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10 Tips To Be a Better Blog Writer

Owned, Ottawa, September 2011

How hard can writing be? You just have to type what you’re thinking, right?

Well, it doesn’t quite work like that, even if your spontaneous thoughts and observations can be a good starting point.

A few basic tips apply when writing for an audience.

Write with passion

You’re probably blogging because you want to share something—a unique way of life, your passion, a story or a skill. If you are passionate about it, it will show. Don’t force yourself to write about something you are not comfortable with or not interested in because readers will feel it. Blogging shouldn’t be a chore. This is not school, you don’t have to write a minimum number of words on a set topic. For instance, I can’t do book reviews for the life of me. I spent my high school years dissecting Victor Hugo’s Castigations (the title of the collection of poems says it all, trust me!) and while I’m still an avid reader, I turned down book review offers because it’s just not my thing. No one will enjoy reading a tedious review!

Offer context

Blogs create their own little universe, with occasional mentions of family members or particular life events. If your blog is mostly for friends and family, that’s fine because they know you. But if you want to build a bigger readership, you want to make sure people know what you are talking about. This is why About Me and About this Blog pages are important. Don’t hesitate to link to previous related articles to add context and information. Finally, go easy on private jokes only two or three people can understand, otherwise, it feels like you are intentionally snubbing your readers.

Stop with the constant navel-gazing

Some people live amazing lives and can write about themselves without boring the audience to death. But 99% of us are just regular folks are frankly, a detailed account of your life isn’t very interesting unless you are an exceptionally good writer. I know Justin Beiber “wrote” his autobiography at the tender age of 13 but most of us aren’t quite ready for the challenge yet.

Don’t take yourself too seriously

Relax, it’s just a blog! Some readers will disagree with you, some will troll you, and some will ignore your efforts to have the best blog ever… who cares? Don’t take yourself too seriously and accept that you are one blogger out of millions. Have fun and please, don’t start dragging readers into your blogging drama.

Use spell-check

On the practical side of writing, I really encourage you to use spell-check.  A few typos are forgivable but when they pile up, articles can be a real pain to decipher. I tend to write my posts in Word to catch most grammatical errors and typos and I’ve seen a huge improvement compared to when I used to write directly in the WordPress text editor.

Use online tools

There are tons of free online tools to improve your writing. For instance, non-native English speakers will find WordReference very useful (and if you have a question, their forum is awesome!). I also use Synonyms, Visuwords (an online visual dictionary) and Wikipedia (for place names, historical events etc.).

Typography matters

Arranging text and selecting fonts isn’t only aesthetic, it has functional goals. For instance, it’s hard to read a message when there are no caps after a period, or where there is a lot of duplicate whitespace. Some plugins such as WP Typography offer intelligent character replacement and styling for ampersands, quotes, acronyms, etc. The font family you choose also affects readers’ experience. Courier or handwriting fonts may feel “funky” and original but they are hard to read and shouldn’t be used for long text.

… And so do editing and reviewing

Ideally, everyone needs another set of eyes to catch grammatical and spelling mistakes. Most of us don’t have the luxury of a dedicated proofreader at home, but you can always set your text aside for a while and proof it again with fresh eyes. You’d be surprised to see the number of typos and mistakes you will catch!

Limit the length of your articles

I tend to think articles under 200 words fit best platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, and articles over 1,000 are just too long to keep readers’ attention (to give you an idea, most press releases are around 500 words). I’m the type of person who likes to write a lot but I learned to check the word count and to do some serious editing if I was close to my self-imposed 600-700 words limit.

Don’t forget that writing is subjective

1+1 = 2 (or so I’ve been told). But writing isn’t an exact science. Two persons can write about the same event very differently. Yes, grammar matters but there is no perfect way to write. Develop your voice and be proud of your achievements!

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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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