Speaking session
A Quick Guide to Long-form Content on WordPress
Tell us more about yourself
Developing one’s skill as a writing is a lifelong pursuit, and throughout my career I’ve been working on becoming a better writer – and I’m happy to share writing advice when I can. I spend a lot of time thinking about how technology works, and how it changes how we live and work. In the past, I have presented at previous WordCamps on Information Architecture, and blogging like a journalist.
Can you shed more light on your presentation topic?
The conventional wisdom around online writing has been that readers have short attention spans and tiny, punchy articles are the best way to get them to read a blog post.
However, it turns out that some of the most popular websites that used to adhere to this old logic (such as Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post) are finding that well-written, long-form content is actually very popular with their audiences.
This presentation is about creating long-form content that is worth reading. It will cover some approaches to long-form writing and the tools available in WordPress to convey your stories compellingly and elegantly.
What do you want people to learn from your presentation?
- Choosing topics and focus for long-form article or blog post.
- Creating a “package” of multimedia content for your long-form piece.
- Choosing themes and templates for long-form pieces, and using tools such as Aesop Story Engine to display things how you want.
- Typography for long reads: Making sure people have a distraction free and comfortable experience.
- Keeping things interesting in long-form articles
Why did you decide to speak?
I’ve previously presented at WordCamp Montreal and WordCamp Ottawa on Information Architecture and the journalistic approach to blogging.
WordCamp Toronto is special to me because it’s the city I live in, and I have tremendous respect for everyone in Toronto’s digital community. I hope I can provide something useful to the community.
What attracted you to WordPress in the first place?
It was shortly after finishing journalism school in 2008. I had just finished hand-coding a magazine-style website when I found out that there was something called WordPress that managed content publishing, comments, and all the other things I had struggled with. Since then, I’ve been a huge supporter of WordPress as it’s grown and evolved to become essentially the best platform for content creators.
What is your favourite plugin or theme, and why?
While the Jetpack multi-plugin is probably my favourite plugin overall, Aesop Story Engine is my favourite for long-form writing in WordPress.
It allows writers to easily add story components such as screen-filling images, jump-out text, and parallax elements to posts without having to code these things from scratch. Of course, it doesn’t always work as intended, but it provides a starting point that you can tweak.
What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Toronto?
I always look forward to catching up with old friends, meeting new people, and hearing new ideas at presentations.