PR 101

So, you are sitting down, watching the cursor blink, thinking, “damn, I hate writing. I am not any good at it anyway. Who would want to read a blog I write anyway?”

First, take a deep breath and relax. Every writer – and I mean every writer, no matter how good they are – thinks the same thing every time they sit down at the keyboard. I have been writing since I was five-years-old. I have been writing professionally for approximately 35 years. I still wonder if I am any good. If you don’t have doubts, you are not human.

Don’t let those doubts take over. I find the best cure for writer’s block is to just start writing. It’s the same thing – at least mentally – as diving into a pool of cold water. It is better to confront the obstacle and attack it. Once you do that, you will find it is a lot easier to write your blog.

Okay, I need to back up a minute. Once you have made the decision to become a blogger, you need to decide your blog’s overall topic. You can go two ways on this:

• You can write a general interest blog under a broad topic, such as business and marketing. You will have a lot of leeway to cover the many topics related to that choice. In that case, you are aiming at general audience.

• Or you can write a specialized blog on a specific topic, such as automotive repair. Here, you are aiming for people who share similar interests.

As I said last week, write what you know. That’s key. Your blog will be authoritative if it is clear you know what you are talking about.

No matter how well you think you know a subject, do some research. If you can back up your statements with facts and figures from a respected source, it makes your blog that much more believable. I always include a hyperlink to the source for anything I am citing. It is just common courtesy.

Now, for the actual writing. You don’t have to be a Mark Twain, Margaret Atwood or James Baldwin to be a good blogger. However, you do have to write clearly and concisely. You need to use the language you are writing in correctly. For those of writing in English, I recommend you buy two books: The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White; and Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. The former will teach you everything you need to know about writing. The later will teach what you need to know about punctuation.

I recommend a third book also – a decent dictionary. Do not ever rely on the dictionaries provided by Microsoft Word or any other online writing program. Engineers wrote them. That’s not a compliment. Those dictionaries are wrong more than they are right – especially when it comes to syntax and punctuation.

Okay, you have your tools. How you write is up to you. I know many writers who do an outline before they start. It helps them focus and stay on track. I don’t do that. But, I spent 26 years in newsrooms writing on deadline. I rarely had time to do outlines. You learn very quickly when an editor is breathing down your back to organize your thoughts and get going. However you choose to do it, do it.

Use Hemingway's technique of short, declarative sentences

As you write, remember what Mark Twain said: “I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”

Mark Twain - Perhaps the greatest American writer.

In other words, keep it simple. When I work with students, I tell them to read two Ernest Hemingway short stories: Big Two-Hearted River, and The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Hemingway was one of the finest short stories writers who ever touched a keyboard. He usually wrote in short, declarative sentences (follow the link for a definition). That’s the way to write a blog.

Now you’re done, right? Wrong. Writing is only the first step. Rewriting is the key. I usually rewrite a blog three times before I post it. On my novel, each chapter is rewritten at least seven times. Remember, the best writing is rewritten and rewritten again. It gets better that way. A rule to remember when in doubt whether something should stay or go, take it out. If you have to think about it, it doesn’t belong there.

One thing I learned from one my teachers is once you have completed your final draft, let it sit for a day. I refer to it as marinating. Then come back to it, print it out and retype it. You will be amazed how many changes for the better you make.

The last thing to do is proofread. If you can, have somebody else do that. Another rule is never edit yourself. It is human nature to skip over your own mistakes. It helps to have someone else point areas that are hard to understand. When that’s done, publish it.

Next week, I am going to move onto the first of the social media applications – LinkedIn. It is my favorite and one of the most effective.