Here’s Why You Should Write Columns, Instead Of Just Stories

For me, it’s still the most rewarding form of writing…

Journalism has its genres, just like music, poetry, and prose. I’ve been writing for many years, both professionally and as a hobby. Between reporting, reviewing and opinion-pieces, the latter is the one that’s consistently closest to my heart. Please don’t misunderstand me, neither of these is any lesser than the other, but for my personality to truly have a breathing space in my writing, columns — or as some call them, opinion pieces — are the ones that suit me best.

My presence on this platform and my articles can be split into three main categories:

• Reviews. These are articles in which I will focus on giving the reader an objective or semi-objective view on a technology or product. I will do my best to provide enough information for them to make an educated decision afterwards. There is no space for creating confusion here, or making the reader ask themselves even more questions than before they read my article. These are the articles where I myself want to feel at the end of it, that the topic is clarified, and valid conclusions have been drawn both for myself and the reader’s benefit. These articles can require some creativity, but not a lot.

• Tutorials. I have often been told that I am good at providing technical instructions. Perhaps I am because I constantly try to make sure that all steps are well explained and even illustrated should it really be necessary. I try to assume the least possible about the reader, and if that sometimes makes the article go down to some very simplistic levels of both language and instructions, then so be it. The goal is always for the reader to achieve the expected outcome. Tutorials require almost no creativity. This is where things should be kept simple. For the most part, anyway.

• Columns. By their nature, columns are about opinions. Of course, not just any opinions. They have to be rooted in some reality and facts, but the levels of creativity here are essentially endless. This is where I also manage to pour most of my personality into.

Sure, there’s the occasional prose here and there, like Snapshots from a draft novel and The sane philosopher, but those are in every way the exception rather than the rule.

So, why columns?

While a personal style preference, there are a couple of other reasons for looking at columns as a preferred format over all others. Some of those reasons are strategic, while others have a tad more profound meaning.

Most of my columns will outperform everything else.

After eight years of writing on this platform and another three for a very popular music website many years ago, data always shows that columns get excellent readership. While going “viral” was never an objective for me, seeing readers flock to my articles is a rewarding goal to have, and an even better one is to see those readers be of high quality. This is important as quality readership will also be a more engaged one, will interact with the writer, and even when disagreeing, will more often do so in a well-argumented manner, rather than attacking the writer, though columns can and will attract some negative attention too. It’s still worth it, in my opinion.

The next point is less about readers and more about writers. I read countless articles every day, and what I find worrisome is the number of writers who just can’t decide what their niche is, who they are as writers, what their style is. Some, in fact, many of them, are actually very nice people overall, and for instance on Medium they’ll be known for being nice, but let me ask a tough question: as a writer, is being a nice human being what you want to be known for? Sure, being a pleasant human is a great skill and entirely necessary, but you being pleasant has little or nothing to do with your writing. It’s not what people will remember, and it’s not what puts wine and lasagna on the table either.

I believe writers need to take a stance, and create an identity around themselves. Nice, alone, is not enough.

Let me further expand on that. People will get offended by literally anything, and no writer can please every reader. Given that, there is no reason not to be assertive and opinionated even in one’s writing — provided it’s a column, of course. Expressing a strong view while not pissing everyone off is a fine art, and it’s absolutely doable.

Yes, you will be taking a stance, and no, not everyone will agree, but as long as you’re not attacking groups of people, you’ll be fine and a lot less people will get offended than you might think. Many, even of those who disagree, will appreciate the mere fact that you stood strong and defended your position. Being a controversial columnist doesn’t have to be a bad thing to be remembered by.

Is there an in-between?

Traditionally, writing genres are well-defined by now, but in all of those there is a bit of wiggle-room. The way I like looking at it is, that every genre has components that can potentially and tastefully transplanted into another. Where I tend to do this, is reviews.

Columnising a review can be an interesting challenge, but it’s well-worth the effort.

If you look at most of my LEGO reviews, you’ll notice they’re more than just simple reviews. You’ll know upfront that by the end of the story, you’ll have an idea what the set is like, how easy it is to build, whether you should get it or not, but the style in which the narrative is presented feels less like a traditional review.

The double-edged nature of columns

Now, before jumping on the columnist bandwagon, do take a step back and think of what you’re committing to. Branding yourself as a columnist even on a platform like Medium is a balancing-act. I have seen writers here who bore the life out of me with walls of text posing as columns yet saying very little to nothing, lacking personality, all because as writers, they’re overly careful.

Readers can smell an overly sheepish writer from miles away, and, while perhaps erroneously so, will consider them as boring and their writing, lacklustre.

One can write a factually correct article or column and still lose 99.9% of readers two paragraphs in. Of course, the solution isn’t to be less factual, but rather to wrap those facts into sentences and thoughts that trigger some sort of reaction, be that positive or negative. For instance, calling Intel out on their environmentally irresponsible processors, while factual, did prove to be a controversial view.

But remember, being controversial isn’t necessarily the goal here. One can provide a balanced view while doing so with style. If you do, however, decide to go down the controversial path, do it for the right reasons. I also see plenty of writers here who exploit controversy, and they’ll publish the exact opposite of what common sense would suggest, just because they know people are first curious enough to read, and then angry enough to comment. These are the authors who eventually rack up so much negative attention and bad street-cred, no one will ever take them seriously.

Expressing a strong opinion with style, while sticking to the facts is an art I am still learning after over a decade of writing.

What if you can’t?

I don’t think there is such a thing as “can’t write columns”. As long as you’re a human being with opinions, you abso-feckin-lutely can! The distance between you and your next column is owning your views on the world and doing at least the bare minimum to research the topic. You will still get it wrong sometimes, but that’s OK as long as you get it right most of the time. Having opinions alone won’t be enough. That’s why everything Trump uttered, sounded like bullshit. #covfefe 🤣 So, no, you can’t skip research, and that’s why writing columns in 30 minutes is physically impossible. You have to get it right enough, not to sound like an absolute idiot.

So, should you really?

I definitely think every writer, especially on platforms such as this one, should try at least dabbling in columns. I think it’s not only a great exercise in writing, but also a potential journey of self-discovery.

It is important though that the risks are understood just as much as the potential benefits. Writing a column is more than just an act of writing something, it’s a declaration of ownership in style and message. It’s a branding opportunity, which can backfire if done badly. Mistakes will happen along the way, and that’s OK, as long you learn from them.

A column’s purpose, besides the (f)actual story, is to make you shine as a writer. It’s a powerful tool. Use it wisely.

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, Lego fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer!