You don’t have to become an expert on a subject to write about it, but you do have to do research and due diligence in order to write with authority and make your work sound plausible. Authenticity is key, that’s why I love authors who do their research like Steph Broadribb, author of the Lori Anderson crime thriller series. Broadribb went to the US and learnt all should could by working as a bails-bond person in order to lend authenticity to her characters and world building. You can’t get it anymore first hand than that.

Even science fiction authors have to start somewhere. Having a fundamental understanding of the sciences helps. Which is probably why I have such a hard time reading or taking horror or fantasy seriously, to my mind at least, most lack any cohesive background or believable world building.

That said, authors who do ground their work with structure, can knock it out of the ball park. Take S. A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad series. This author has put so much effort into her characters, setting, and palace politics, and grounded her magical realm with so much realism, as to make it all seem so very plausible. This makes her storytelling all the more compelling never mind enjoyable because she’s paid attention to every detail.

I suppose the same could be said about writing blog posts as writing a full-length novel, or even, short stories, after all, you could argue that each post we write and present is, in and of its self, a short story. It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It needs structure, logic, and while it can have whimsy as well, it also needs to, in the end, say something, if not about a subject or topic then, at least about us, as the author.

We are, after all, authors on a quest, world building our own habitat in the ether between the ones and zeros, looking to connect with other like minded people.

I guess whether it’s books or just blog posts, the key to connecting with our readers is to be as authentic to ourselves as possible.