A Few Notes on Writing Style

Note: Please do carry on posting if you have not made 3 posts yet.

This collection of videos-and-text proves, I think, that there really are better ways to enjoy a variety of vids than trawling YouTube.

It’s also helped me to figure out how GloobTV should read. Here are a few notes. Please feel free to add comments or to email me directly if you prefer.

1) Pithy is best. I don’t want to proscribe any length but it looks like 70-200 words works in this environment. More importantly, the best entries are those that conveyed a single idea, rather than tried to cover a range of topics.

2) Here, use of first-person is fine for impact purposes or if there really is no other way of expressing your idea. But, in general, try to explain your idea without over-using ‘I, me, my’. Likewise, express your personality and preferences without writing like this is your blog, or your diary. This sense of detachment will help differentiate your comments from those of our readers.

3) It’s good to use English with imagination – made-up words are fine. But bad spelling is unacceptable, as are text-message style usages such as i for I, as is poor usage of the noble apostrophe. Always use a spell checker. Never use a word unless you really do know what it means.

4) Research is good. Facts are entertaining.

5) Strong emotional reactions to the videos you post are also compelling. Reasons to watch; either positive or negative. Why have you chosen this vid? Why should I watch it? Why is it important?

6) I don’t mind that gags are sometimes expressed in UPPER CASE or with loads of these!!!!!! I just like it better when they don’t need feel the need to yell.

7) When we launch for real there won’t be any room for interspersing text then video then text. It will be just one block of text.

8) Interesting intros and headlines make for the most powerful pieces. This is an obvious point to make, but always worth repeating.

9) Keep headlines down to fewer than 30 characters.

10) Keep in mind that when we launch only ‘newly posted’ or ‘rarely seen’ videos will be acceptable. I know this is going to be an area where we’ll all have to use our judgment, but we don’t want to be posting up vids that a significant proportion of our readers have seen before.