Halley Suitt and Stowe Boyd on True Voice

Halley Suitt and Stowe Boyd on the Art and Science of Blog Writing, from the Blog Business Summit:

Halley Suitt:

• The most important thing is good writing.
• I’m loving the minimalist PowerPoint slides. The first one features a single, small, black-on-white word: “story”. Tell good stories–for example, Malcolm Gladwell on the Aeron chair.
• ‘Transparency’ is a $10 word for ‘truth’.
• The writing must be passionate and take a stand–a recurring theme.
• Don’t be abstract. Words and pictures (and word pictures) about things. Show don’t tell–first rule of writing.
• Don’t sound PRish on a blog–it’s deadly.
• Unfortunately, Halley picked Mena Trott as an example of corporate blogging. Ms. Trott’s obviously a fine writer, but I’d much to prefer to hear from a non-social software, non-geek writer like this sheet metal worker or this dairy farmer. I mean, of course, the executive staff of SixApart is going to blog.
• Don’t assume that the classic writers–corporate communications or tech writers–a passionate voice wins every time.

Stowe Boyd:

• Stowe just quoted Rilke. Impressive.
• David Weinberger: There are no smart companies, only smart conversations.

Cool graphic there, Stowe. Read, then write.

• Don’t write articles in blog’s clothing.
• Write, write, write–the primary way to get better at writing.

I’d say this was probably the best session of the day.