WRITING
If I Were to (Re-)Start As an Article Writer Today, These Are the 3 Things I Would Do
How to Be the Metalhead at the Queen Bee’s Birthday Party
Pen at the ready, keyboard at the fingertips, it’s time to embark on a wild writing adventure! If you’re itching to dive into the world of article writing, then you’ve come to the right place. With the digital landscape constantly evolving, there’s never been a better time to start.
Before I start, let me tell you the four most clichéd words that I could ever use, but I need them to start this: Writing is an art. Be it article writing, book writing, or short story/poem writing, one needs to learn how to have their way with words before starting to write for an audience publicly.
Now, writing online on any platform is not as easy as it seems. I started writing online about two and a half years ago, and it has been a rollercoaster ride for me.
I have changed how I write, how I present my thoughts and the platforms where I write regularly more than fifty times in the past two years. It has been quite the experience, and I expect no less for any new writer trying to make it on their own in this wild, unruly jungle of content.
Before I get to the crux of the issue, I wanted to clarify one small thing that I know most new writers will hear and be told to do. Sure, you can churn out articles every day, write about five mini blogs and post them throughout the day, but that won’t help you grow your audience. In this age of excess information and small attention spans, your writing needs to be something that catches your attention. Not even good, but something that sticks out like a sore thumb and lures people to click on it.
There are a ton of article writers on the internet, and you need to stand out more than a metalhead at the queen bee’s flamingo pink-themed birthday party to get a viewership for your writing.
It’s difficult to earn your keep as a new writer. Lucky for you, I wrote this article to help you with that.
So, without further ado, here are some pointers on how to master the art of writing articles online before you hit the “PUBLISH” button-
1. Learn the Art of Article Writing Before You Start
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started writing online was that I was clueless about article writing.
I thought that reading novels by legendary authors and other books that were 800 pages long was all I needed to learn how to write articles and posts on social media platforms.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
New writers need to understand that article writing and book writing are two opposite sides of the coin. If you think that you can learn how to write posts and articles just by reading books and knowing how to write, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Article writing is a whole other game. When I first started writing articles, I published them in a magazine called The Teen Magazine. The problem with some of my earliest articles was that my paragraphs were so gigantic that it felt like one was reading a research paper.
Trust me, people scrolling on Twitter and Medium do not have the attention span to read colossal paragraphs.
When I realised that I was failing in grabbing people’s attention, I decided to research how to write hooking articles.
The three main points on hooking your readers into reading the whole sh*t are:
1. Craft a Catchy Headline
People love numbers, words like “Wisdom” and “Secret”, and questions. Try crafting your headlines in a way that exposes the beginning and the ending, but keep the middle a secret. That way, the reader will be intrigued to know what happened at the heart of the story (article).
The other way you can hook people is by being super vague. I have an article that has the headline “The Right to Write”, and it is one of my best-performing articles (on this platform at least). Human beings are busybodies by nature, and we love poking our noses in places that seem to be a secret from us, so why not use that inquisitiveness to your advantage? :)
Even if now you aren’t able to craft a great headline, I have the best gift for you (Thank me now, I don’t believe in promises.)
I came across a template (the title of this article is from that template) by one of my favourite writers, Lipika Sahu. It’s one of the best headline templates I’ve come across, and no, it’s not cheating to use premade templates for your headlines. All writers recycle their best headlines because nobody can remake the formula into viral headlines again and again. That’s why if a headline works, you should stick to it.
By the way, you can grab Lipika’s amazing “17 Headline Templates That Will Turn Your Stories From Ordinary To Extraordinary” PDF from here: https://bit.ly/3FlRl6r
2. Read, Read, and Read Some More
Read articles by established writers on platforms like Medium and Quora. Article writing is very different from book writing. You need to read articles before writing your own.
Try to emulate the writing styles of article authors you liked, but only at the start of your writing career. This will help you in forming your style.
