Useful tips
How do you write a compelling explanatory note to get people to believe you?
How to draft an attractive innovation offer or offer to investors so that it is not “pushed”?
How to write a marketing sales text so that people who read it have an irresistible desire to buy the product or service advertised in this text?
How do you finally write a lengthy post, article on a website, or even a book so that readers can't stop reading it?
Content — this is how many people now call the content of any of the above materials or texts. After reading this article, you are unlikely to be able to write a bestseller right away! However, almost anyone, after studying our tips, will be able to learn how to produce readable, interesting and memorable content!
1. Read the basic principles
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Why do even the most experienced marketers enjoy tinkering with sales tables and charts all day long, but are horrified to be asked to write good sales text? Why are so many people who really have something to say so afraid to put their ideas on LiveJournal or any other blogging platform?
Most people are afraid to put their thoughts in writing because they lack a basic understanding of the basic principles of writing texts. And the reason for this is the lack of skills to express your thoughts or any other information in writing. We just rarely write — that's all!
See also: Like a chicken with a paw: how to improve your handwriting in a short time and why you need it
Therefore, before you sit down to write any voluminous content, you need to remember the basic principles of writing it. To do this, it is not necessary to take part in various general education programs or enter the philological department of some prestigious university!
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First, answer the question: are you literate enough to write a competent text? We all went through high school, so we must have a certain level of literacy at least within this educational institution. Unfortunately, as life shows, not everyone, even after graduating from specialized secondary and higher educational institutions, has the basic basics of grammar.
Grammar is not just about the absence of grammatical errors or the correct use of cases. Grammar is about knowing the principles of constructing segments of speech, sentences, paragraphs and entire texts that must be meaningful and logical.
So if you don't have these basics, then you'll have to go to the Faculty of Philology… Okay, let's not go so high! But at least you'll have to sign up for some literacy courses. And even if you are more or less good with your literacy level, it does not hurt to buy (or download on the Internet) a couple of Russian language textbooks in order to periodically refresh your memory, going back to basics.
2. Write like it's your job
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To reach certain heights in any business, you need constant practice. And writing is no exception. We did not try to discover America with this claim. We just want to say that there is no simple way that would allow you to turn from an ordinary “reasonable person” to a “writer” as soon as possible.
Even writers who, according to their contemporaries or descendants, had or have natural talent have been forced to improve their writing skills over the years. Sorry, this requires a lot more effort than writing a cool selling text or an attractive online post to drive traffic to your site!
The bottom line from all of the above is this: write constantly. This is the only way you will be able to overcome your fear of a blank sheet of paper (or a blinking cursor on the monitor screen). Even if no one reads what you write, write it anyway!
Write as if writing is your job. This approach will not only allow you to accumulate sufficient practical experience, which you lack, but also gives you the opportunity to develop your own unique style. Only practice leads to mastery! Or have you forgotten that “repetition is the mother of learning”?!
3. Read like it's your job
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Do you remember the joke about a man who really wanted to become a writer and brought his novel to the editor in order to publish it? We read the novel. It turned out to be terrible. And an editorial officer asks the “Pulitzer Prize-seeker” a question: “Did you even read what you wrote yourself?!” To which the unfortunate writer replies: “I'm not a reader! I'm a writer!”
But even if you don't plan to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, learning to express your thoughts in writing requires not only writing, but also reading a lot! This activity should be daily, because only reading on a regular basis is one of the fastest ways to quickly improve your writing skills.
You don't just need to read posts or online blogs — use a wide variety of reading material. Broaden your horizons with hard-to-read material you've never tried before. Pay attention to how authors structure sentences and paragraphs, to narrative styles; to what words and phrases they use to convey their thoughts to the reader.
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Tabloid novels or tabloid press, as well as numerous articles on social networks and blog platforms published by people suffering from bouts of graphomania against a background of low literacy, are bad help for a person who learns to write beautifully. Read more publications by well-known journalists, essays, and classical literature.
Instead of spending your free time watching another entertaining TV program, or “killing” your free half hour to chat on social networks, you should read. Read as if it were your job, your task that you can't shy away from.
4. Find a “writing buddy”
If your daily work takes place in a relatively large company, there are probably people among your colleagues who are excellent at expressing their thoughts in writing form. Or colleagues who, like you, are willing to work hard to improve their writing skills.
