Writing tips for blogging, by Eric Nehrlich
There is no right and wrong - these are just some things that have worked for me over the past five years that I have been blogging.
General tips:
- Ira glass quote – “In the beginning, it's not too good. And your taste tells you it's not good. We know if it falls short.” Have to keep trying.
- When somebody gets to your blog, you have 30 seconds to convince them to stick around. Don’t waste it.
- Authenticity. Find your own voice. Why are you blogging? Story of chef from In Abbondanza who took writing classes which made his writing worse because he started to think about the writing rather than the food.
- Topic sentences – not just for school. Makes it easier to skim as people can read the first line of a paragraph and get the gist of it.
- Lists. If you are listing things, do a list, not a paragraph – it’s easier to read.
- Rewrite. Edit. Spell check. Grammar check. Try to cut out one third of the words. Delete sentences if they are repetitive. Delete paragraphs that aren’t working. Leave it overnight and read it again before posting in the morning.
Learn from journalists: Inverted pyramid – big idea in first paragraph, fill it out over next few, details towards the end. That way people get the idea no matter where they stop reading.
Learn from story tellers: Mystery novels start with the murder. We want to find out whodunit, so we stick around to the end of the post.
Learn from marketers: Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete, Emotional, Stories – “For instance, one health organization was trying to convey how unhealthy movie popcorn popped in coconut oil was. It contained 37g of saturated fat, nearly double the recommended daily allowance. But movie-goers weren’t interested in statistics. So they did an ad where they said that the saturated fat content of the bag of popcorn “contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings - combined!” Illustrated with a picture of all of those meals together, the advertising campaign had a definitive impact.”
