When it comes to writing, you are likely to be hit with a different opinion for every article you read. Your content should be short and to the point. Or it should be long and cover all bases. The mass of conflicting advice on the internet is a headache in the making for any aspiring content writer.
I am here to add my two penneth, but hopefully it will create no headaches. I am not here to tell you that your articles should be x or y. I am here just to deliver a very simple message.
Write
That’s all. Just write. Don’t worry about what you are writing, or how you are writing it. Don’t worry if your spelling is poor. Don’t fret if your grammar leaves little to be desired.
Once you have finished writing, you can then go back and check. You can read over your words and decide whether or not they are worth the virtual paper they were written on.
The key to writing is so bloody simple, and yet so many people out there want to overcomplicate it. They often forget one simple fact – content cannot be good or bad until it is in existence, and even then, the judgement of it is wholly subjective.
Don’t worry about how you should deliver your message; just write what comes naturally and judge it by your own standards. If you do this, your writing will be distinctive and unique. It may not be a work of art, but improvement will only come through more writing.
Quality Follows Quantity
As far as I am considered, quantity and quality are not enemies. They are simply two steps in a process. As I have already stated above, you should be writing as it comes naturally, without fear for the quality of what you are creating.
When you have exhausted your immediate mental capacity for content creation, you can then consider the quality of your writing. If you have just created a work of art, congratulations. If however there is nothing worth saving in what you have written, then push it aside and move on.
In writing bad content, you will understand how not to in the future.
Write Me A Song
Song writing is a great analogy for content creation. You should write as many songs as possible. Don’t worry about whether they are good or bad, just get them out of your head and onto paper (or recorded). Come back to tweak them later, or dump them if they are poor. But when it comes to your album, only the cream of the crop should make it.
Content creation follows a similar line. Your published content is your music album. Only the cream of the crop makes it. No one needs to know about the rest, but that is not to say that it hasn’t helped you – all of that bad content took you towards creating the good.
Photo courtesy of Julia Manzerova
Richard Scott says
I like to put as much detailed info as I can into my posts. I look at it this way, 99% of the net is slapping up quick posts hoping to score for a keyword. Most of these posts are short 3 paragraphs and lack meat. I know I can quickly surpass them if I make mine better.
That’s why I like to explain everything. Make bigger lists. Better pictures. More content and why it’s important to the reader. It’s how I stand out from the crowd and quickly climb to the top. Good info, lots of it. You put enough info up and suddenly people everywhere will link to it and your site becomes an authority site.
How long do you write? It all depends on the topic. You write until you get it down. I’m not talking about rambling, I’m talking about natural explanations. You’ll know when it’s over. It just sounds right. I read my posts out loud and that really helps me listen to the flow. 🙂 You know?
Tom Ewer says
Hi Richard,
It sounds like you’ve got a really strong approach to your content creation. As for reading your posts out loud, that is an invaluable tip that I would recommend to anyone.
All the best,
Tom
Ederico Guerreiro Rocha says
Hi Tom,
Great post mate! You’re getting it on.
This really fascinates me because content creation is something I struggle every now and then. As for as content goes, I don’t like too long of a post. Reason is when I see a long post, I tend to bookmark it and never get a chance to read it.
I really do prefer shorter posts and links to continue reading it – like part 1, part 2 and part 3 – as long as there’s definitely something worth while to read in the current post that just keeps me going.
As far as I am concerned, and in my blog, I am dealing with a severe situation that is to try and make it multilingual. When you try that and rely on Google translate, for instance, and you write in your mother language (Portuguese), writing your content to fit in google translation needs to translate correctly can be a major challenge.
That is one of the quality aspects of the post that some non-english bloggers out there have problems with.
As far as creativity goes, it really comes down on what you know of your niche and how broad is your niche. You can always make a whole series based on how you approach the subject: starting a single post broader and generic, and filling the indepth and technical gaps afterwards in several linked post can bring your blog to life in a number of levels.
Hugz
Ed
P.S.: Liked the checkboxes on the confirm and the auto opt-in. What is that you are using ?
Tom Ewer says
Hey Ederico,
Thanks for stopping by! You’ve made some valid points, although I won’t pretend to understand the challenges of writing a multilingual blog!
Not sure what you mean by the confirm and auto opt-in checkboxes – can you be more specific?
Cheers 🙂
Tom
Ederico Guerreiro Rocha says
Hey Tom,
When you comment on your blog post, right below the submit, you got 2 checkboxes which are really cool.
Is that a plugin of some sort ?
Cheers
Ed
Tom Ewer says
Yes! The signup box is “AWeber Web Forms” (for use with the AWeber, but there is an equivalent plugin for other services), and the spam checkbox is Growmap Anti-Spambot Plugin! 🙂