Writing

10 More Writing Tips, This Time In Three Minutes

32 Comments

Man, time moves fast. It was almost 2 years ago that I wrote my original post giving 10 Writing Tips In Two Minutes. Whereas I want to try to keep the other article in your mind, it also occurred to me that there are more tips that could help people that, though maybe not fitting within 2 minutes, will fit within 3 minutes. At least that’s all the time it would take me to read them. 🙂

With that said let’s get going.

her hands
Vyacheslav Bondaruk via Compfight

1. Create an outline. Sounds like work but it can really help you keep your focus on whatever you want to write about.

2. If you see a squiggly line underneath certain words, it either means you spelled it wrong or your spell check doesn’t recognize the word. Don’t ignore it; fix it.

3. Always keep a piece of paper or something else you can record on with you so if you have an idea to write about you can note it & come back to it later on.

4. If you have a favorite word you know you always use, after you’ve finished writing go back to see if you’re written it too many times, and if so eliminate some of them.

5. If your writing feels too formal you probably didn’t use any, or many, contractions. Use them; they make you feel real to your audience.

6. If you use large words make sure you’re using them properly. Using them makes you look smart to people who won’t look them up in a dictionary, but if your using them correctly then dabbling in the art of sesquipedalian can be a bit of fun. 🙂

7. Learn how to create paragraphs where the content is related so you’re not putting white space between sentences “just because”. People don’t want to read articles where every sentence is considered a paragraph any more than they want to read paragraphs that go on forever.

8. If you’re describing something, make sure you give enough without going too far. If you write “a guy with brown hair” that could be almost anyone. At the same time, Grisham once wrote 50 pages on how to build a car in the middle of a novel for a one line plot item two chapters later; way too much information.

9. Using things like smiley faces, lol, etc, help people know when you’re not being overly serious. It’s not always easy in short pieces like what shows up on blogs to convey your intent all the time.

10. When you’re done, if you’re not an experienced writer go back, read what you wrote, and verify that you got the proper point across. In an article I wrote for someone else once I wrote 3 words wrong and totally changed the meaning of the entire article. Trust me, it happens to all of us.

So, did it take you only 3 minutes? If it too longer no biggie as long as you got something out of it. Let me know if it helped, or if I need to explain anything further. Enjoy!
 

32 thoughts on “10 More Writing Tips, This Time In Three Minutes”

  1. It is annihilating when citizens use words and vocabularial toneage to try to rectify an idea wheras and so forth the words could be chosen more efferially. The thought makes it sound similarily to that of a dreaded ‘spun’ work. The budding novelist should examine the ramifications of a simplerification debacle to enhance the cranial pleasures of the readers climax.
    Wouldn’t you cuncur? 🙂

      1. Hurt my brain nothing. I’m still trying to work out what the hell you’re talking about. Hang on a sec while I SMS James Bond. I reckon he would have more of an idea 😀

      2. Yeah, I have no idea what I was saying. LMBO
        Oh yes, and look at me. First to Comment kids. Booyah! 🙂

  2. Ops step one, I definitely never do this when I write an article and I see my mistake. I always create outline for any other task, including other types of content like videos and images. Again, learned something from you, Mitch.

      1. Keep’em comming, Mitch. By the way, I think it will be great idea to share some tips regarding video creations. Your channel have so many videos.

  3. I’m sure I should be following all your tips Mitch but I’m just too dams slack. Having said that I do fix those squiggle lines. except when it tries to correct my Aussie English. That I refuse to do. I just don’t believe you Yanks have should have the last say on how things should be spelt. 😉

    1. You mean “spelled”, since there’s no such word as “spelt” (I know that but, to be honest, I’ve said it here and there lol).

      Actually, I don’t always have to use all of these writing tips. If I’m writing a list post or a research post I always do an outline. You’re very conversational on your blog and you use your smiley faces, so your intent shouldn’t ever be questioned. The thing is you’re an experienced blogger so you probably have your system honed. But I throw the tips out there anyway, in case others might find them useful.

