What’s Established vs. A Fresh Look
I’m still sorting the pages I printed out when I read through Phil’s monthly archives. As I was sorting, I thought someone must have this question.
Why not just use the categories Phil already has?
It’s a great question and it’s an idea with value. Staying with the categories that are already established offers these benefits.
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It saves time.
The structure is visible.
The categories are familiar to Phil’s readers.
There are compelling reasons to ignore the categories and take a fresh look.
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A remix shakes out new ideas.
The categories may have drifted in definition over time.
Some categories may no longer be relevant.
Knowing that I have the original categories to fall back on, I decided to go with a fresh look. For a person reading someone else’s archives as I am, the choice is really a toss-up — I could do either. It’s easy for me to ignore the official category a post might have come from.
Right now in the sorting, I have 3 distinct categories and 2 possibles. Of those 5 I have identified only 1 is in Phil’s current category list.
For a blogger reading his or her own archives, I recommend not reading through by original cataegories. As the writer, the blogger already is familiar with the content, coming at it from the date archives might help mix it up to jar new ideas and ways to put it back together.
Notes on Sorting or Let’s Get Physical
Sorting the pages may seem like mostly physical labor only, but the interaction of moving the pages, while thinking about them, gets more senses involved — which brings the information deeper. While you are reading, thinking about, and sorting pages, ideas start occurring. Capture them. Write them down. They will be ideas for ways to organize the book, for other book titles, and for even blog posts building off the posts you are seeing.
Do ask questions, if you’ve got some. I’m writing what I can think of to tell you, but I know it’s not everything. So don’t let your questions go with out answers.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.
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Liz,
Really enjoying this series. Three questions:
1. as to the categories you are identifying now, will these categories become chapters in one of the 2-3 books you mentioned you had coem up with or are these categories that will be the basis of the 2-3 books (1category per book?)
2. also, when you went back to read the date archives, I’m assuming you went back to the beginning, not just the couple past months that you did if the first rough cut, right?
3. finally, a blog is usually pretty informal and conversational. Will this language work for the books or do you think you will be modifying the tone somewhat?
Hi Catherine!
Welcome!
What great questions! Don’t hold me to the answers just yet, but here’s the working plan . . .
1. The categories could very well become the chapters, if they fill out well. Some will probably not fill out very well — have only a few pages. Some might be way to large and need to be reconsidered . . . But that’s the basic thought. To the the structure. I’ll be talking about how I do tha exactly.
2. I did go through ALL of the archives, but you might be surpirised to know that I read from today backwards. I did that intuitively. I suspect my reasoning was that his best writing would be now and that should inform the structure.
3. A book needs to have the same voice throughout. There’s really nothing wrong with a conversational voice in a book. Many nonfiction books use one. What would be a problem would be if part of the blog were informal and part were very formal. Then it would seriously have to be rewritten.
Now we’re just getting the content together. To see how much has to be done. I almost called this series “This Old Book — Like the PBS show This Old House. 🙂
I kinda like the idea of working the old into it’s own new and mixing formal and informal could work if the formal has an informal intro.
Hi Carolyn,
What’s cool about making books is that each person brings a bit of his or her own identity to the process. Every situation is unique too. That’s the fun of it.
I agree, that mixing informal and formal can work . . . we’re in the middle of the biggest “It depends” situation when we talk about repurposing content — the variables are everything. 🙂
I’m looking forward to “the rest of the story”. I forget who used to say that. Do you remember?
Hi Carolyn,
Was it the radio guy, Paul Harvey?
Yeah, I think it was. You get the mystery-quote-of-the-day prize.
Cool, I like prizes. Even if it does mean I have to remember “before we were both born” to win them. 🙂