done to explain things better or easier? A lot of stock is placed on reader experience. If I get bored of reading or start losing interest, something is wrong. I’ll look at every aspect of the post and see what I can do to make it more appealing. Would a table make a comparison easier? What about a quite with something revolutionary or relevant? If the reader is going to skim the post anyway, what few lines should stand out the most? Would a diagram help or hinder this particular section?

By nature, NSUI posts are designed to be quickly scannable for easy digestion.

Post-production editing

Once I’m satisfied, I’ll wire the draft into the system. Tags are inserted and categories are set. At the same time, I’ll alert a team member and ask for an extra set of eyes. They often catch more errors than I do. The ones I spot for are factual and grammatical errors. Maybe I used the a certain feature or description for the wrong addon. It happens. Most of my errors are grammar or spelling related. If it sounds right in my head, I’ll leave it in. This isn’t an academic term paper after all.

When they’re happy, I schedule the post for the next time slot save.

All in all, it is a fairly length process. A lot of guest posters underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes. Those that want a place on the team are asked to write one or two guest post trials so that they get an idea. This is a process more important for them than it is for me. It’s especially true of people with little to no internet writing experience. It ends up being a big eye opener. About 9 out of 10 guest post writers who do submit something end up deciding that it’s just too much work and writing for them and proceed to opt out. And I understand that.

There’s a difference between blogging and blogging well. Not everyone comes with the skills (which can be taught) or the desire (which can’t be instilled) to write as often as I do.