And while improving these very skills requires significant individual effort, even the most advanced writers and journalists know how important it is to evaluate them creativity. It is no coincidence that not only writers themselves, but also their critics have always become widely known among writers, many of whom, however, were also no stranger to writing tendencies.
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Ask your colleagues or friends to rate your work at least once in a while. Let them take the time to look at your article or essay with one eye. It is possible that an outside observer will be able to detect errors that you missed when checking your work yourself.
And if you have such people, give them the opportunity to get acquainted with your work before presenting it to the general public. Finding such people is crucial, as constant interaction with them is a necessary step in order for you to improve as a writer (no matter how loud that sounds!).
5. Find courses or interest groups
A lot of people don't like criticism very much. It is one thing to bring your writing pearls to the public on the Internet, where this criticism, so to speak, is not personalized, that is, it does not have a specific face. It's another matter when you're standing in front of a relatively large audience that's going through your next piece of writing.
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However, this approach is extremely useful for anyone developing or improving their ability to write good texts. And if you're serious about succeeding as a “quality content producer,” it's highly recommended that you look for courses or writing lessons. If you have time to attend events like this, don't hesitate!
In addition to benefits, such a pastime can be a lot of fun — after all, it is a real hobby club. Moreover, now you can find highly specialized courses designed, for example, specifically for marketers who want to learn how to write high-quality selling texts.
In such courses, no one forces you to get your unfinished novel out of your back in order to open your soul to strangers, and then wait for harsh criticism. It's usually a good idea to choose a topic, write an essay on it, present it to a group, and then listen to other people's views on what they think went well and what didn't. A very useful activity!
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If you are not particularly attracted to the idea of live communication (for example, you are not a fan of big companies, or you simply do not have enough time for such a pastime), it makes sense to look for similar ones interest groups on various social networks or search for sites that display relevant public pages.
Sign up, join the group, and then submit your texts to the public. Be ready for criticism! If you are a very impressionable person who is sensitive to any criticism, it makes sense to publish your small works anonymously or under some pseudonym.
Just immediately choose a sonorous fictional name — what if you like your works so much that you will immediately become famous? Akhmatova and Lyapis-Trubetskoy are already busy, keep in mind!
6. Analyze and imitate your favorite works by other authors
Why do many people subscribe to writing groups and other resources where they have the opportunity to constantly get acquainted with various thematic (sometimes just entertaining) content? The answer is simple — people like to read when it's interesting. However, many readers rarely think about why such publications may be of constant interest to them.
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Do you have a resource that you often love to read? Find a post you particularly like, then print it out. Imagine you're a famous critic. But the critic is kind! Pick up a pen with red paste and re-read the text again, emphasizing the sentences or phrases you particularly liked. It could even be whole paragraphs.
Then try to analyze each of the underlined passages, trying to understand what exactly you like about them. Find connections between these passages—in style, in the manner of presentation, or whatever. Do they have anything in common? Something that actually made you like them so much?
Also note what tools authors use to keep readers focused on certain fragments; how they reveal the main idea of a fragment , how different fragments, sentences or paragraphs are linked within the same text. And if you were able to identify certain author's moves, use them in your texts as well.
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Just let's make a reservation right away: imitating an author's style is not at all the same as plagiarism! Plagiarizing is bad. And why not to imitate the style of well-known authorities and masters of writing? After all, many writers became the founders of certain styles, which gained worldwide popularity. And these styles have already been used by other generations of writers.
Since you have a selection of blogs and public pages that are interesting to you personally, you probably have appropriate preferences for certain authors that you read on a regular basis. After analyzing the works of these authors you like, you can identify certain features by using them in your content.
Did you like the humor with which one of the authors narrates his story? Use similar humor. Did you like another author's style? Take this style into service. Does the third author's aggressive and immediately captivating approach attract the reader's attention? Try writing the same way.
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Almost any aspiring writer who takes only his first cautious steps in this difficult field willingly or unwittingly copies various features of other authors who have usually gained in well-deserved popularity among readers. Subsequently, many young authors develop their own style, but a sophisticated critic (or even a reader) often guesses the influence of one of their great predecessors in this style.