Trying to write like my favourite writers helped me develop my style, where I try to add sarcastic humour, emojis and references to my favourite fictional characters because I am socially awkward and don’t like to communicate with human beings in real life (🤷🏽).
If you want to learn from the best on Medium (and other platforms), here are some writers whose work I love, and who write in the best way imaginable:
Lipika Sahu (Writing Tips, Productivity)
Lucas Dawn (Side Hustles, Writing Tips, Personal Stories)
Vritant Kumar (Writing Tips, Books, Personal Stories)
Jeeva (He writes more on LinkedIn than Medium, but he has some long form articles on this platform too. If you want to read some of his best work, head over to his LI: https://bit.ly/3DEHaZc)
Hazel Paradise (Writing Tips, Writing Software, Publications to Write For)
3. Keep it Short (With the Paras)
People scrolling down on a social media platform have the attention span of Joey from FRIENDS on steroids. They do not have the mindshare to read a research paper’s worth of stuff in one sitting.
Mind you, they will read more than a research paper’s worth of information on their two hour deep dive into Twitter, but you need to give them the impression that they are reading extremely helpful titbits that took them five minutes to read and gave them five years of knowledge.
That is the reason you keep your paragraphs as short as possible. Short paras give the impression of giving information in the shortest time possible, and that is what the populace wants!
Limit yourself to three or four sentences per paragraph, two or three if they are long ones. That will keep the reader hooked to read further, and help you accelerate through the stages of getting viewership on your articles :)
2. Add Spice to the Spruce
I have noticed that new writers love to start putting writing in a polished, bland tone. I have committed this crime myself. We think that we need to be formal, and write big paragraphs in a black “Times New Roman” font (A.K.A, the most formal font to ever font) on a white page to be taken seriously as a writer.
Random writer, who I believe has lost it if you are taking advice from, if you are reading this, I know you feel that you need to add big words like “quintessence” or ”defenestration” in your writing, but you are wrong about that.
Writing doesn’t need to be drab, or exceedingly sophisticated to be liked. You can be yourself and still have a dedicated group of readers who like your work and want to genuinely read your thoughts.
So go change up the font, use your favourite quotes, or do a full 360 and change the colour of the background page to bright pink.
BE THE PICASSO OF THE WRITTEN WORD THAT YOU ARE MEANT TO BE.
Don’t just keep on writing blandly. Add some pizzazz to your writing! Make it stand out. Use various styles to highlight words, bold them, italicise them, put their quotes, and do anything to make them look not so neat.
Take writing like it’s a fun game!
Fun formatting tip: Itacilised small ‘z’ looks cool on Medium. Check it out:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
AH, I’m sorry.
3. Don’t Wait Until You Know Who You Are to Get Started.
Many young writers believe that in order to be taken seriously as a writer, you must “make it.”
But what exactly does it mean to make it?
We should get going right away, and that is the way one should approach any new career or hobby.
We must fake it until we make it.
Nobody is a brilliant writer from the beginning.
You must first think you are a great writer before you can become one.
Begin by imitating all those pen-pushers you admire.
Then go deeper.
What factors influenced the way they wrote?
Why did they make the decisions they made?
What things can you pick up from them to use in your own work?
Once you’ve begun to answer these questions and have created an understanding of what these writers were attempting to achieve, expand on their concepts.
Increase your influence on your work.
Combine and contrast ideas.
Develop and hone your personal style until it is undeniably yours.
So, there you go!
Promise me this will be the last how to write online article you read. God knows how many hours you have spent not writing but trying to figure out how to write (🤦🏽).
So, buckle up your laptop and grab a cup of inspiration because it’s time to dive into the world of writing :)
Let the words flow through you, and who knows, you may just surprise yourself with how far your writing can take you!
Happy writing 🙃
Since we are on the topic of writing, here are some posts (written by yours truly) to help you with your writing journey and provide you with some motivation along the way:
