Blog Entry 000

Post #: 6
Date: 2013-02-26 14:58:19.000
Author: Sherlock

Suddenly, a new spark flares on the internets. It’s greeted by massive indifference. Check the page visits. Google it. Look for a twitter hash tag. Find it on IRC. Friend it. Indifference indeed. Such is the usual prospect of new indie enterprise. It is not unexpected as the intertoobs are not a stranger to this writer.

So what’s the deal? What exactly is WritingHolmes beyond a faux clever title that alludes obliquely? This author is a fan of embedded writing, dense material that incorporates priming to carry additional channels of information not made explicit by the actual words but by what they evoke as common experience and general knowledge.

The other part of this is the potential, the mashup that these two concepts imply. A writing site about mysteries ala Sherlock Holmes’ adventures? Writing about deductive reasoning? The pun, writing home? Well, actually it doesn’t. It doesn’t really matter what a site or service is named. It’s the content that matters, its accessibility and by the perception others have of it. You saw Google above and didn’t think twice about it being a verb now. Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, FlickR. I can stop right there and let you howl all the names I left out. That’s common experience.

By now only one in ten is wading through this gobbledegook. Really what’s the point? That’s a good question. Everyone has their own outlook on how things work and why. As human beings we are limited by our own minds and behaviors that are only now coming to light through studies in neuroscience. Human beings are all about confirmation bias which is about reinforcing what they already know and believe .

And what does this have to do with you continuing to waste your valuable if not precious time reading this? I don’t know if you appreciate self deprecation as tactic to draw you further in. Or prefer having pretentious and bombastic claims dropped in your lap? You’ll get neither here. This site is the result of watching everything Sherlock Holmes over a period of several weeks (theme) and a theory about writing styles that needs some practical results to draw some inferences from (premise).

So far this has violated most of the established precepts about writing to achieve attention and interest. That’s deliberate as well. This is a site dedicated to learning. Real learning. Understanding. Challenging beliefs.

Pretty highfaluting words from someone who just denied that that sort of thing was going to happen here. Nonetheless, that’s the deal. The other part of this is that the site is structured so that it can grow organically from input from anyone who makes WritingHolmes their own space. One of its undocumented precepts is that ‘participation’ is a key. The suggestion box will always be open.

And still, nothing worthy of your effort has appeared. You’ve been forced once around the block and then down the garden path, why? Simply, there is an entrance bar. It’s best to lose the uninterested, the dilettantes and the lazy right here on the first blog entry. This is serious business and requires effort. You own your words but the results and methodology are ours. We posit that this will be a fair exchange.

Ask yourself,‘What is it that has kept you reading so far?’ Think about it. Was it the site appearance? The vocabulary? The blog entry’s tone? The premise? What premise? Caught again, all sorts of hints but no meat. Where’s the beef? If I were you I’d stop reading and write the time spent off as a sunk cost and move on.

Why are you still here?

We don’t care.

The fact is that you are still reading. Curiosity killed the cat. Nothing good can come from this. Do you have your answer ready why you are still reading?

You can’t comment unless you register. Registration is painless. Doors will not unlock until you do.

Okay, you’ve waited long enough. This site is investigating bounded writing and its effect on tone, pacing, style, voice and impact. That means challenges of 100, 250 and 500 word entries confined by variable but hard margins and done in fixed fonts. There will be discussion forums, links, resources and reviews. Participation will have further benefits.

Welcome to WritingHolmes.

---

---

---

---

---

View this post in the forums

Views: 6800

---

---