Tips For Writing Well

Looking back at my blogs and tweets over the last couple of days, I realize I've been focused on the subject of good writing. Here are a few tips I've come across:

Blogging Tips from Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger:

1. Make your opinion known
2. Link like crazy
3. Write less
4. 250 Words is enough
5. Make Headlines snappy
6. Write with passion
7. Include Bullet point lists
8. Edit your post
9. Make your posts easy to scan
10. Be consistent with your style
11. Litter the post with keywords

1. Make your opinion known
People like blogs, they like blogs because they are written by people and not corporations. People want to know what people think, crazy as it sounds they want to know what you think. Tell them exactly what you think using the least amount of words possible.

2. Link like crazy.
Support your post with links to other web pages that are contextual to your post.

3. Write Less
Give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words. Time is finite and people are infinitely busy. Blast your knowledge into the reader at the speed of sound.

4. 250 is enough
A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite.

5. Make Headlines snappy
Contain your whole argument in your headline. Check out National newspapers to see how they do it.

6. Include bullet point lists
We all love lists, it structures the info in an easily digestible format.

7. Make your posts easy to scan
Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and headlines short and to the point.

8. Be consistent with your style
People like to know what to expect, once you have settled on a style for your audience stick to it.

9. Litter the post with Keywords.
Think about what keywords people would use to search for your post and include them in the body text and headers. make sure the keyword placement is natural and does not seem out of place.

10. Edit your post
Good writing is in the editing. Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the stuff that you don’t need.

Read the rest of the article here: Ten Tips for writing a blog post


General Writing Tips

1. Have something to say and say it.
2. Use the active voice.
3. Avoid overusing adverbs and adjectives. Eliminate unnecessary qualifiers such as very, a little, mostly, etc. If removing a word from a sentence doesn't change the meaning of the sentence, then lose the word.
4. Edit ruthlessly. In On Writing Stephen King says that, as a rule of thumb, your second draft should be 10% shorter than the first. (3) and (4) are really the same point, only said different ways.
5. The most important tip of all: Have fun! Don't get so hung up on the rules of good writing that you can't type a darn thing. That's happened to me a few times!

Read more here: 11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing

Cheers!