7. Do you have a plan?
Without a plan, starting to write a serious text (even if it's not very voluminous) is like stepping into the water without knowing the ford. It is the lack of a plan that sometimes leads to the fact that the author stays in a stupor for a long time, looking at a blank sheet of paper (or at a blank page on the monitor screen), without having the slightest idea , where to actually start.
But this is not just an outline for an article or essay! This is your battle plan, which will determine how successful this battle will be — whether you win it or fail. Very few authors (even not very popular authors) even start writing anything without making a plan for the future of the work, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
Dina Belenko/Dina Belenko
Are you having trouble with the plan? You should never try to immediately draw up a well-thought-out and detailed plan of what you want to write about. Because at the initial stage, you need not so much the plan itself as its outline, a sketch of the plan in general details. This should be a simple construction that initially gives you an idea of approximately how many sections your text will have, and in what order they will be presented.
It is also necessary to make a few sketches for each section (just a couple of suggestions about what exactly will be in this section). If you see that the planned section (item or chapter) is quite voluminous, then such a section should have unique subsections, sub-items, and so on.
It often happens that the scope of one section is too narrow for the topic you wanted to cover in it. Then you have to revise the plan structure as you work on the content — and that's okay! Either way, you should have a plan. A plan is your roadmap that you leave before you travel; a route for your car's navigator.
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Once you get lost, you can always go back to your plan by slightly changing some of its points. However, all of the above will only be of abstract use, unless we give a concrete example. Let's imagine that you need to write a short essay or text for an Internet public, say, about the benefits of healthy eating.
Here's one plan option:
Introduction
A brief idea of the post, its main idea or, if you prefer, the problem you are addressing the reader. In this section, it is appropriate to ask the reader some questions that he will receive answers to later — for example, why should you eat right? How to do this and stuff like that.
Section 1, 2 and so on
In the sections (their number depends on the complexity of the material and your task), you need to develop the main idea, give the reader all the necessary details and answer the questions posed; argue your answers by giving a number of examples, links to research, etc.
Conclusion
In this section, it is necessary to summarize the article, draw appropriate conclusions, and so on.
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This is just one example of what plan the author should start from to develop this topic. However, much depends not only on the author's personality, but also on the following two factors:
· academic nature of the topic;
· Who exactly this topic is for.
The above plan looks universal for this topic. You can use it to write a simple entertaining article that you plan to publish on some popular informational (or even popular science!) resource. On the basis of this plan, you can also write a serious scientific article, diluting it with scientific facts, research results, and so on.
As you can see, even with the same plan structure (at least at the initial stage), you can get articles for different readership. If the topic is quite specific, intended, let's say, for a narrow circle, then the presentation of the material should be convenient for such readers. For example, people with an academic mindset also require academic presentation.
Housewives (with all due respect) are unlikely to read an article overloaded with scientific terms!
8. Edit your work mercilessly!
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Let's say you're eating every single day (or at least you're doing it fairly regularly). And you're sure, figuratively speaking, you're getting high-quality content that many people like. This is great, I can only congratulate you. But it's too early to relax: at this stage, you should have the toughest critic possible — and that critic should be yourself.
Editing in and of itself is important, but not an easy task that every aspiring author should master. After all, the author is the very person who puts maximum time, effort and, if you like, part of his soul into each of his works (even if it's an ordinary post on the Internet).
However, this is not always the case. For example, most posts and articles on the Internet are simply rewritten by authors. However, even in this case, the author himself is required to take a cold and unbiased look at the final product.
The approach to criticizing a particular text depends primarily on the topic of the content. Let's take, for example, some selling text. Examine it for so-called parasitic words. If any, get rid of them mercilessly. The marketing language usually hates lyrics, so appreciate how quickly you got to the point in your article.
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Do you think that a sentence (or an entire paragraph) wasn't particularly convincing? Don't hesitate — most likely it really is! Be tough on yourself and your creativity. If you need to delete a passage
or rework it, do it. The more you pay attention to editing the text, the more likely it is that the result will meet your wildest expectations.
9. Be prepared for the first version of the text to fail
It seems so easy to become a good blogger or even a writer! Sit down at the table and rivet your texts without straining. Agree, after reading some very successful material that readers can easily “read”, you get the feeling that your favorite author also did not make much effort to give this text.
