Although the newspaper industry may be struggling, it’s still very impressive what they continue to do.
Day after day, every newspaper in the country turns out hundreds of column inches of writing, tens of thousands of words. Often from the same handful of writers. Where do they get all those story ideas, day after day?
Meanwhile, you know you need to write articles, workbooks, even a book to support and promote your business, and you’re left staring at a blank screen. It’s not fair- how do they do it? And you don’t even need to write a tenth as much as a reporter.
Reporters have beats.
A reporter is assigned to an area of expertise: maybe it’s health, or business, or farming. They know their area, or learn it, inside and out. They learn who the influential people and organizations are, and those people, if they are smart, know the reporter.
Then, the reporters go digging for news. They ask questions. They sniff around what’s happening. And, when they find something, they write about it.
At the bottom of every great story is a great question.
Just one great question. Here’s the trick: your job isn’t to find the article, it’s to find the question. And where do questions naturally come from?
They come from your customers and clients. For instance, one of our clients emailed me: “Mark, again what you’ve written strikes at the core of what I’ve been talking about with other health counselors this week… Can I ask how you decide what to write about?”
Hmmm… what did I end up writing about?
But clients’ questions are old hat- won’t what I write be humdrum, too?
Well, of course the questions are old hat to you, because you’ve already answered them for how many clients? But, they aren’t boring to the client who is asking it.
What’s more, if the client were sitting in front of you asking the question, your answer to them wouldn’t be boring, the two of you would be having a lively conversation about it because of your connection to each other.
This is the simple version.
Just answering your clients’ questions is a great step forward in creating content regularly. Do this, and you’re on your way.
Want the other four pieces?
Starting with a compelling question is one of five components that make your content memorable. The Heart-Centered Article Writing Course takes you through all five components so you can easily put it all together.
And yes, using this ingredient method of writing actually makes it EASIER to bring your authentic voice and creativity to your writing. When you aren’t struggling wondering what to put in your writing, you can pay a lot more attention to how you write it. Freeing, really.
Check out the course. It starts August 1, runs just five weeks, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
2 Responses
You make a great point here and I never looked at it that way. But it definitely helps to come up with creative content. I’ll have to remember the ‘question’ method next time 🙂
this is great.I m really inspired after knowing all the points you makes out.thanks