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Have too many thoughts in one spot? Image from mi9.com
If you’re attempting to write blog posts, articles or podcast and video scripts and feel your writing is missing a bit of punch, there’s a very good piece on Copyblogger (by guest writer James Chartrand of Men With Pens fame) that’s worth a read.
Within it, Chartrand remarks on how easy it is for writers to go off on a tangent – to stuff in too much sidetracked information into a piece rather than sticking to the points (sort of like how Family Guy does its frequent “remember the time” flashbacks – but arguably less funny). The issue with tangent talk is that you risk diluting your main arguments, distracting yourself from achieving the key goals of your piece and losing the reader in the process.
Chartrand suggests having another person look critically at your piece and edit it, and if another person isn’t available, to keep a checklist of your main points. If a sentence or paragraph doesn’t directly fit under that point, scrap it.
Keeping tabs on your content derailments is important from a content marketing stand-point, too:
- If an SEO or keyword-rich article is your goal, every sentence needs to be lean and mean to increase your keyword score. Tangents can act like fat – so cut them out.
- Sidetracked writing isn’t all a waste. In fact, the parts you cut out could be used for separate, specific articles or blog posts. These can be very helpful if you’re writing daily and could use topic ideas.
- Remember that your content marketing is for the audience, not for you. If you’re not delivering readers what they’re looking for (often the answer to a question posed in your content’s title), you won’t gain the following you’re after.
Tags: content marketing, writing tips
