Pocket Revolutionary

Know your audience. Easily the best advice I’ve heard as a writer from the likes of Merlin Mann and John Gruber, but I am  just now realizing that I’ve been too simplistic with my interpretation. I’ve known that I needed to imagine this individual at the other end, but I didn’t fully recognize until now that I’ve been mentally shifting audiences as I move between the blog and the book; it’s honestly been driving me a little crazy.

I love to write blog posts because my ideal reader is a clone of me on the other end. I enjoy my writing style, and I like most of my jokes. I would probably read my blog, except that sometimes I get a little long-winded and I would need Instapaper to help me finish the job on my couch. I also write really long sentences. Somehow, I thought this great feeling would translate to my book.

Unsurprisingly, writing the book has felt much more like slow torture because… well, because I don’t actually enjoy reading it as much. For one thing, I’m not nearly as snarky or personal. I have no illusions; most readers of my book have probably not seen every episode of She Spies and don’t really care how clever I think I am with obscure references that could shame Dennis Miller. On top of that, I’m (obviously) writing mostly about junk I already know. I’ve learned a lot while writing, but I’m still pretty exhausted with TypoScript conditionals before I ever start typing that first draft. At this point, reading thirty pages on browser-checking and boolean logic sounds like hell as a reader.

Here’s my great revelation, though: It doesn’t matter. I am not the ideal reader of my own book in this case. This is my ideal reader:

A combination of Andy Ihnatko and the version of me from four years ago. Technically, my goal is to teach all the stuff that I wish I could have easily learned from one (hopefully) well-written book when I first started TYPO3. In fact, I wish I had understood a lot of this just six months ago, but I already explained that I’m researched-out and sick of this knowledge at this point. As far as my voice, I would like to entertain Andy Ihnatko. In my imaginary world, Mr. Ihnatko decides to give up his career as a freelance journalist and pursue the much less stable career of a freelance web developer. Naturally, he picks TYPO3 as a good platform (he has good taste) and goes looking for the best book on templates that he can find. When he finds out the best book is probably written in German, he buys my book instead. Obviously, he enjoys my book immensely after reading it and recommends it on MacBreak Weekly even though it has nothing to Apple. I enjoy Andy Ihnatko, and I think he would appreciate my subtle sense of humor. As a bonus, he seems generally congenial, and I don’t think he would mind too much if my book wasn’t perfect. I love John Gruber and Merlin Mann, but I would be afraid to show them my slightly-flawed writing efforts. Andy would probably at least humor me and still get something out of it to help him build his new business as a hot shot developer.

Anyway, that’s my ideal reader, and I’m learning to be okay with the fact that it isn’t me. If I have to explain something a little too much, I resolve to stop getting frustrated. I’m writing to the version of me that didn’t know TYPO3 that well and the imaginary Andy Ihnatko that is becoming a TYPO3 developer; I’m pretty sure they appreciate the extra explanation of data structures that I added to the end of that last chapter.

We launched the official Vintage 56 blog over at MarketingDilemma.com this week. It’s based on Basic Maths by Khoi Vinh, and has just enough tweaks right now to make me happy that it’s not totally stock. Honestly, I think they started with a template this time around to keep me from fiddling too much and just launch it by the end of the week.

Anyway, the new blog is up as a group project from the whole Vintage 56 crew, and I think it will be a great place to hear some of my friends talk about current projects and what we’re all learning about video, graphics, audio, iPhone development, etc. In the future, I plan on making sure that all of my most accessible web/iPhone goodness ends up on there. I’ll keep using this blog for the more personal and/or deeply nerdy discussions, though, so have no fear. I’ll also keep more sardonic posts on here. I know what you come here for.

In other news, my beautiful, thoughtful wife saw the new Vintage 56 website and blog and immediately gave me her unconditional encouragement: “You really need to update Pocket Revolutionary…  it’s pretty dated.” On that note, I’ll probably start working on that redesign right after I finish her new website.

First off, I just want to verify that I’m still alive. Writing a book in your “spare time” is an exercise in self-torture spread out over many months, but it is coming along. I’m finally over halfway through as I work on chapter 7. Throw away all of your preconceptions about how you can modify the rich-text editor interface in TYPO3. Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about? Fine. Well, if you had some preconceptions about some very technical junk in TYPO3, I would be shattering them. You would be shocked. Shocked.

Aside from my attack on the bourgeoisie of TYPO3 templating, I wanted to mention my big new adventure: Vintage 56. Yes, although I may hate the escapade that was freelancing (on the side), I’m really excited about getting to form an honest-to-goodness production/design agency with some great people that I’ve worked with at Generals International for years. Basically, we’ve figured out how to make our own mark doing web, iPhone apps, graphics, video, and audio production with clients we love and help out a ministry by donating a large portion of our profits to Generals. Actually, we’re helping a lot of ministries and medium-size companies right now because they’re getting the full agency treatment without the full agency budget. Basically, I get to work with really talented people, and I wanted to brag on them. You can check out http://vin56.com to see what I’m talking about (yes, the video works on iPads, iPhones, and iPods).

p.s. – You need to check out our graphic designer’s blog…  she’s awesome.

p.p.s. – We will be launching another blog for Vintage 56 soon, but I’ve been slacking off– writing a frickin’ book. Stop pestering me. Seriously. I need to go.

I love my iPad and all, but I haven’t talked about it on here because I’m not a hardware reviewer and I doubt that I have anything new to say about it. Mainly, though, I knew that if I waited a few days John Gruber would write a review saying just about anything that’s worth saying (good and bad) about the iPad: enjoy.

I am officially working on my first dead-tree book. I know I technically spilled the beans on Twitter at the end of last week, but this is my official announcement. I was approached by Packt publishing a couple weeks ago to see if I would be interested in writing a book on building and pimping out (not their words) templates in TYPO3. I decided that I’ll never know how little sleep I can live on until I really push it and accepted the challenge. So, over the next six months, I will be writing, screaming, crying, and having at least a couple breakdowns just so I can officially say that I’m a published author. I can only imagine that as a published author I’ll be able to raise my hourly rates, fly first class, smoke a pipe with gusto, and generally live a life of leisure and self-imposed solitude. I haven’t decided who’s going to play me in the movie, yet, but I’m leaning towards Lyle Lovett or a very disgruntled Randy Newman.

How does this affect this blog that I’ve been trying to write in more consistently? Well, I’m forcing myself to write an extra hour a night, and at least every once in a while that has to mean something other than “the book”. In fact, in the interest of writing a clear instructional book, I will be channeling 90% of my snarkiness, obscure cultural references, and general temperament toward outlets like this and the occasional telemarketer. The remaining 10% will probably make it into the book in a much more palatable dosage. On the side of helpful effects, though, this will give me more experience writing genuinely instructive articles. I’m already planning on blogging my process a little for those who haven’t already read the thousands of blog articles covering the same topic (I promise, I’ll offer something different…  like what word processor and meth dealers I use for late night working).