It’s easy for a great message to get lost on the screen or buried under ineffective writing. Good writing habits help us deliver our best message. Learn these tricks of the trade to write like a pro.
1. Avoid weak language and use power words:
Choose strong verbs:
2. Make your post screen friendly.
Create visual space on the page. Chunk your text using titles, short paragraphs, images, and bullet lists. Add space between each element. Any time there is a large mass of text on the page, it can appear to be hard or boring to read.
3. Be yourself.
Write with your personality in a conversational tone. Blogging isn’t teaching or lecturing, so avoid any hint of the formality of lecture. Encourage and invite your reader into your experience, come along side and share rather than write like one who has all the answers.
4. Finish with a call to action.
A call to action is where you clearly ask your reader to do something:
- Subscribe or sign up
- Leave a comment
- Share post on social media
- Like on Facebook
- Click on a link
5. Develop a good editing routine.
You can write with style, authority, and pizazz, but typos and poor editing undermine a great post. Developing a good editing routine will help you write with pizazz.
Writing your post in a document makes it easier to catch typos and misspelling.
Know the words you tend to overuse and watch out for repetition. Read your post aloud.
Check for verb tense and point of view consistency. Personally, I prefer present tense for blogging as it brings the reader into the experience. Be consistent with pronouns, keeping in mind the difference in tone between I, you, us, and we. Proofreading is a skill that grows with experience, but having a checklist is helpful.
If you are new to blogging, it can seem overwhelming to get all these tips under your belt. Keep this list as a guide and enjoy writing great blog posts. With practice, these tips will come naturally and you’ll be writing like a pro.
Share this post using the social media icons. Have fun writing!
About Ginger:
Ginger is a writer and an inspirational speaker who enjoys encouraging women with humor and wisdom. After 24 years of living the military wife life, Ginger lives in Woodbridge, VA, and is mom to three kids that have grown up too quickly. You can connect with her on social media, and she just might have taken up residence at her blog: Ginger’s Corner: Where the Practical Meets the Spiritual. She contributes articles at More to Be, 5 Minutes for Faith, Military Navs, and the Guideposts military blog. You can find a full list of speaking topics and skits on the topics page of her blog. When Ginger is not doing the writerly-thing, she loves having coffee with friends and teaching water fitness. On occasion, she has been known to clean house and cook meals, but the other parts of life are much more fun!
