Beating the dentist

I have in my study a folder containing hundreds of essays and articles on how to produce a ‘best seller’ article. I have read so many books entitles along the lines of ‘Article Writing: generate a revenue’ and ‘write articles and win a profit’, so many in fact that I have near enough forgotten my own name (thank the stars its at the top of the page!). And in all honesty apart from learning the obvious ‘do the research bits first’ I never really learnt much.

 

And that, of course, is why we read articles in the first place. We want to learn. We read them to gain information. To grow. Naturally any keen writer wants to produce top quality work that's going to sell well and bring in merry bushels of cash. But it's not just a case of picking up a pen. For an article to be informative it must first be read. And so the question we must now ask ourselves is 'What do we want to learn about?' “We” meaning you!

 

Well anyone reading this article is obviously keen on writing and learning to write better, so there's one subject we can focus on. But it needn't just be writing, it could be the suffering and welfare of African children-make their world a better place, or bringing history to life-the truth about Tutankhamen. Anything that interests you is going to interest someone else. And if something interests you, then your much more likely to enjoy writing an article about it, therefore more people will enjoy reading about it.

 

So now we have detained the key basics in article writing, write to inform on a subject dear to your heart. Article should be personal, so don't be afraid about using such phrasing as 'I' or 'In my opinion'. It opens the article up a little and allows the reader to relate to the topic at hand and gives them a better view of your opinion.

 

Once you have a topic, you need to make sure that you know everything there is to know about it, so if there are any gapes in your knowledge you are going to need to head down to the library. I myself have always found research easy and enjoyable, but not every one shares this point of view. So it may help to write your article over a period of a week instead of all in one sitting. Remember, writing an article should never be stressful, if you feel stressed then what you have written will suffer.

 

After you have written your first two or so paragraphs then you should be feeling the flow of your article. Go with it; write down everything that comes to your head. The most important thing at this stage is getting the main body of your ideas down on paper, editing and re-writing comes later.

 

Now most people will tell you to write chronologically when writing your first draft. Don't, if you don't want to. If you are writing an article on the French Revolution and you want to begin with the hanging of the King, go for it. Just make sure in your re-write that everything else makes sense at the end. Whenever I write an essay or an article I tend not to plan so much as only write reference material down, such as dates or keywords. The rest of my article is going to come straight from my head, in what ever order it come.

 

Naturally after you've written everything down there is a need to read it though, cut things our and paste things in. And then if something doesn't sound right you're going to black marker it out and put an asterisk in and a little arrow and re-write this line, that one. Go for it! We're not finished yet. Get a new piece of paper or sit down at a computer. Breathe in, and type/write your first line. Then the next one. Read each line through as you write it. When you have finished an entire paragraph, re-read it. Does it sound good? Yes? Wonderful. Move on to the next bit. Once the entire article is finished re-read it, re-read it again. Now ask yourself, does it fill you with some sort of satisfaction? Do you smile when you read it? You do? Of course you do!

 

We are near the last step. Time to crown our written glory with a title. Titles are very important. Again, if it's not something people are interested in then they won't read it. If it doesn't suggest something of the content in the article, they won't know what its about and therefore if they are going to want to read it or not. Most likely they won't. Don't let that happen!!! Give it a name that reflects or even names the subject included within. Something that snatches the reader's attention away from the sound of the dentists drill.

 

Right, the final punctuation is embedded, it's titles and you've just singed you name to the copyright. What now? What about someone to read it? Send it out to every one, magazines that might publish it, old friends, post it on writerscafé, I'll read it!

 

Remember, no one can tell you how to write a good article, only you can do that.

 

So there you go, the basics of writing an article, it's easier then you think!

Reviews

[Raef C. Boylan]

A lot of the advice you give in your article is good, and you've presented it clearly, in well-spaced paragraphs so that the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed.
This piece was easy to read, and impressively coherent.

You write intelligently - I think it's a shame that you ask us to ignore grammar errors, as this could be a perfect article, were you to go through and correct the typos etc...or are you planning on doing that at a later date? I think proof-reading is an important part of writing professionally (in the future, a writer with a contract can have their own proofreader, but in order to get there, you'll need to make your work sell first), so as someone giving advice on what to do, I reckon you should try and set a good example.
If you struggle with it, ask for help. If you don't struggle with it, either check your work before posting or let us know in your note that you plan to come back and edit - otherwise it comes across as sloppy and a reader may disregard your expertise.

Overall, nice work.
Thanks for posting it.

[Blackbirdsong]

I for one miss that the powers that be here at the cafe took away the section for writing about writing, which we used to have in the old days. That way I could easily find an informative and well-written article like this without having to accidentally stumble on it, which is what I did just now. You really explain this so that anyone who is interested in venturing into article writing sees how it's done.

You've done an excellent job with this and thank you for sharing your information with all of us.

[BrightEyes]

very nicely done! you break everything down into nice easy steps...done so well that it actually is an enjoyable read. article writing can be tricky...a fine line to be walked there between fact and opinion, there must be some objectivity which is easy to forget. a well written informative piece.

laura

[mud]

nice job!!!

[Cyrus Martin]

Very inspirational. Keep it up!

[Thoughts]

good job!!

[Dark Water]

Very well done. I totally agree, I am always looking for ways to become a better writer, which is a tricky quest. You point out some great points here. Nice job, and thank you.