Powerful Voices: Blog Writing Inspiration from Other Genres

Sometimes I fancy myself a writer.  I read articles about creative writing, sign up for evening classes, scribble story ideas in little notebooks, and plug dutifully away at the novel I’ve been butchering working on for about three years now.

This novel idea came to me insistently, and I just poured words out for a few days.  Then I signed up for NaNoWriMo, wrote for a month, re-read my work with despair, and vowed to trash the whole thing.  But I didn’t, and I keep coming back, cutting like mad, and plowing on.  I tell myself that writing is a hard habit to sustain, but, like any skill, it gets better the more you practice.

However, I don’t pretend to be that good or well-practiced at writing a DIY/home improvement blog.  In some ways, it is easy because the content is clear.  Tutorials pretty much write themselves!  But it can be challenging to share yourself, your voice, and your story while giving step by step instructions.

But it is important.  I read a lot of blogs, and some have such a distinctive style that I could tell the writer without the branding or photos.  Others don’t, and I usually stop reading those after a little while.  Time is always scarce, and I want to spend my blog reading minutes with my friends the people I can actually tell apart.  The three that I want to point out today are three of my favorites because of the way they tell their stories.  They are all really big names, but maybe not everyone here knows them because they are from different “genres” than DIY/home improvement.  They have a lot to teach me about writing a blog!

Smitten Kitchen

Deb Perelman writes Smitten Kitchen, one of the top food blogs (for good reason, in my opinion).  I enjoy cooking, but I don’t read any food blogs except this one, and I have no intention of making any of the dishes that I see there.  No matter how good that rugelach looks.

But I read every Smitten Kitchen recipe because I am constantly in awe of her post introductions.  She always tells a brief story or provides a few reflections on life or cooking, and then quickly brings it around to the recipe at hand.  The openings are tight, well written, and personal.

When she shared a recipe for baked ziti, she talked about how that dish helped her son maintain some normalcy when they had their second child.  Her recipe for caponata also provided a glimpse into her neighborhood and life with a newborn, and her recipe for raw tomato sauce talked about the interesting way she finds the best recipes. Her introduction is always interesting, and before I know it I actually care how she made baked ziti.  (This is something that is very easy not to care about.)  She really demonstrates the power of a good introduction.

The Bloggess

Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) wrote the only blog post that I have read out loud, multiple times, to pretty much anyone who would listen to me:  Her story about a giant metal chicken is possibly the funniest thing I have ever read.  If you haven’t already come across it, go read it now.  I’ll wait…

Right?! I laugh every time I read that post.  For me, the comedy is so successful because she is clearly a biased/unreliable narrator, but the reader can also totally understand Victor’s point of view.   It is perceptive and genius and full of whimsy.

She writes comedy (obviously) but she also writes about her life in general, and her struggles with mental illness.  She takes on depression with as much honesty as her comedic stories.  And sometimes, her honesty, anecdotes, and personal reflections combine to be really positive and uplifting.

She also has a book out about living with mental illness (affiliate link – read our policies), which is apparently hilarious and touching and is hanging out on the best seller list, because she is awesome.

Matthew Berry

I am also pretty into fantasy football, which isn’t something that I talk about on the blog because it is pretty unrelated to DIY home improvement.  It just hasn’t come up.  I am currently in two leagues,  the playoff brackets are about to be finalized, and to be honest I don’t really want to talk about them now, either, thank you.

Despite how I might be feeling about this at the moment, I do like a whole lot of things about fantasy football.  I like making my rankings (statistics!), drafting players, and seeing the points come in every Sunday.

I also like reading Matthew Berry’s columns on ESPN.  He is funny, honest, and helps me think about fantasy football in the non-intuitive-but-correct ways.  Unlike Smitten Kitchen, I actually put what I learn from his column into practice.  But that isn’t why I read him.  I read him because, like Smitten Kitchen, his introductions are killer.  He opens most of his columns, and his legendary annual Draft Day Manifesto, with a long, revealing, personal story from his own life.

Take his 2014 manifesto for example, which starts with the story about how he bought his home well below asking price, and leads you to understand why the common assumption behind how you draft players is totally wrong.  Another good example is this recent Love/Hate list, which opens for no apparent reason with a story about pool noodles longer than this post. (The story, not the pool noodles.)

But the other reason that I like his column is how fanatical he is about pointing out things that he got wrong.  Like that pool noodle story?  Very controversial.  So in his next colum, he discussed this and what he did wrong in great detail.  Nearly 2000 words worth of funny, revealing detail.

What unites all of these writers is that they get personal quickly in their posts, unabashedly sharing their milestones, anecdotes, and opinions.  Even when just sharing a recipe or fantasy football stats, it is clear that you’re hearing from a person.  If I came across any of these posts without the identifying marks I would still know exactly who wrote it.

It is a good reminder for me that, regardless how simple the content might seem, good writers push the envelope on personal detail and honesty.