Write like a blogger
You can improve your writing (your business writing, your ad writing, your thank you notes and your essays) if you start thinking like a blogger:
- Use headlines. I use them all the time now. Not just
boring ones that announce your purpose (like the one on this post) but
interesting or puzzling or engaging headlines. Headlines are perfect
for engaging busy readers.- Realize that people have choices. With 80 million other
blogs to choose from, I know you could leave at any moment (see, there
goes someone now). So that makes blog writing shorter and faster and
more exciting.- Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don't have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.
- It's okay if you leave. Bloggers aren't afraid to include links or distractions in their writing, because we know you'll come back if what we had to say was interesting.
- Interactivity is a great shortcut. Your readers care about
someone's opinion even more than yours... their own. So reading your
email or your comments or your trackbacks (your choice) makes it easy
to stay relevant.- Gimmicks aren't as useful as insight. If you're going to
blog successfully for months or years, sooner or later you need to
actually say something. Same goes for your writing.- Don't be afraid of lists. People like lists.
- Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
- Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish.
What would happen if every single high school student had to have a
blog? Or every employee in your company? Or every one of your
customers?
a conversation on ministry, technology, running, entertainment, and life in general designed to inform, inspire, and entertain
Monday, April 7, 2008
Seth shares how to write like a blogger
In addition to being a youth pastor, one of my first passions is writing. Seth Godin has a great blog post that I thought was very interesting and a wonderful way of spicing up any writing. I was going to just quote part, but one of the geniuses of his blog posts is that they are so short and easy to read but hard to distill any more than they already are. Plus I hate having to jump to something when I'm trying to read a blog, so here's the whole thing. If you like it, you will want to check out his blog regularly. Great stuff.
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