8 Things You Need to Know When Beginning Writing
A powerful and proven guide for writing your first blog post
I recently took a course with Starshine Roshell on writing blog posts. Starshine Roshell is a storyteller, an award-winning journalist, and a writing coach. She writes on her own website and also teaches on LinkedIn Learning.
I followed her guidelines on writing a blog post, and I got my next article curated on Medium.
In this blog post, I am sharing what I learned from her course and how it made a difference in my own way of writing.
As a beginner blogger, there is a lot to learn. However, all is learnable and usable. There is no rocket science in writing. All that writing needs is your willpower to continue on learning how to write. With that mindset, I set out on writing for the internet by taking a course on writing with Starshine Roshell. In this listicle, I intend to share what I learned from her course.
The Why question
The first thing one must consider when starting a writing journey is the WHY question. What is your purpose in writing for others? Not for you, we know it might be a source of income for you, but what is in it for others, your readers?
In that, you might want to write something that readers may want or need. This may include to inform, to educate, or to challenge them. Maybe you want to move them to action or to humor and make them laugh. Or you might want to solve their problem(s), help them achieve a goal, or understand a complex issue.
Write what you know
In order to do that, you will need to write what you know, and show readers how and why you’re an expert on the topic. How-tos, explainers, and handy listicles are a great way to show off your knowledge. As a writer, you will need to double-check your facts, be able to use premises to make a claim and back up your claim by providing evidence, and cite any sources for any information you obtained elsewhere.
Length
Another thing I learned in the course was the length of blog posts. Writers should make the assumption that their readers are in a hurry and give them what they came for. Therefore, it is always wise to write short, to avoid repetitions, and to save off-topic ideas for other writing pieces and blog posts.
Starshine Roshell categorizes post length as follows:
- Short posts of 300 words are more likely to get readers to the end, click links, and generate comments
- Long posts of 1,000 to 1,500 words get shared more on social media
- Posts of more than 2,500 words rank higher in search engines
Writer's voice
Blog writers need to make the effort to unify voice through various types of writings. As a writer, you can set yourself apart from others by striving to develop your own unique voice that is recognizable by your readers. This can be achieved by reading other blogs and practicing writing in different forms and voices.
Publishing ethics
Blog writers need to seriously consider publishing ethics issues. Truth, accuracy, fairness, and independence are topics that require serious thoughts before hitting the publish button.
Call to action
Always include a CTA. A call to action. This is mostly done at the end of your writings by using links and invitations or asking a question at the end to invite comments. A CTA boosts engagement.
Dealing with negative comments
Writing is a form of communication with others, and hence it is prone to disagreements, rejections, and argumentations. Some times in a negative form. Therefore, as a writer, you need to remember that negative comments come from people who just like being rude. So, be open to that and take your time before answering any of them if you decide to provide one. However, legitimate comments may inform you when you’ve erred.
Some more tips
Some quick tips that help blog posts more compelling are
- Including photos or videos in your posts
- Using lists, or bullet points. Otherwise called listicles.
- Including subheading, and subtitles.
- Writing in conversation style, and on subjects that draw you into conversations with strangers.
- Writing about things you are passionate about and makes you put passion in it. This will draw more readers.
Keep on writing…
Do not leave before you read these five useful tools on how to make your writing more credible and may save you from publishing ethics issues.
Credit is due when it is due. So I thank Starshine Roshell for the course. Following these guidelines helped me write an article afterward that got curated on Medium for writing.
