What to Ask Yourself When Writing a Blog
I wanted to share a bit of my blog writing practices as it has progressed over the years. I prefer to write either first thing in the morning or right before bed. For some reason, I feel that those are the times where I can't type quick enough to keep up with my thoughts and I write the most raw content.
This post began last night when I was working in AirTable updating and organizing information for my upcoming book. I was optimizing some of the images (for the companion app to be included with the ebook version) that I would use in my social media marketing campaign. I was working on the various sections and when I got to the What to Ask Yourself When Blogging section I decided I would write a blog post sharing the process. The images were created on my Android phone using an app called QuotesCreator. I then compressed and optimized those images through Optimizilla. It was pretty late at that point so I decided I go to bed and begin writing the post as soon as I woke up the next morning.
Below are some of the questions I ask myself before and during my blog writing process.
What is the subject? How would I like to introduce the subject?
In this case my subject is writing a blog post. The question then is do I want to list it as tips/advice or as if I am sharing my process or personal experience. Guess which one I went with. The one that I thought would be more engaging for the readers.
What examples would I use? Is there a relatable story I can tell to engage my readers?
Originally I thought to use another niche as an example but then thought to use this actual post as the example I would use and share the entire writing process of this post.
Would I word it as if I were talking or explaining something to a colleague, co-worker, friend or relative like my Mom or Dad?
When writing do I want it to sound like I am explaining to a peer or someone where I need to use more layman terms. If it's not a technical paper then maybe we should refrain from all the technical jargon. Whether you K.I.S.S. it or Dumb it down try to make sure a majority of your readers can understand what they are reading. I say majority because unfortunately everybody won't get it.
What additional questions might my readers have that I may have forgotten?
At the end of your post when you've gotten to the end give yourself a little Q&A to make sure you at least covered the basic questions that most people would ask. Try not to get too thorough because you can always find more information to enter but it's probably best to stick with pertinent information only. Once you figured those out try to fit the additional information within the confines of content that you already have. If you have to add an entirely new section then the information may not be pertinent or relative.
Did I lose interest when re-reading the post aloud? Where did I lose interest?
I always recommend reading your post aloud when completed. This allows me to make final edits and change what doesn't sound good to me. I also try to notice where I lost interest in the post, if I lose interest. If I find the entire post engaging then that's great. But if I find myself getting stuck re-reading a specific line or paragraph then that content comes into question as to whether it is confusing or missing something.
Is this word or phrase crucial to my point/story's theme? Does removing it add value or take away from it?
After re reading my post I try to remove information that has no value and look at what value I am providing in this post. There have been times where I have scrapped a post because it didn't provide enough valuable information in my opinion.
How did I finish? Was it strong enough?
For me the ending is always the hardest part. Like a good poem, book, song or article it has to sound complete in the end. Finished, unless it's a part of a series and the point is to end with a cliff-hanger to keep you going until the story ends. If that ending doesn't make sense to us then we tend to feel incomplete. The Soprano's Finale as well as the TV show Lost comes to mind when I think about crappy endings that people may never forget when writing, hoping never to be that kind of famous for my writing. Becoming the M. Night Shyamalan of the Blogosphere, having a stellar start, great plot line and story but no solid ending or Finish. Who want's that? So this is the point in my blog where I really get nervous and usually takes up the most of my writing time. The ending and the beginning seem to be the hardest, similar to life the middle is like living, breathing, existing but the start and the finish is everything.
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Thank you for posting this. When I really get into writing my blog posts this will be very helpful.
you're welcome