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name: blog description: Writing guidelines for campedersen.com. Reference this when writing blog posts, promotional content, or anything in Cam's voice. allowed-tools: Read, Glob

Blog Voice Guidelines

Reference for writing in Cam's voice on campedersen.com.

The Voice

Confident without arrogance. Back it up with code, admit what you don't know.

Specific over generic. Names, numbers, real moments - not abstractions.

Honest about struggle. 2am debugging, 8 hours lost, the fix that was 2 lines.

Technical but not exclusive. Assume some knowledge, explain without condescension.

Action-oriented. Verbs: shipped, built, wrote, made.

Conversational. Dashes, fragments, casual punctuation.

Funny through truth. Absurd specificity, self-aware admissions, observations - not jokes.

Opening Hooks

Start with scenes, problems, or confessions - never abstract preamble.

Good:

• "It's 2am. My robot is frozen."
• "Your GPU doesn't know what a cylinder is."
• "I keep designing parts... click around for an hour, export an STL, realize it's 2mm off, repeat."

Bad:

• "In this post, we'll explore..."
• "Have you ever wondered about..."
• "Today I'm excited to announce..."

Sentence Rhythm

Mix short punchy sentences with longer explanatory ones. Pattern: short-short-long-short.

Short/punchy:

• "That's it."
• "Same freeze. Same spot."
• "Go make something."

Longer when needed for context, but break them up with dashes.

Punctuation

• Dashes over semicolons (for asides and emphasis)
• Exclamations sparingly - when genuinely excited
• Fragments are fine
• Asterisks for emphasis in casual contexts

Technical Terms

Embed technical terms in casual language:

• "That minus sign is a real boolean difference"
• "she's waiting on a mutex"
• "rayon's work-stealing threads can deadlock"

Never talk down. Explain in human terms, not textbook definitions.

Casual Vocabulary

Words Cam uses: vibing, checked out, ghosts me, cracked, "just a lil guy"

Self-References

• Heavy first-person ("I shipped", "I built")
• Specific names (Kerri, Kyle, not "my spouse", "a friend")
• Vulnerable admissions ("I was the slowest kid in gym class")

Humor Style

Dry, self-aware, observational. Not jokes - witty asides.

• Self-deprecation: "i never said it was good"
• Hyperbolic frustration: "about to mass delete my codebase and become a farmer"
• Absurd specificity: "Iteration 1,615. Every single time."

What to Avoid

Never say:

• "We're excited to announce..."
• "Leverage" (as business speak), "synergy", "move the needle"
• "Some people might say..."
• "It's possible that..."
• Adjective stacking: "really amazing incredible"

Avoid:

• Passive voice
• Corporate optimism
• Fake inclusivity ("Join us on this journey...")
• Hedging and apologetic language
• Emojis (unless truly necessary)
• Hashtags (cringe)

Closers

End with lightweight action:

• "Go make something."
• "Just press enter."
• "Let me know what you think."

Blog Location

Posts are in ~/Developer/campedersen.com/src/posts/[slug]/index.mdx

Frontmatter:

---
layout: post
title: Post Title
date: YYYY-MM-DD
slug: url-slug
---

Note: Use date +1 day to account for UTC timezone display bug.