Maybe he even wrote it somewhere in a cozy cafe, while having a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, often taking a break from work to enjoy the view outside the window, watch passers-by, enjoy the atmosphere…
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No! You can rest assured for a second that the publication of any lengthy article that aroused the sympathy of many readers was completely different! Therefore, be prepared for the fact that you will also need to make a serious effort to produce the perfect text that attracts the audience's attention. And this will require you to work through the material more than once!
Yes, the first version of the text is almost always unsuccessful; you should be prepared for this. But you should not self-blame, “burn manuscripts” and blame yourself for not getting a masterpiece on the first try. It is quite possible that this raw and unsuccessful material hides a gem that you just need to free from its hardened shell.
So keep trusting your thoughts and ideas to paper (or some text program) so you can go back to the beginning of the story and clean it up mercilessly. Don't be embarrassed by poor initial results. Writing an article is a repetitive process. And even the best writers spend a lot of time reworking the same finished material several times until they're satisfied with the end result.
10. Find yourself a proofreader
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This point is optional because you are unlikely to need a proofreader if you are simply publishing your thoughts to a narrow audience on LiveJournal or on VKontakte pages. If you have already achieved a lot in writing and are not going to stop there — for example, you are developing a vibrant career as a content manager (a kind of web writer), then you are a proofreader is needed. And not just any one, but a very good one.
However, a good proofreader is not one that simply corrects your mistakes (including stylistic ones, of course). A good proofreader is one that will show you why your chosen style should be replaced by another one, why this phrase is not suitable for this article, how best to link paragraphs, and will also point out other errors.
Alas, not everyone can afford to hire a proofreader, let alone choose an experienced specialist for this job, who guarantees his customer to improve his work writing skills. On the other hand, even if you're just writing for a blog, but you're doing it on an ongoing basis and aiming to monetize this activity, find a Russian school teacher a language that would adjust your creativity.
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Working actively with a proofreader is a great way to significantly improve your writing skills. A proofreader is a critic and a reader rolled into one (and even a co-author in some cases!). However, it can be “painful” to work closely with a proofreader, because every writer thinks he is an unrecognized genius, so it is extremely difficult to agree to edit his texts.
If you are sensitive to such adjustments, you can give the following advice: if you want to gain public recognition as a creative and brilliant author, grow yourself thick skin. Because it will be tested for strength every single day by critics and readers. So let your own proofreader do it first!
11. Avoid unnecessary words
One of the common mistakes made by many aspiring authors (and not just beginners!) consists in trying to draft proposals that are too complex. Some people think that such texts, overloaded with complex sentences, “sound” more authoritative. In fact, there is nothing wrong with long and complex sentences, but their use must be justified in some way.
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In addition, in many cases, the use of short and succinct phrases can make a stronger impression on the reader than utterly inflated expressions. Emerging writers are often given an example of a story associated with Hemingway. Allegedly, the famous writer wrote his shortest story during a dispute, which can make an indelible impression on the reader.
Actually, this is the whole story: “Children's boots for sale, unworn.” As you can imagine, this is a hint that the child never wore these boots because some misfortune happened to him. Whether Hemingway wrote this “story” or not is not the point. The only important thing is that this story demonstrates how much influence you can have on a person even with the shortest sentences and paragraphs.
There are fans of long and lengthy judgments; complex phrases with ornate participatory and participatory phrases, and numerous punctuation marks have the right to life. However, to put it simply, we should make it easier. But when you develop your own style that has an army of fans (like Viktor Pelevin, who is sometimes called a “graphomaniac”), then you can afford to be “naughty” , using the most complex phrases of the Russian language.
12. Reread your early texts
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There can be no question of any narcissism! On the contrary: rereading your early texts is a painful torture for any adequate author who is successful in writing. Even if you're an ordinary marketer who is constantly forced to write sales texts yourself, you're unlikely to enjoy reading your old marketing pearls.
Why read them then, you ask, unless for the sake of masochistic sensations? The answer is simple — so that you can see for yourself how you have improved your writing skills and advanced in this field.
After all, any activity (including writing, even if ordinary posts on social networks) should be carried out with pleasure (ideally, of course). What can you enjoy? To see that your article came to the front page of the Internet for specific requests? Or will you be incredibly happy if your publication suddenly appears on the pages of an authoritative publication with a worldwide reputation?
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But this will never happen to the vast majority of beginners and even advanced authors! Is there no reason to be happy and proud? Open your old articles and read them. They are the best way to show you how far you are in your writing career. Reread and enjoy the fact that you're growing—there's nothing wrong with that!
In general, sometimes it makes sense to stop being shy and praise yourself (just don't do it too often!).
13. Don't be afraid to speak your mind
Reading most of the content posted online is incredibly boring. Because the content itself is boring and monotonous. The reason is obvious: most bloggers and article writers simply rewrite the same news without bothering to dilute it with their own thoughts and judgments (let alone spend it) some own research on the topic!).
Of course, there are specific situations (or rather specific topics) when you should be extremely careful to express your own opinion. Otherwise, you may be subject to certain laws (for example, a law that makes your statements defamatory; or a law that punishes insults to feelings believers, and so on).
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However, let us repeat — these are special cases. In general, if you express your own opinion supported by some weighty arguments, your publication will benefit from this.
And if you've already “voted” by publishing your own content on the Internet, feel free to share your own opinion. Such articles and posts are of great interest to readers. Don't be afraid that this opinion will be criticized by a certain part of your readership! Rest assured that there will probably be quite a few people among your readers who share your point of view and support you.
In other words, you don't need to purposefully “shove” your opinion into every paragraph, but when publishing your next post, make sure you're really trying to convey something valuable to your audience from you personally!
14. Do your own research
What's so interesting about plagiarizing, retelling other people's texts in your own words? Do not expect that such tactics will lead to the accumulation of a large readership.
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This is why many authors of online publications (not to mention serious print publications) are trying to add more facts to the existing articles they reprint. However, this tactic does not always bear fruit, since the new article is published with a lot of unproven and unfounded arguments. Laziness, unwillingness to waste time, lack of control, and so on prevent proving and justifying.
If you work for a self-respecting publishing house, this practice can lead to conflict with your superiors, or cause criticism from the editor, proofreader, content manager, and etc. If no one manages your publications, then there is no one to punish you.
However, in this case, your articles will look like amateur articles!
Of course, every author can make a mistake by publishing unverified information, figures, or other data. Plus, double-checking some statistics, dates, laws, and other controversial content can take a lot of time! But even if you're running out of time… Consult several sources to then publish at least some justification for the data you've decided to add to someone else's article!
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On the one hand, it has become much easier to conduct your own research of the material, since a large amount of information is freely available on the Internet. On the other hand, information junk “pops up” on the front pages of search engines, containing a minimum of facts, but a maximum of scandalous and shocking information that has nothing to do with reality.
Moreover, you should not fully rely on the most obvious sources of information (for example, only Wikipedia) in your research. To make readers interested in your publication, spend a certain amount of time looking for concrete evidence for the facts you want to dilute someone else's material with.
15. Remember: it's better to do a job than to perfect it all the time
Any author should have time to write an article, check it more than once; make sure that the story is logical, in compliance with all grammatical norms and rules; and if there is a need to make appropriate adjustments.
However, this does not mean that you should spend a lot of time on one article, perfecting it!
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Of course, it all depends on the level of payment and the requirements for you and your work from the customer or your management. Some well-known journalists, writers or political scientists may be offered such a fee for one article that it is a sin not to “lick” it as long and thoroughly as possible. But as you know, there is no limit to perfection!
Therefore, realize that there is no fully perfect reading. Realize and stop — just choose the right moment in time when you need to say “stop” to yourself
and no longer perfect your literary masterpiece. By the way, aspiring writers, content managers and bloggers are not the only ones who sin by spending too much time improving each of their works.
Read also: Entertainment test: how perfectionist are you?
This is also true for relatively experienced authors. The reason is simple: as you gain writing experience, you become more confident in your work. But, as you know, the higher you fly, the more painful it is to fall. Therefore, with experience and popularity also comes responsibility; there is a fear of “falling painfully” and therefore you look at each of your work almost under a microscope.
Never forget that every job must be brought to its logical conclusion. This is more correct and logical than endlessly perfecting it!