{"id":8496,"date":"2012-04-13T06:04:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T11:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=8496"},"modified":"2013-01-01T19:15:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T00:15:58","slug":"smart-authors-balance-honesty-and-transparency-guest-post-by-warwick-fuller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/smart-authors-balance-honesty-and-transparency-guest-post-by-warwick-fuller\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Authors Balance Honesty and Transparency [Guest post by Warwick Fuller]"},"content":{"rendered":"

I met our next contributor in seminary. If you don’t know Warwick<\/span><\/a> personally, it’s hard to describe him. Just reading his work one could get the false impression that he is just mildly eccentric, even understated. Don’t be fooled.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Warwick leaks out and away from every typical category. First of all,\u00a0Warwick\u00a0takes great pleasure in being unusual.<\/strong>\u00a0He’s involved and conscientious. He makes frenzied gestures when he’s excited, his laugh is thoroughly\u00a0concussive,\u00a0and he devours books at vertiginous\u00a0speed. He’s intense, yet surprises you with his sensitivity. He’s intelligent, but that doesn’t ever seem to help him for long. He’s both a marvel and a conundrum. I like him and I’ve learned a lot from him. Probably when it was least expected, and often where blood, or tears, or sweat has something to do with it. I’ve appreciated Warwick in the same way I grew to like dark lager. (In this curious photo, an unseen doctor checks Warwick for a mutant sty that developed after reading too many spiderman comics. Or, I made that last part up.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Smart Authors Balance Honesty and Transparency<\/strong><\/em>
\n-by Warwick Fuller<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve just moved for the 4th<\/sup>\u00a0time in the past year. I just opened a box that was labeled desk stuff and found an old journal.\u00a0\u00a0 How I approach my journal is different from my blog.\u00a0 My blog is mostly about my observations and the events going on in my life that are affecting me and the world around me.\u00a0 Because of my faith, these observations are thru a certain lens.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m bashful about that lens, but I am choosy about what I share in regards to that lens.\u00a0 I\u2019m choosy about what I share about my family.\u00a0 I do know some of my readers.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know all of them.<\/p>\n

In blogging there are certain ideals, and those that post them well are the people that have a high traffic volume.\u00a0 Two of those ideals are honesty and transparency.\u00a0 In being honest, we can see the writer\u2019s flaws, and the true humanity that is behind the words and stories.\u00a0 In being transparent, the writer becomes relatable.\u00a0 These are trust issues.\u00a0 A good author wants you to trust their work; wants you to understand and relate.<\/p>\n

Being a smart author in such a personal medium is to know when to draw the line when it comes to transparency.\u00a0 For me there are a couple of rules that I have employed in my head to help.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Never paint your spouse\/child\/significant other in such a shade that they are degraded in the eyes of others. \u00a0<\/strong>I never want others to regret what I write about them, especially my immediate family.\u00a0 It\u2019s unfair; they never get to defend themselves on my page.\u00a0 The stories I do share about them that I question I always run by my wife first.\u00a0 If she feels uncomfortable then its off the table.<\/li>\n
  2. Never put your family in danger.<\/strong>\u00a0 Honestly, there are crazy people out there.\u00a0 My nana says more than there were when she was a kid.\u00a0 The post that draws the most attention to my blog is a picture of the Marvel Comic Family Tree (nerd alert), and I\u2019m not sure who is being drawn in because of it. \u00a0 I am very careful in revealing certain details about where we are and what my kids are up to.\u00a0 I\u2019m honest, just not na\u00efve.<\/li>\n
  3. It\u2019s ok to make yourself the butt of a joke, but be redeemable.<\/strong>\u00a0 Some reputations have been killed by what an author writes about himself on the interwebs.\u00a0 Some comedians make a life out of self-humiliation.\u00a0 I think that may be fine for others, but I want to be trusted by those who ask for my advice.\u00a0 Because of the line of work I am in, others count on my opinion and advice.\u00a0 I do not want that ruined by a misplaced, though true, story.<\/li>\n
  4. When in doubt, find a community to run your idea by first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>I have a wife who is understanding and is intelligent.\u00a0 She also likes me, which helps when I tell her I want to put something on my blog.\u00a0 She\u2019s god at asking the right questions that help me not just know what to put up but how and why.\u00a0 If you do not have a soundboard, then find one.\u00a0 Or at least, write down your post and revisit a week later, before you post it.\u00a0 This is just a good habit, anyway.<\/li>\n
  5. Be aware that the truth you find in your observations may not be what others saw.<\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s the old joke about the blind men and the elephant.\u00a0 If you are writing about an event that took place, it\u2019s not a bad idea to make sure you saw exactly what you saw.\u00a0 Ask others that were a part of it for their own observations.\u00a0 It makes a story round, and they can provide details you missed.<\/li>\n
  6. Don\u2019t make yourself un-hirable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 I have no idea what the future holds for me and my family.\u00a0 I do not want anything I\u2019ve put up on my blog to put in jeopardy whatever God is leading us to next.\u00a0 Neither should you.\u00a0 A good reputation, to be trusted, is a desirable goal. I\u2019ve heard better than silver and gold.\u00a0 Weigh your words and see if what you read is how you want people to see you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, fellow bloggers, how close an eye are you keeping on your words?\u00a0 What safeguards do you employ?\u00a0 Can you ever be too honest and open?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    Bio:\u00a0Warwick Fuller is a blogger at\u00a0www.warwickfuller.wordpress.com<\/a>. \u00a0He names his pets after Anglican literary figures and wears bow ties. He is lead on his church’s Wednesday night Family Ministry, and is a USAR Chaplain. \u00a0He is married with three daughters and lives in Harrisburg, PA. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ” Two of those [blogging] ideals are honesty and transparency. ” Warwick Fuller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,5626],"tags":[8,1222,5631,1790,2047,6109,5632,3514,5630,3768],"class_list":["post-8496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-spark-my-muse","tag-blogging","tag-family","tag-honesty","tag-integrity","tag-lisa-colon-delay","tag-sgb","tag-transparency","tag-trust","tag-warwick-fuller","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8496"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11181,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions\/11181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}