Writing Blog Madness Final: #1 Seed Daily Writing Tips Versus #1 Seed John August

The Matchup

After four full rounds of competition, two top seeds have fought their way to the finals. Both of these blogs are popular and make a point of helping their readers through minor and major writing issues. Beyond that, these two blogs are very different. Daily Writing Tips is a team blog with five writers. Its focus is on the nuts and bolts of writing such as word usage and grammar. It also features articles on general writing topics such as freelancing and fiction writing. John August is a niche blog aimed specifically at screenwriters and aspiring screenwriters. The titular author, John August, is a successful screenwriter with credits that include indie favorites such as Go and The Nines as well as box office blockbusters such as Charlie’s Angels and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the two Charlies are unrelated). This is it, the final match. Lets do it!

Best Headlines

Interestingly, looking at their last 10 posts, both blogs feature an article with 101 in the title. JA has Screenwriting 101 while DWT has Creative Writing 101. Both blogs also feature a headline that asks a question. DWT has, Should You Use Footnotes or Endnotes? JA has Does a working writer keep improving? There are definite similarities. In the end though, I have to give the nod to DWT because you can always get the gist of what the article is about from the headline, while JA has headlines such as  Time spent thinking and Uggh that are a little hard to interpret.

DWT strikes first with a turnaround jump shot from six feet out. DWT leads 2-0.

Best User Experience

Neither of these blogs is flashy. Both have a professional but conservative look and their user features are a bit on the basic side. Both make occasional use of graphics in their postings, but generally stick to text. DWT is weighed down a bit by its advertising though. At some points, because of the ads, there are four columns of material with the ads taking up two columns. That’s a bit much for a web page to handle and in the end it costs them this category.

JA gets the ball and breaks a screen to get to the inside, putting the ball in off the glass to tie the game at 2-2.

Best Community Experience

JA has a large and informed community that often adds solid information of its own to the posts. The community at Daily Writing Tips is smaller, but does stay on topic, although they tend to be overly critical of the posts.

JA gets the ball back and shoots a mid-range jumper - nothing but net. JA takes the lead 4-2.

Best Branding

John August has been an Internet fixture for years, writing for IMDB long before the concept of blogging took off. He has the advantage of a great reputation in a high-profile industry, and he has named his blog after himself, so he really is the brand. The content on his site offers information specific to his industry, and the advice is consistently informative. DWT has been around for a year, and has quickly jumped to the forefront of writing blogs, with one of the highest traffic totals in the competition. It stays true to its purpose of improving people’s writing skills while also providing the occasional nod to the writing business.

Jump Ball. Both blogs have done a great job of branding and developing their reputation. The score remains 4-2.

Best Archives

JA doesn’t have a true archive page, at least not one that anyone can find. The site does list featured articles and has a small Screenwriting 101 list as well as a category guide at the bottom of the pages. DWT has an archive that lists every article ever written in chronological order. Chronological order isn’t the best choice, but at least you can go through every article on a single page. DWT also has a substantial popular articles list.

DWT breaks the full-court press and races to the basket, scoring two with a finger-roll basket. The score it tied 4-4 going into the final round.

Best Post

Setting Your Freelance Writing Fees

This is a lengthy and informative article about all of the factors that a freelancer should consider when setting their rates. It goes through such issues as the type of work, the amount of knowledge and experience the writer has, who owns the rights, research, expenses, the going rate and the all-important gut feeling.

Does a working writer keep improving?

August answers a question from a screenwriter with a few credits under his belt who wants to improve on some of his weaknesses so that he can move up to the next level. August advises him on how to improve his story and plotting by dissecting successful movies and shows to examine their structure. He also advises the writer to work outside of his comfort zone so that he doesn’t rely so much on his strengths.

John August gets possession the ball one last time and dives to the basket, dunking the ball just as the buzzer goes off. John August wins 6-4.

Post Game Analysis

It was a nail-biting battle. Daily Writing Tips is a great site for writers.  John August was just a little bit better. The real kicker is that August can speak from such a depth of experience. In his field, he has been through the battles at every level and come out as one of the top writers in Hollywood and on the Internet. My hat is off to him and his site.

This ends 2008’s Writing Blog Madness. It was great getting to know all of your blogs better and seeing all the different ways that blogs can help writers. I’ll write a proper wrap-up over the weekend, but thank you to everyone who took the time to comment and link to the contest. Without you this would have been a very lonely month and a half.

The Articles

So people can compare for themselves, here are the past 10 articles from each site:

John August

1. Does a working writer keep improving?
2. A somewhat derivative challenge
3. Secret history of the Kleinhardt Gambit
4. Off-topic tweaks
5. Screenwriting 101
6. Time spent thinking
7. The six-hour scene
8. Grand Theft Auto
9. Uggh
10. When friends read your script

Daily Writing Tip

1. Reduplicatives And Their Meanings
2. Creative Writing 101
3. Should You Use Footnotes or Endnotes?
4. Womanly Words - Gyn
5. A While vs Awhile
6. Most Popular Articles April 2008
7. 50 Open Source Resources for Writers
8. Weird Words
9. Setting Your Freelance Writing Fees
10. Inquire vs Enquire