7 Simple Steps to Write a Meaningful Article (Part 2)
Written by Naren on November 22, 2008
Continued from Part 1
4. Your intention
You should clearly know your intention behind creating the article.
- What do want to achieve through it?
- What is your message?
- What is your goal?
- Why are you writing this article? What is your voice?
All should be found in your article.
Writing is a great opportunity that allows you to bring your inner voice out, and it has a great impact in your life. You might be bored, frustrated, sad, worried, lost, ecstatic, or happy in your daily life, and you are seeking an outlet. You want to speak out to the world and share your experiences – but you are unsure, scared, or shy. Yes, writing can be a great medium to express your feelings and your emotions.
Hence, be honest and truthful. Don’t make your writing convoluted with unclear and indecipherable intentions. My goal in this article is to share with readers my own experience of writing, and how it can be enhanced to make it an effective medium to reach critical mass of people. My intention is to encourage them to utilize this wonderful tool to bring their potential to the surface and let everyone know about it. If you think you have something worthy to share with this world, then you should. You should gather your courage and start churning your creative juices. You might be hesitant in the beginning. You might be afraid of the criticism. But again, you have to take a chance, and you have to take a risk.
Isn’t it true, that: “Even a turtle has to stick its neck out.”
5. Don’t just write for an inanimate object
Yes, I am talking about the search engines like Google and Yahoo. Many writers and bloggers, instead of focusing their content toward humans, they tend to stuff keywords all through the article so that they can be found in the search engines. Some even go further and fill their content with irrelevant keywords targeted simply to attract more adsense ads. I can’t really tell how good or bad it is. But, I am opposed to this approach – because writing is my passion and something I truly care about. It is my means of living. It serves as my bread and butter. Without it, my existence would be in jeopardy. I am not implying that I have reached a point where writing is my sole income, I still have to grease my palms for my daily sustenance — but I am working hard to make it my full-time job, and I know I will achieve my goal soon. Hence, it is difficult for me to write for inanimate objects. I love writing -- how can I betray my love? My writing will always be intended towards humans, people like you and me, who are all interdependent. Because, I am confident that if my article is good, then my readers will come back to me again and again. I don’t have to depend on machines. I don’t want my creativity, and my inner voice be stepped on by some machine which has no feeling and sense whatsoever. I want my voice to be heard. I want it to be felt, observed, analyzed, and I want it to be a constructive force to motivate you towards your goal.
So it is entirely your decision, to whom your content should be directed. It is just too unethical for me to write just for the search engines. And, I am sure, if you write well, then you don’t have adopt this unethical approach – because people will come looking for you. This way you will be able to build more loyal readers who will stick with you for a long time.
6. Time and Openness for Criticism
Ok, I can easily place this under two different headings, but I feel like tying them in one, since they make much more sense together.
First, you should spend enough time to create your content. Don’t just hurry to post it. Time is a crucial factor in making your article get from good to better, and from better to excellent. Search for ideas. Find the one which appeals to you, and one that you can elaborate more fully and comfortably. Do your homework, meaning do plenty of research. Read books and note down the ideas that strike you. Read other blogs and study your target readers. Find out their need. This is why you have to spend lots of time if you really want to create an article that is meaningful and worthy. That is the pre-production phase, if I speak in movie language, and it also applies to writing. Always invest good time in pre-planning and organizing your thoughts and ideas together.
Secondly, while you are in writing phase, follow the sutras from 2 to 5 that I mentioned above. These strategies have always worked in my writing career and have never failed me from writing my own story, to critiquing films and screenplays.
Thirdly, this applies after you finished writing your article. In movie terms, it is called the post-production phase. I consider this the most important – because if your editing is not tight and top notch, then no matter how compelling your idea is, and no matter how much time you spend on weaving your content, all your efforts will prove to be futile. You have to be very serious about grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. In the blogging world, most of the readers overlook minor spelling mistakes and typos – but again strive for the best. Remember you have put your whole heart, soul and mind in it, so you cannot just let it go. If your sentences are out of order, and your paragraphs do not tie in with each other, then the readers won’t be able to draw the true intentions and message of the article. So always proofread your article several times. I wrote this article in about two and half hours, but I spent a much longer time checking for grammatical errors, and to see if things make sense. I don’t want to be over excited and post it right away. What if I do not make sense, what if I sound harsh, what if I am too verbose, what if a long serpent of typos is lurking around my sentences… This is why read, read, and read again to check for the errors.
And, always have someone read your finished article. It does not matter who. Your wife, brother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, close friends, co-workers, teammates, anyone, but find someone to proofread your hard work. They always find something, and they are always good at catching holes that you may not have seen. It’s always good to have someone critique your work.
And yes, be open to any kind of criticism. Lots of writers tend to make this big mistake throughout their career of not being able to handle criticisms well. Positive, negative – it does not matter, just accept criticism. You should be thankful at least you have someone pointing out either your shortcomings or strengths. Being a critic is a tough job. So don’t let your ego and pride ruin your writing. Remember that if people disagree with you, that means at least they are observing your materials keenly. This will give you a golden opportunity to rectify your mistakes and it will open a new door of perspective for you to look upon things. So I would rather have people not agree with me all the time, because there is a great possibility that I may be wrong. I admire the courage of those critics who are not afraid to crush your hard work in a second. It is easy to get vested and offended, but again life is not always an apple pie, you have to face bitter remarks as well – but be prepared, don’t let those negative comments affect you. Take the criticism as indicating something you can improve upon and move on. This will help you grow and enjoy the fruits of success in your future articles.
7. Title
This will be the last sutra as this post is getting long. So it’s about time I should start wrapping up before I start driving off my readers. Yes, they all say you should have a killer title. I don’t really agree with this again. I understand that your title should be catchy, and it should summarize your whole post in one line – but “killer” I don’t like it.
Drawing an example from my movie experience, and working for production companies, if you describe a movie or a script then you can be aided by the logline. A logline is usually one or two sentence and pretty much sums up the movie or script.
Similarly, a title also condenses your article in about one line. So make it catchy, striking and an attention grabber, but again, it should be relevant to your content. Don’t get too carried away by fabricating a title that has nothing to do with the content. Make your title short, sweet and to the point. A title is just like a crown on a king’s head; it should be attractive and grasping, but no so flashy that it will burn your eyes.
Final Remarks
Like I have mentioned in my article earlier, writing is a powerful medium that allows you to connect with people and the world. Not only does it let you pour out your inner feelings and emotions, but also it helps you discover your true self. If your article is great and meaningful, then it will motivate others in their personal, social and spiritual growth, and can also light a match of inner revolution in their lives. So, my request is, be honest and truthful. Your article will start take shape by itself. Remember we are interested in long lasting readers not the momentary ones.
It might take time, but again do you have the courage to be patient?
Go back to Part 1
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