  4. Hi Mitch, I’m guilty of not doing #3 and then scrambling for something to write on. I’ve always wondered about #9 if it looks unprofessional. I do use them sparingly as I believe they make us appear more human. Love to know your thoughts on that one.

    1. Lisa, what’s more unprofessional, using smiley faces or taking a chance that your audience might take what you say the wrong way? When I wrote the writing tips I was considering blog writing more, but all of the tips, except the smiley faces, work great for any type of article.

      As for #3, I assume you have a smartphone. There’s always the voice recorder, which is easy to use, and if you have an Android my wife just introduced me to something called S Memo, where you can actually use your finger to write quick little notes if you want, and then convert them to text later on. Pretty neat!

  5. Actually there is. I tried to link to it but it wouldn’t let me. But the link proved that there is such a word as spelt used as the past tense of spell. 😉

  6. Hey Mitch,

    Well if a slow reader like me got through it in under 3 minutes I’d bet most others did too.

    I think I’m following a very high percentage of these tips.
    My problem is that I’ll write down all these ideas for future blog posts but then I take forever to getting around to writing the posts. I did use the voice recorder on my phone to record an idea for a post I plan on writing before the end of spring. I checked my phone and it was on the 13th that I recorded it. The 13th of March :-/

    As far as those squiggly red lines my version of Open Office isn’t well versed in anatomy and physiology. I’m constantly adding to its dictionary.

    At the very least I learned a long syllable word for “having many syllables.” 🙂

    1. Aaron, if you use WordPress software for your blog then you should be seeing the red squiggly lines there; I always do. As for the ideas, it doesn’t matter when you use them, just that you always have them. I used to keep a list but I was writing so much that the list became useless after a while because I didn’t have anything to put on it. These days, with the travel, it wouldn’t hurt having another list, which I’ll probably start in Evernote.

  7. Some very nice tips mentioned above.

    Sometimes when I reread my own articles after some days have gone by then at that time I am even able to catch some more faults within my own writing.

    At the time of writing the content it all looks good. Even when I am editing it out it looks good but after sometime has passed by then I can take a look at it from a very new angle altogether.

    1. Interesting stuff Amanda. I have to admit that I don’t read my articles days later before they get published. Once I’ve put it into the publishing queue, that means I’ve approved it, perfect or not. I probably should do that sometimes, but I’m glad it works well for you.

  8. Again, thanks Mitch for giving me a gentle nudge to start blogging almost three years ago come this August.

    I spend a lot of time editing. Especially if I have lots of time before I publish Sunday evening.

    I wish I had more comments but I’m not concerned. People tell me all the time how much they enjoy my posts.

    Thanks.

    1. I’m glad you started Steve and I think your blog is doing just fine. I see some of the people who comment and they’re regulars; that’s always great.

  9. I try to carry a small notebook wherever I go. I’m stunned — and more so all the time — by how quickly I’ll completely forget a thought I had just a minute ago. The real kiss of death is when I think, “I don’t need to write this one down. There’s no way I’m going to forget it.” And then it’s gone.

    1. Man Charles, am I feeling your pain there! I often walk into the kitchen and start trying to remember why I went there in the first place. Sometimes I’ve walked into the bathroom only to realize that I was just there 5 or 10 minutes earlier and I don’t have to go again. lol We have so many tools now to help capture notes and such; all we have to do is use them. 🙂

  10. It always amazes me that we are still teaching basic writing, even though Blogging has been around for a couple of decades, and there are so many online tips to help a newbie writer. Perhaps we should be looking at education in general, not online publishing specifically.

    1. Oliver, since I don’t have any kids it won’t be me looking at education in general. I did my time. lol Still, I do my part here and there and hope that, in small chunks, some of it takes hold.

  11. This posts truly tells about most of the things a person should consider while writing a post. I really like points 3rd, 5th and 10th very much out of all, i.e keeping a paper with you throughout to jot down things, then being real to audience without sounding too artificial and then always reading out what you wrote. Thumbs Up.

  12. Awesome tips Mitch (as always). I have picked a few up for my own use and since the social media has evolve a lot nowadays, maybe you can consider writing about generate traffic to blogs in your future post.

    Just a suggestion. 🙂

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