Expanding the writer's palette.

Expanding the writer's palette.

People always seem slightly amazed when they discover I have a regular 9-to-5 job. I guess lots of folks who only know me peripherally just assume I support myself on DJing or promoting or Chicagoist or my freelance writing. I guess if I really wanted to I could support myself with those things, but I actually really like a) having a day job and b) having this day job (you know, the one I work right now, providing content for websites and building eMarketing strategies for companies).

Anyway, I was talking to some of the other writers at my job about getting some further design training and maybe a little extra experience doing some basic coding. I was asked if, perhaps secretly, I harbored a desire to move out of the writing pen and onto the design team. I answered, quite honestly, no, I didn't want to become a designer or programmer per se, but I certainly saw a value in continuing my education in those areas.

You see, in my opinion, writers for websites are going to have to become even more collaborative when it comes to the way the content appears on a page, and if the writer is already able to think a little bit along the same lines, and utilize the same vocabulary, as the design and coding teams then that only makes the whole project stronger right out of the gate at the concept stage. Writing for the web is not the same as writing for print or television or any number of other outlets. In many ways, if it's done correctly, it's much harder because you have so many things to think about, and in today's environment of personalized content, you have to envision the needs of every reader within every group you're hoping to communicate with. To that end, everything on a page matters: architecture, navigation, text, layout, images, links, appearance ... everything! At the same time it's incredibly exciting to write for websites because it's still a largely unexplored and rapidly expanding territory. It's actually exhilarating at times, especially when you come up with a new concept or a particularly inventive way to get your point across!

I know that sounds a little "Wild West" meets "Nerdtopia," but it's true. But because of that I think that since writers are now called on to basically be architects for the websites their team's create, it certainly can't hurt for those same writers to be as well versed in as many of their team's disciplines as they can so that the full potential of each project is thoroughly explored.

Can I get a witness?