How to write effectively? Lessons from a rookie writer!
As you all might already know, I have been on a writing spree in the past few days. I have the goal of writing a Medium article everyday and I am able to push myself to stick to this goal (till now, at least). The whole process taught me numerous things about writing, here are few important pointers , that helped me improve my writing—
- Have one PURPOSE — I initially started writing about topics which were just random thoughts; those posts didn’t really have any purpose. Somewhere midway I realized the importance of purpose and began writing posts with 15 purposes!
The fact of the matters is, if a post doesn’t have any purpose, people don’t have anything to relate to. If the post has multiple purposes, then people don’t know what to relate to.
- Get to the POINT — I’m a Toastmaster (by choice) and I have the uncanny habit of building up a story. I began by writing posts that had these huge plots. After a spectacular plot the main point of the post was just a few sentences long. I built up expectations for something ‘life-changing’ but gave ‘textbook’ motivation. This may not affect the viewership of the current post, but will definitely impact the viewership of the upcoming posts. Build up becomes a facade beyond a point.
Our lives are fast paced, we don’t have time for unnecessary build ups. All we want is the purpose of the post. Just get to the POINT! Please?
- Have a take home MESSAGE — My initial posts were beautifully written (at least I think so), but they lacked take home messages. A take home message is message that the reader can easily remember. Whenever, the reader remembers that message, he/she gets reminded of the post that gave him that message. The more he/she is reminded of your post, the more he/she would want to revisit your posts. Cool trick, eh?
We may write the best post in the world. We may use the most eloquent flow of syllables. Still, if the post lacks a take home message, it will be forgotten!
There you have it! Those are the lessons that I learnt in the first few days of writing on Medium. But, hey! These lessons are applicable to any form of technical writing. If you are crafting a Medium post or drafting an important assignment, remember these three words —
PURPOSE, POINT, MESSAGE
