Practical Advice For Effective Writing
What makes a successful writer? Disappearing from the text as a writer (content creator). That’s right.
Why is it important? Because you, as a writer, care about your reader. Your biggest goal is to be of service (i.e. useful) and do it in a simple way.
In this article, I’ll tell you about:
- How the desire of recognition gets in the way of your writing success
- What online readers want (and why these are not necessarily your excellent writing skills)
- Practical advice for effective writing
Writers: the desire for recognition and SEO success
Most (content) writers want to be:
- Read
- Found on Google (on the 1st page of search results, natürlich)
- Recognized for their work
- Admired
- Quoted
Well, probably not every writer has such dreams. But many do. I’ve observed the desire for recognition (and/or driving massive traffic) among many fellow writers, budding writers, and writers-to-be. I’m also speaking from my own experience.
There’s usually a time in our lives when we want to ‘show what we know’ and provide evidence for our (writing) skills and/or our expertise. Often these are ego-driven motivations.
Interestingly, most of our readers will be hardly interested in all the knowledge or linguistic skills that we possess.
So how to win (online) readers and drive traffic and conversions?
Above all, focus on writing quality content and sharing quality ideas. Your primary intention is to add value to someone’s life.
Treat traffic and conversions as a byproduct (this doesn’t mean you should ignore SEO or keywords).
I’m not saying anything new, but I have an impression that these simple facts are overlooked by many digital content creators.
Always put the reader first and make it simple
To be successful at writing, disappear from the text as a writer. In other words: ALWAYS put the reader first.
Therefore, consciously choose:
- A reader-first approach
- Bringing value
- Satisfying search engine algorithms (but only after doing your best to put the reader first and add value to your content)
- Being practical rather than sophisticated
- Simplicity in your writing style
I’m a big fan of the command: make it simple (or short and sweet). I’d even say, don’t be afraid to make it simple (yes, we as writers tend to have concerns about making things simple).
Remember that it’s not about making your content sound stupid or simplistic; it’s about putting your readers first and making their reading experience easy and enjoyable.
Writing simple, easy-to-understand, informative texts requires great skill. Often writers have to learn to make their texts shorter, not longer. They need to master the difficult art of letting go of redundant text.
The ability to make tough decisions about what stays and what has to go is one of the skills of a very adept writer. I strongly agree with the statement: write in passion, edit in cold blood.
You may want to say a lot, but that doesn’t mean you should. Write in passion, edit in cold blood.
‘I’m a great writer and I’ll show what I know’
As adept writers, we may know the words that non-writers don’t. We may also be sophisticated in creating long, complex sentences which demonstrate how wonderfully our linguistic intellect works.
The world needs to recognize and appreciate that, right? This is extra important when we’ve yet to establish our names on the market.
The ‘I want to show what I know to all’ approach is to provide evidence for our writing skills and/or our expertise.
Additionally, we may have a lot of wisdom to share, which makes it difficult for us to decide what could be the most valuable or relevant content for our readers.
Finally, we know plenty of sophisticated words, which will surely impress our readers, especially if they don’t understand them. Yes, we should motivate our readers to look up words in a dictionary and expand their vocabulary!
Does any of this sound familiar?
If it does, you may want to rethink your approach. Disappear from the text as a writer. Here’s why.
Writing is about the reader
Writing is about the reader, not about the writer or showcasing their writing skills and expertise. Most of your readers will be hardly interested in all the knowledge that you possess.
What readers are more interested in is taking something valuable away from your content. Often they want specific information, a specific solution, or a specific outcome.
Potential takeaways from your content:
- Something that will make your readers’ lives better.
- Something that will give them some food for thought.
- Something that will give them pleasure.
- Something that will inspire them to take action.
- Something that will motivate them to consider doing things that they haven’t before.
Second, your job as a writer is to keep your readers reading. You don’t want them to press the exit button too soon (after roughly 37 seconds!) or scan your content too much.
To do this, you must do your best to remove any potential roadblocks.
What could be a roadblock? Among other things, long, complex sentences and difficult words.
As it takes people longer to read online than it takes to read on paper, you really don’t want to add any redundant cognitive challenges to this. That is, if you want readers to appreciate your content and come back to it.
Most online readers don’t want a dissertation or an academic essay on the topic, but prefer the path of minimum effort. If users can’t accomplish their goals successfully, they will go elsewhere to find the information more quickly.
Additionally, your readers can be pretty distracted. So each sentence you write must compel the reader to move on to the next. It can’t be too boring, complicated, or simply redundant. It can’t be full of fancy words and jargon that are difficult to understand.
Coming across as smart, sophisticated and complex will not pay off if hardly anyone wants to read your text!
So again — make it simple. I don’t think that you’ll risk somebody reaching out to you and saying: ‘You know, from a writer like yourself, I’d expect more complex sentences and difficult words!.’
But … you never know!
What makes a successful writer: practical advice
- Be concise. Write in a way that makes your content scannable. Be clear and efficient: make your sentences as short as possible, without excluding necessary information.
- Make it short and sweet. Keep your sentences short and to the point. If you can use six words instead of 15 to convey the same information, go for it.
- Be clear. However, never assume that people will know or guess what your words mean. Avoid mental shortcuts: instead choose to add those few extra words for the sake of clarity. For that, use your best judgment and/or ask others whether your text is clear to them.
- Consider the context. For example, if your article is about search engine optimization (SEO) for advanced content writers, explaining thoroughly what SEO is and why it’s important is redundant. On the other hand, if it’s a SEO guide for beginners, be careful about using jargon without explaining it first.
- Be useful. Inspire your readers to do something that will actually make their lives better. It may be purchasing an item, downloading an ebook, checking extra resources, or taking action in real life, such as changing their daily habits.
- Have one primary intention. Write to add value to someone’s life. Try to provide or discuss something that other materials don’t. For example, you can create something more in-depth, or the contrary (the quickest and most essential guide on a given topic).
- Be practical. If you struggle with removing redundant text, create a separate document. You can call it ‘Pending.’ This is where you can keep all those unwanted passages. Knowing that there’s a safe place where you can stash away your temporarily unwanted work that you may use at some point in your life should help you make tough decisions.
Those rewarding moments in the life of a content writer
I haven’t received any prizes or thank-you letters sent by post, but I’ve received numerous emails and messages from readers inspired by my texts.
I’ve also been ‘recognized’ by those who managed to understand complex topics because I wrote about them in a simple way.
Knowing that my texts provide value and inspiration, even if for a few people, is the most rewarding experience for me.
Today, showcasing my ‘writing talent’ (and being recognized for it) is of little, if any, priority (but sure, it’s always nice!).
Oh well, writing is simple.
What Makes A Successful Writer? A Special Kind Of Absence was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Author: Karolina Kulach
