For your consideration

This is a gathering, a gathering of equals with a special purpose – to share knowledge and change the way we think about writing, to treat writing as a profession. We’ll do this by going beyond traditional writing sources, to study sociology, psychology, advertising – anything to help us understand more about our audience. People.

Writing professionally doesn’t mean earning a living from it, it means that writing is treated as any other job – with the same dedication, investment in time, and development. And like other jobs, the best way to advance and succeed is with the help, support, advice and experience of others.

Principles and focus

Unlike other writing sites, Considered Words has a clear purpose, with principles and promises for you the reader, and clear areas of specialisation:

• Content is king regardless of the medium. It seems that every man and his dog has a site or blog, but just because you can write an email doesn’t mean you can engage with an audience. Considered Words is here to discover and propose ways to make any message be put out in an engaging way and change the way we think about content.
• Scientific research over personal experience and commentary. Storytelling is about people yet all other writing sites ignore the wealth of research into how humans act and interact, merely focusing on their own lives.
• Relevant personal experience. Yet while we shall focus on original research and studies, that’s not to say that we won’t publish personal experience and opinion. However, it’ll always be relevant and always have a point.

Show not tell

My time has been spent writing content for various organisations but as the web becomes more focused on the individual, isn’t it time we content creators had our own voice? I’ve carried out a vast amount of research into how people work, how we write, and how to write well. Now’s the time to share it, and for others to share their own work.

I started this site because I believe in show over tell. It’s one thing to tell others that you’re a writer, it’s another to show them your style, what you write about and how you present yourself.

However, you don’t need to write for this site to join the convocation. Your readership and comments are valued, as is your sharing of essays and articles with others, showing others what you value.

The future

Both myself and others have a wide range of articles scheduled to grab your interest. Here’s a taster:

• The Gobshite Index, or, bloggers and the (wrong) words they use
• The consummate professionals you wouldn’t expect
• Why you need to be a better liar
• Site Crash – ways to improve a site’s content
• My Writing Failures
• The second joke
• The words we need

So come, join us in considering words.