Write Like Taylor Swift

So much of writing advice is dedicated to finding a niche. Many supposed writing gurus harp on determining your "anchor content" and then basically just reworking that same idea forever.

I'm not here to say that niching doesn't work because it does. Writing about our expertise is always a good idea. But, I am here to challenge the forever part. Writing about the same thing or in the same style over and over again gets incredibly boring. This is where I start to have a problem with niching.

This weekend, I watched Taylor Swift's Eras Tour on Disney+. What's funny is that I refuse to watch Oppenheimer because it's 3.5 hours long, but I had zero issues watching the 3.5 hour concert. For the record, I enjoyed every minute.

The concert is an incredible testament to Swift's monumental career. Just about everything she produces is a genuine hit, and the concert is a nonstop reminder of her superstardom.

The Eras Tour is also a distinct reminder that Swift never limited herself to a single niche. From country to pop to folk, Swift embraced her distinct eras and let her songwriting cross genres.

They say variety is the spice of life, so why should we limit ourselves to one kind of writing?

The other thing of note about Taylor Swift's concert film is that I'm certain her discography doesn't represent the complete extent of her creativity. For every song that made the various albums, I'm sure plenty more were left out.

The only way we grow as writers is by breaking out of niche-imposed boxes. The benefit, outside of our own growth, is that experimenting is a lot of fun! We play and, if it works, great! If it doesn't, we hit delete and work on the next thing.

Explore your passions and embrace your current writing era, whatever it might be.

For anyone wondering, my favorite era is 1989, followed closely by Lover.

Personal Choice in Web Design

I built my first website sometime around 1998. It was hand-coded with HTML and CSS I learned by reading other site's source code. Yes, I'm that kind of nerd.

That first site, built on Geocities, had a black background, white text, and yellow accents. I guess I favored a nice dark mode before it existed as a system preference.

For the last few weeks, I've been rebuilding my website from the inside out. I've been curious about other people's preferences throughout the build process. Typically, I build websites like I write; I focus on what I want to see. This time, though, I was curious about what others thought.

I asked about your light or dark mode preference a few weeks back, and while there was no consensus, the opinions were incredibly strong. One response that stood out (but was also pretty indicative of the others) was this one:

It better be a light mode but you better let me change it, too!

Pretty direct, but I hear you loud and clear.

Last week, I asked Mastodon about the ideal web page font size. The responses came back suggesting using font-size: 100% as the site's base. This, according to the explanations, allows the user to adjust their font size in the system/browser settings.

The internet should be personal. Everyone's individual preferences should be reflected and respected. Not only does this make the web more personalized, but it also allows it to be more accessible, too.

I've enjoyed rebuilding my site (which is probably about 85% complete). Building in user choice while maintaining my own preferences and design flair has been a lot of fun.

For those wondering, my site defaults to your theme system preference, and you can change it by hitting the appropriate button in the menu.