“A Content Methodology Primer” at Contents Magazine

A little more than three months ago, Erin Kissane approached me about writing for the first issue of a new content publication, Contents Magazine. I said yes. Of course I said yes.

That article went live today.

From “A Content Methodology Primer”:

It’s romantic to think that content work is an art, all brandy, pipes, and wood grain. But it’s not. It’s a process. A messy, sticky, multi-disciplinary process that begs for structure, consistency, and guidance.

That’s a daunting task. Content wants to be messy. It wants to roll around in the mud. It wants to be gross. Our job is to pull it together—to take the guesswork out of creating and curating it—and to treat content work as something closer to a science.

I’ll be honest – the process was completely new to me. Being a self-edited writer for most of my life, I’ve never gone through a true editorial process. It was wonderful – having that guidance and those extra sets of eyes kept me honest and challenged me to write better.

A huge thanks to the team over at Contents for giving me this opportunity, especially Erin and Krista Stevens, who were BEYOND patient in editing an article that threatened to explode into a 7,000-word maze of non sequiturs.