ICON_PLACEHOLDEREstimated reading time: 4 minutes
Find yourself tapping away on your keyboard, battling to spit out those ideas into reality, as they appear in your mind? Or is your writing in a rut or are your subscribers and followers slowly declining? Here is a simplified list of the eight essential tips to understand if you would like to potentially create content that is not only engaging and successful but memorable.
Understand the medium.
You cannot expect to produce an article without learning the do and don’t of the intended medium. For example, if you are writing an online article, there are rules such as appeasing search engines. Understanding that these rules are not optional but rather necessary will guide you in your creative process. So, get learning!
Don’t oversell the story.
This has to be one of the most common mistakes with junior writers and ex-print veterans. Your intro is to tantalise and inspire curiosity, even if the article is about two trucks colliding. People are highly critical; therefore, you have only but a few words in which to captivate them. The print era produced these long-winded love letter styled intros and due to them (at the time) being the only source of media you had no choice but to read the 300-word opener. Today, as you know, everyone is competing for attention and to be able to retain a reader, do not lose them in the jargon.
Facts sell stories and the other way round.
This one is a no brainer! If you have not taken the time to capture your facts, in order of progression, then you need to crack on. This is your starting point and an intimate element of your planning process. If you want to lose credibility faster than Mark Zuckerburg fumbling answers at a privacy infringement trial, use dodgy facts and quotes. Once you have those juice facts lined up, then it just comes down too…
Grammar, I cannot stress this enough!
The world has become illiterate, controversially, in an era where education is more available than ever before in human history (food for thought). If you, as an inspiring writer, are not continually observing your shortcomings, like limited or poor grammar, and bettering it—you will battle through many hours of inevitably useless content. The art of writing is not in your “big ideas”; it is in how you present them through proper grammar.
Finish strong.
A common mistake observed are writers who have beautiful ideas and great insight. Yet, at the end of the article, they tend to rapidly conclude, leaving the reader with questions and a sense of frustration. This is a sure-fire way to lose readership, quickly. Be certain to keep people captivated until the last word so they keep coming back for more.
Don’t bulk up your content.
It is remarkably easy for a writer who is passionate about a subject to overindulge, wafting on for centuries. Based on the new age reader, keeping points concentrated and brief will serve you brilliantly and have people engrossed. Here is an exercise for you: Write your long-winded point, then summarise it, now replace mundane words with unique words—compare the two, do you get the same message, and which one is shorter? Most importantly, which one did you prefer?
You are not your reader.
Focusing exclusively on a limited range of talking points, especially when writing for the “almighty clickthrough’s” is not advisable. Diversity in your topics will see you commandeering a far greater range of people, even in a chosen field or category. I.e. If you are writing an article on a drummed out topic, search for a unique angle.
Last but not least, find the angle.
If you want to see me turn red, bring me an article without an angle. What is the point of a valued reader visiting your site or blog, all to find a factual, grammatically correct piece with no angle or hook? Purpose in media, across all mediums, is required. For example, a successful Youtuber, Instagram influencer or travel blogger, always present great “takeaways” or angles. These unique variations on trending or common topics are the backbone of their videos, posts and articles. I.e. what are you leaving people with by the end of the article which they can discuss with other humans?
Evolving your writing by having a tough skin and a hungry mind will yield great results. Writing requirements change daily; every time people change, it has to adapt—and people are continually changing. Good luck and let us know if this helped you?
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