Short and Sweet Writing Tips From Aaron White
Hello everybody! This week, visiting my blog, is the awesome Aaron White. He's going to share some valuable insights on writing.
I will let him introduce himself to you.
Hi, I’m Aaron White. I’m based in London, the UK. I write and develop professional and personal skill growth resources available at my site, Ronnie-Writes.
I have a background technical safety and commercial analysis for the energy industry. I am keenly interested in contemporary business, skill development and storytelling as a route to more effective commerce which empowers customers and inspires people to bring fun to work.
Writing Tips
Storytelling and sense-making are rising as acclaimed skills in an increasingly complex world. Conveying your intent and content clearly is crucial to staying relevant. Here are a few methods I employ to spur creativity (which IS a skill, that CAN be learned). They follow a logical progression, from high level setting-out, to reviewing ahead of publishing.
Know Your Audience
Crucial to any story or communication is the marrying of good content to appropriate tone and then delivering that to the eager audience.
Knowing your audience, in a contemporary sense, is engaging with their needs. This goes beyond a high level reading, i.e.: “I’m writing for post-university graduates”, “I’m writing for industry specialists in this report”. These contextual cues help align your tone, language and content. But they aren’t the full tale.
Take account of what YOU would want to see in your article. What difference does good content make for you? What insights draw your attention. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and ask yourself lateral questions. This awakens your creativity and aligns your content with your readers’ expectations, setting you on the right path.
Scope out Your Quarry
As Mark Twain advised, “A successful book is not made by what is in it, but what is left out of it”. Likewise, be ruthless about your content, setting a high quality barrier to entry. Use a strong sense of focus upfront and target the content of your article. A guiding sentence as a planning point is a true compass on a sea of treacherous thought. Avoid being overcome, see an example for this article:
“I will share brief practical tips on writing quality content”.
Ultimately, the clearer your mission and intent, the easier it is to craft your content. As with the Ill-fated Apollo 11 missions (with the Tom Hanks movie by the same name), necessity, restrictions and boundaries produce some amazing creativity in solving problems. By limiting your scope to what really matters, you pass real gold onto your tribe.
Use What You Have
Be pragmatic and bring your direct experience to your content wherever possible. Humans love stories, storytelling, sharing ideas and experience. Plug in to this human need and share what you have seen and done. You will bring a credible and genuine flavor to your work. This will espouse a faithful readership and followers, keeping track with your stories and views.
Keep Writing
Roughly 10,000 hours of work, (5 years full time, every working day) will give you mastery of your discipline. Just keep writing. Practice improves the mental connections you use when synthesizing your ideas. Do not be disheartened. Instead, target your focus on specific development areas and you can improve those areas sooner.
A big thanks to Aaron for guest-blogging today!
You can read his book "Ready, Set, Grow (your skills)" for free here, and check out his blog here.
I will let him introduce himself to you.
I have a background technical safety and commercial analysis for the energy industry. I am keenly interested in contemporary business, skill development and storytelling as a route to more effective commerce which empowers customers and inspires people to bring fun to work.
Storytelling and sense-making are rising as acclaimed skills in an increasingly complex world. Conveying your intent and content clearly is crucial to staying relevant. Here are a few methods I employ to spur creativity (which IS a skill, that CAN be learned). They follow a logical progression, from high level setting-out, to reviewing ahead of publishing.
Know Your Audience
Crucial to any story or communication is the marrying of good content to appropriate tone and then delivering that to the eager audience.
Knowing your audience, in a contemporary sense, is engaging with their needs. This goes beyond a high level reading, i.e.: “I’m writing for post-university graduates”, “I’m writing for industry specialists in this report”. These contextual cues help align your tone, language and content. But they aren’t the full tale.
Take account of what YOU would want to see in your article. What difference does good content make for you? What insights draw your attention. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and ask yourself lateral questions. This awakens your creativity and aligns your content with your readers’ expectations, setting you on the right path.
As Mark Twain advised, “A successful book is not made by what is in it, but what is left out of it”. Likewise, be ruthless about your content, setting a high quality barrier to entry. Use a strong sense of focus upfront and target the content of your article. A guiding sentence as a planning point is a true compass on a sea of treacherous thought. Avoid being overcome, see an example for this article:
“I will share brief practical tips on writing quality content”.
Ultimately, the clearer your mission and intent, the easier it is to craft your content. As with the Ill-fated Apollo 11 missions (with the Tom Hanks movie by the same name), necessity, restrictions and boundaries produce some amazing creativity in solving problems. By limiting your scope to what really matters, you pass real gold onto your tribe.
Use What You Have
Be pragmatic and bring your direct experience to your content wherever possible. Humans love stories, storytelling, sharing ideas and experience. Plug in to this human need and share what you have seen and done. You will bring a credible and genuine flavor to your work. This will espouse a faithful readership and followers, keeping track with your stories and views.
Keep Writing
Roughly 10,000 hours of work, (5 years full time, every working day) will give you mastery of your discipline. Just keep writing. Practice improves the mental connections you use when synthesizing your ideas. Do not be disheartened. Instead, target your focus on specific development areas and you can improve those areas sooner.
A big thanks to Aaron for guest-blogging today!
You can read his book "Ready, Set, Grow (your skills)" for free here, and check out his blog here.
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