See How Other Writers’ Advice Works for You

Starting out as a writer, you may be looking for something solid to grab hold of in the vague world of your craft. What makes good writing good?Since writing is an arts, answers to this question vary just as each of us is unique. There’s a set of advice you can benefit from: after all, many many content pieces have been written and read before yours.So let’s listen to the strategies of other writers, and then decide if we want to take them on board or not. Even in the case of the latter, knowing what you don’t want is a step towards your goal: to deliver captivating content the world needs.

How Do I Tell My Story?

We humans love stories.

Everybody loves a good story. Whether it’s an ancient text like Beowulf or the story you tell your friends about the day you missed your flight to Cape Town, there’s nothing quite as engaging as a cracking good yarn.

Above question includes a set of important questions:

• Whose story are you telling?
• Why are you telling your story?
• Who are you telling your story to?
• Who is the hero of your story?
• What is the story about?

Many articles out there have it that the ‘hero narrative’ helps you to answer all this questions through your content. The ‘hero narrative’ is based on each story having a hero, a plot, an action and a resolution.In terms of content marketing, this means that the hero in the story is your customer/reader, and not your product/service. The product/service is the magic tool helping the story’s hero to reach his/her goal. Since everyone wants to be a hero, your content may make readers happy, if you follow this strategy.If you want to go deeper into that, check out various opinions on this topic:

1. https://www.narrativemedia.co.za/2017/09/18/whos-hero-story/

This helps you understand the hero narrative better.

1. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/21/fiction.features:

This is about a book claiming that there are the two master narratives (inspirational and cautionary) comedy and tragedy encompassing a number of basic story plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and Rebirth.I’d be happy to hear your comments on this!

• Do you include the hero narrative in your writing?
• What was your experience with it?
• Why does or doesn’t it make sense to you?

How Do I Find My Story’s Why?

To answer this question, Simon Sinek may be the right person to ask. Why is the Why important? To understand that, take the time to watch this video or read its transcript.When you write content, you most probably start with the question: Who do I write it to/for? And chances are that you have already clearly defined your target group by making up a persona.Once you have that, you will be able to answer the following decisive questions by putting yourself into the shoes of your persona (let’s call her Jane Doe):

• When was the last time, Jane felt proud of herself in her quest for reaching your story’s goal? Find 3 relevant stories. IMPORTANT: go into detail: money is not a goal, only a result; each story must evoke an emotion in Jane Doe. EXAMPLE: Your article is about using XY dental floss. Jane was proud, when she used XY dental floss and as a result got a compliment from her friends. After struggling for a long time to find dental floss that works for her, she recommended XY dental floss to her friends who also were happy to get compliments on their clean teeth — and on top of that, their self-confidence increased.
• In each story, what exactly was Jane’s direct contribution to the life of someone else? IMPORTANT: Don’t focus on adjectives, but verbs/action words. EXAMPLE: Jane and her friends are happier and healthier now. They are more respected/gained self-confidence.
• What was the effect/consequence/impact of each contribution? EXAMPLE: After having been single for a while, Jane is dating someone again. Her teeth condition made this difficult earlier. A lot of her days are now happier than before.

The next step in your quest for the story’s Why is the Why statement — fill in the blanks: Jane ______ (contribution), so that ______ (impact). Form several statements and then filter out, what Jane (persona=hero=client=reader) is about. That leads you also to what your story is about.After that, think it over: How did Jane make her impact? That’s the same way, your story hero will make his/her impact. Please note, that for reasons of convenience I will only use the ‘he’ form from now. This helps you here: Jane impacted others by _______ing _______.Last, but not least, let’s make clear what Jane does/has done in your story. So now that you built your Why-How-What plan, you have a red thread in your story, you can implement.To find out more, check out these sources:

• https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Why-Practical-Discovering/dp/0143111728/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1525925254&sr=8-2&keywords=find+your+why
• https://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone/dp/1591846447/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591846447&pd_rd_r=W68S0APJ7R8E2CH9VNXM&pd_rd_w=kOUPl&pd_rd_wg=eGvgy&psc=1&refRID=W68S0APJ7R8E2CH9VNXM
• http://shawnpowrie.com/marketing/seo-and-simon-sineks-start-with-why/

Did you have any troubles to implement your Why?How did this approach work for you?Sharing is caring — I look forward to your comments below!

Focus! — One Message, One Purpose

When writing, you may burst with excitement. But it’s important to add value to the life of your reader, and your reader wants a clear message. So just deliver your added value in digestible pieces — one at a time. Your reader will thank you if you keep things clear and simple!For more, refer to this:

• Blogging 101 — Build a Successful Blog in 2018 by Brad Merrill on Udemy.

Let me know how these first few tools helped you in the comments below. To be continued — more tools coming soon.