4.25.2011

Useful Blogging Tip - writercize #37 (A to Z 21)

One great way to practice succinct writing (and editing) is to jot down instructions for someone to follow.  When writing instructions, you must assume the person knows nothing about the topic.  Always edit your instructions for clarity.  (How often have you been frustrated reading instructions on game play or construction or computers when it is obvious that the writer's assumptions of your knowledge are far beyond your true ability?)

writing exercise:  Think for a moment about tips and tricks you've discovered in the process of writing or blogging.  Pick one that you find both unique and useful and share!  Write in an instructional manner.
  • sample instructional ideas: comments, posts, publicity, followers, contests, topics, scheduling  

(Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about writing a description of your blog.)

writercizer response:

Useful tip:   

Write a description of your blog.  It will help give you direction and let followers know what to expect.

This may take some soul-searching, so set aside an hour or so to sit down and look through your posts and ideas.  Identify the strengths and weaknesses in your past writing, and use that knowledge to direct the future of your blogging.  Once you have an idea of the direction you'd like to take, write a description. 

This description will not only help give you direction and let followers know what to expect, as stated above, but it will help direct traffic to your blog if you elect to be listed by search engines.

If you use blogger, your description will be limited to a max of 500 characters.  When you are satisfied with the description, go to your "dashboard" and click on "settings."  In the third field, labeled "description" write the description you have settled on.  Scroll to the bottom and click on "save."

This will appear in the header of your blog, along with the blog title, when a person clicks on your page.

(My writercize description is:  "exercises to inspire word play, hone the craft of the written word and bulldoze writer's block for authors, bloggers, poets, freelancers, teachers, students, dreamers and writers of all kind")

5 comments:

  1. My best tip is to keep an editorial calendar. Go out at least a month in advance. Plan when you will post, and topics. Consider doing a series: certain topics on certains days of the week/month (for example, I post on 9/11 on the 11th of each month; book or movie reviews show up on Fridays only). It also helps you go back and see which topics were most popular.

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  2. Great tip above, can't wait to see more tips as I'm new to blogging and participating in blogs.

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  3. I realized how important it is to be succinct when I began blogging, but especially when I started writing short stories. Each word counts, so no fluff and no space to be unclear.

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  4. Great tip! You passed along another great tip to me when you suggested I create a schedule to focus my blog. I started the schedule just before the challenge started so I'm looking forward to following it after the challenge and see how it works.

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  5. I tend to be very detailed when providing instructions. I stop and think about things step by step and look at it from the eyes of someone that hasn't a clue.

    Popping in by way of the A-Z Challenge. I’m blogging at:
    Write, Wrong or Indifferent
    Marie Anne’s Missives
    In the Garden With Sow-n-Sow
    Every Day Crochet

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