Tags: writing

On Rejection | Zeldman on Web & Interaction Design

The focus of the A Book Apart series is what makes it great …and that means having to reject some proposals that don’t fit. Even though I’ve had the honour of being a twice-published A Book Apart author, I also have the honour of receiving a rejection, which Jeffrey mentions here:

In one case we even had to say no to a beautifully written, fully finished book.

That was Resilient Web Design.

So why did we turn down books we knew would sell? Because, again—they weren’t quite right for us.

It was the right decision. And this is the right advice:

If you’ve sent us a proposal that ultimately wasn’t for us, don’t be afraid to try again if you write something new—and most importantly, believe in yourself and keep writing.

Tim Brown: Coming soon: Flexible Typesetting

Fellow web type nerds: Tim Brown brings very good tidings indeed!

My new book is called Flexible Typesetting, and it will be published by A Book Apart this summer. I absolutely cannot wait for you to read it, because we have so much to talk about.

“What does that funny squiggle mean?” Playlist - BBC Ideas

¶, &, @, ‽, ☺, #, and ☛.

Web Components Club – A journal about learning web components

Andy Bell is documenting is journey of getting to grips with web components. I think it’s so valuable to share like this as you’re learning, instead of waiting until you’ve learned it all—the fresh perspective is so useful!

Brendan Dawes - Holding the Door Open for Others

I continue to write stuff down on my little corner of the Web (does it have corners?) and I encourage you to do the same, as all these little bits of flotsam and jetsam become something a lot lot bigger.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin Official Trailer on Vimeo

This forthcoming documentary on Ursula K. Le Guin looks like it will be very good indeed.

Four short stories and what I learnt writing them (31 May., 2018, at Interconnected)

I’ve been enjoying the stories over on Upsideclown so it’s great to get a peak inside Matt’s writing brain here.

I also happen to really, really like his four stories:

1. Moving House
2. The search for another intelligence
3. The Ursa Major Moving Group
4. Volume Five

I wouldn’t say I’m great at writing fiction. I find it tough. It is the easiest thing in the world for me to pick holes in what I’ve written. So instead, as an exercise—and as some personal positive reinforcement—I want to remind myself what I learnt writing each one, and also what I like.

Solving Life’s Problems with CSS | CSS-Tricks

It turns out that Diana Smith isn’t just a genius with CSS—she’s a fantastic writer too. This post is somehow heartfelt and lighthearted at the same time. It’s also very humorous, but beneath the humour there’s an excellent point here about the rule of least power …and doing things the long, hard, stupid way.

Because something about those limitations just calls to me. I know I’m not alone when I say that a rigid set of restrictions is the best catalyst for creativity. Total artistic freedom can be a paralyzing concept.

That can sometimes be the case with programming. If you have the most powerful programming languages in the world at your disposal, it starts to seem natural that you should then have no difficulty solving any programming problem. With all these amazing tools offering countless solutions to solve the same problem, it’s no wonder that we sometimes freeze up with information overload.

Getting Started With CSS Layout — Smashing Magazine

Rachel gives a terrific explanation of CSS layout from first principles, starting with the default normal flow within writing systems, moving on to floats, then positioning—relative, absolute, fixed, and sticky—then flexbox, and finally grid (with a coda on alignment). This is a great primer to keep bookmarked; I think I’ll find myself returning to this more than once.

About txt.fyi

This is the dumbest publishing platform on the web.

Write something, hit publish, and it’s live.

Going Offline with ServiceWorker | text/plain

This is such a nice review of Going Offline from Eric!

As anyone who has received unsolicited (or solicited) feedback from me about their book knows, I’m an extremely picky reader, and I have no significant complaints on this one. Highly recommended.

The Secret to Writing (Is Writing) + Subtraction.com

In a world full of talented designers, the ability to express oneself in written form is a key advantage.

Episode 52 - Going Offline | with Jeremy Keith - Relative Paths

I really enjoyed chatting with Mark and Ben on the Relative Paths podcast. We talked about service workers and Going Offline, but we also had a good musical discussion.

This episode is also on Huffduffer.

Going Offline: Designing An Ideal Offline Experience With Service Workers By Jeremy Keith

Here’s a great even-handed in-depth review of Going Offline:

If you’re interested in the “offline first” movement or want to learn more about Service Workers, Going Offline by Jeremy Keith is a really gentle and highly accessible introduction to the topic. At times, it even felt “too gentle”, with Keith taking a moment here and there to explain what a “variable” is and what “JSON” (JavaScript Object Notation) is. But, this just goes to show you the unassuming and welcoming mindset behind writing a book like this one.

Express Review: Going Offline by Jeremy Keith – Daniel Koskinen

A short’n’sweet review of Going Offline:

Jeremy nails it again with this beginner-friendly introduction to Service Workers and Progressive Web Apps. The foreword to the book says “you’ll gain a solid understanding of how to put this new technology to work for you right away” and I’d say that is very accurate.

Jeremy Keith: Going Offline | visualgui

Here’s a lovely review of Going Offline from fellow author, Donny Truong:

Jeremy’s technical writing is as superb as always. Similar to his first book for A Book Apart, which cleared up all my confusions about HTML5, Going Offline helps me put the pieces of the service workers’ puzzle together.

Monzo – Tone of Voice

Monzo’s guidelines for tone of voice, including a reference to “the curse of knowledge.”

Going Offline | Aaron Gustafson

Aaron was kind enough to write the foreword to my new book Going Offline. Here it is in full.

In Going Offline, Jeremy Keith breaks down heady concepts into approachable prose and easy-to-follow code examples. He also points out service worker gotchas and shows you how to deftly avoid them. Invest a scant few hours with this book, and you’ll gain a solid understanding of how to put this new technology to work for you right away. No, really—within fifteen to twenty minutes of putting it down.

Going Offline · An A List Apart Article

The first chapter of my new book Going Offline has been published in A List Apart.

The first hit is free. If you like what you read here and you’re just dying to know how it ends, you can pre-order the book now (it’s shipping on April 24).

House Elves

Perspectives other than our own bring a breath of fresh air. They open doors and allow light to flood in. They wrap us in a warm, comforting blanket by letting us know other people go through similar struggles. There is a tonne of writing out there that exists because the author suffered through something. Suffering tends to give you a strong desire to prevent others experiencing similar pain.