If you can learn to write by leading your reader and holding his hand through the work - you can become better than you ever thought you could be.
Writing is one of those skills that everybody can do, but not many can master. If you broke it up into a chart you would have those who can’t being a very small percentage of the pie, those who have mastered it being another slightly larger pie piece and then those who are “somewhere in the middle” taking the rest of the cake pie.
Writing Tips to Help You Lead the Reader
If you master one skill though I can promise you that your own personal writing will improve. You must learn to lead, now what does that mean?
- Break things into chunks, with each chunk or paragraph being a new topic or idea. I always cringe when I see somebody asking my opinion on something that have written and it is a three page article that is all in one single paragraph.
- Don’t be afraid to add sub-headlines to your work. It works great to help those who just scan their articles first for information to find exactly what they are looking for.
- One thing I remember from my middle school and high school journalism classes was to write with message or idea, then follow it up with a quote. Then you give more of the story - followed by a quote. This is another way to fill up an uninteresting drabfest and make it more captivating. No mater what you think, we all want to hear what others have to say about something and that gives the reader instant gratification.
- Don’t let yourself be intimidated by other’s work. Let us say you read a great article by a great writer and your first thought is, “I could never do that”. Take this as a learning experience instead, read it again and keep this message in the back of your head, “How could I do something like this?”
So next time you start writing your opinion, want to share a suggestion or have the urge to rant about your passion don’t be afraid to spruce up your work with a few of these suggestions.
