Resources - Newsletter Tips Archive
10 Steps to Creative (and Organized) Article Writing
You're writing an article, and you're filled with creative ideas. Critical sound bites and persuasive details are ricocheting around your brain. But you're having difficulty (just a little) making all this great material follow a logical path, and you're stuck. How do you ensure your innovation comes across as logical, intelligent and compelling? Here's how: Let the right side of your brain do the creative heavy lifting first, then rein in all that creativity with your logical left side. Together, they can help you write exactly the article you envision.
To help you stay on task, try following this 10-point checklist:
- Review and highlight any research notes you have. Mull them over a bit, digest them, then perhaps go on to another task and let your subconscious do its job. This could take minutes, hours, days—only you will know when you're ready.
- Once your subconscious has finished, come up for air. During the mulling, did any brilliant light bulbs appear? Did one thought lead to another, or any breakthroughs surface that you can't live without? If so, add them to your list of notes.
- Determine your most important points; what stays at the forefront, and what can be left behind? If there's a point on the fence, put it in the "delete" pile for now. Come back to it only if you need more material.
- Is there a single, dominant idea that seems to overshadow the others? Usually one idea will stand above to serve as an umbrella. This is your theme. (Your theme will further help you decide which points to keep and which to discard). The revelation of your theme may also put you at a crossroads, taking you down a road you didn't originally mean to follow. Unless your article topic has been assigned specifically, just go with it.
- Order your points in a way that makes sense (but don't stress about it, as this can all change later if necessary). Try putting your theme or main point in the first paragraph, with supporting points flowing from there. If this doesn't work, consider building your article the opposite way, with each of your discussion points leading up to your overall theme. Different topics call for different methods.
- Round out your paragraphs with your own personal style. Stay on point, but have fun with it—let your creativity take over.
- If the article's a factual piece, check that you've covered the five W's—who, what, when, where and why. Not all articles will need all five W's, but if you have them, use them.
- Now, it's time for author review. Does your article flow? If not, now is the time to move paragraphs, sentences, etc., making sure your reader is logically guided from one idea to the next. If your article sounds choppy, rearrange some things or add necessary transitions as you go.
- Study the article from your reader's perspective. Is it conversational? Persuasive, yet easy to comprehend? Do your points hit home? If action is required, is the call to action obvious? If not, edit and revise before you settle on the final version.
That said, no article will EVER be perfect to an author's eye, so don't agonize, and don't forget the most important step of all— - Know when to quit.
