You don't need to be a great writer to write great
articles, just be fast and entertaining. There is only ONE SINGLE THING
you need to know about article writing.
Tell a story.
Stories are easy to follow and interesting. Why
are the Chicken Soup for the Soul books interesting? Because they're
stories people can relate to. (I bet the most "interesting" person you
know is the one with the best stories to tell.)
With a story, there is progress for the reader and
events are locked together: this happened, then this happened, then
this happened. It's easy to skip over the stuff that wastes space.
Have you ever read a book, or watched a movie,
WITHOUT some kind of story or journey? If you did, the cover of that
book probably said something like "Dictionary," "Owner's Manual," or,
"Book of Poetry." If that was a movie, the VHS cover probably said,
"Run this in your VCR to clean the heads."
Learn to be at least a mediocre storyteller. You'd
never see a good storyteller telling a story for 5 minutes in front of
a campfire, then say, "Wait a minute, let me start over." All you need
to be a good storyteller is have a lot of practice. Write every day or
week. Write well enough so your writing doesn't require a lot of
editing, after OR during the writing process.
Write fast. If you are writing about something you
love you already know exactly how to say it. When you have something to
say, get it on paper as fast as possible and don't stop writing (or
typing) until it's done. No need to be fancy.
Do NOT write on "autopilot." Everything you write
in your article should be an answer to some sort of question. This
makes sure you are making progress instead of aimlessly adding fluff.
Get to the point.
I'm not saying every single thing you write has to
be a story full of inspiring imagery. Your stories don't even have to
be obvious. If you are doing how-to article the story part of it might
be 5% or less (Point 1, Point 2, Point 3... barely a story, but there
is still a step-by-step order).
Advice-type articles might contain 80% to 90%
story. That's because you have less to say, therefore more room to say
it, so you can tie your points in to the way the birds crash into the
water where you live, or some other hippie ramblings.
When you get to the end of your story, it's very
easy to bring it back to the beginning. Think of the one word that sums
up your entire article. Write your last couple of sentences and end on
that word. That's the so-called secret to writing material that people
will read, but at the same time can be written quickly.
This article was posted on August 12, 2005 | 
