Tips on writing the blog

I have two guidelines for writing the weblog. One in online, the other one in offline.

Online one is 10 tips on writing the living web. I found this because Joi Ito was introducing this article as a good material in some japanese bss.
All of the tips included here has valid viewpoints, and here are some quotes which I felt specially important for me – if I am going to write my style of weblog.

Don’t tell us what happened: tell us why it matters. Don’t tell us your opinion: tell us why the question is important.

Write for yourself; you are, in the end, your most important reader.

To be honest with the world, you may need to be honest with your mother; if you cannot face your mother, perhaps you are not ready to write for the world.

Offline one is The Weblog Handbook.
There are so many in-depth truths and wisdom in this book which the author has found out by herself while deeply engaged in the weblog community, I cannot introduce even a hint of them here. Just buy it and read – whether you are an experienced blogger or a tech-noble who have just thought of writing one, this book will be of help for a long time. Here is one quote I like (but I admit sometimes I cannot help myself from watching the visitor statics 😉

If your object in keeping a weblog is to gain a wide audience, I advise you to quit today. Webloggers who care about the size of their audience are always unhappy. ….. If you are going to keep a weblog, it must be for the joy of writing alone. You will never have enough readers, and if that matters, you will always be disappointed.

Every time I put an entry in this blog, I check whether that piece was written according to the above rules. I was never 100% satisfied, but so far, I don’t think I am way beyond those principles. Of course, those rules are not mandatory for everybody in any sense – let’s put in this way, somebody picked up the unspoken words which were circulating in my body, and I found them earlier than I crystallized by myself. (Though I admit they had done a job far better than I would have.)
After all, every single weblog I love seems to be written more or less according to the standards shown in the above two resources. It is extremelly fulfilling and encouraging to know there are people who seem to share the same value and speak out strongly.