Before Every Blog Article You Write, Stop And Ask Yourself THIS:

Stop for a moment, and just think of some of the most memorable lines in cinematic history:

“I’ll be BACK!”

“We’re gonna need a bigger boat…”

“I’m the king of the world!”

“You call that a knife? THAT’S a knife!”

“Play it, Sam”

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

I find myself imagining the screenwriters as they were laying out these scenes and picturing them in their head- did they have it mapped out crystal clear, right down to the cast, or was it just a vague concept? Did they smile to themselves as they wrote those lines out for the first time knowing they’d produced cinematic gold, or did they think to themselves ‘Hey, I like the sound of that’- and then get a wonderful surprise years later,  hearing complete strangers from all around the world quoting the lines they’d written?

It’s like when a musician tells their audience how blown away they are that a venue full of people are singing at them, singing back the lyrics of a song that had its’ origins in a dog-eared notebook as they scrawled it down solo. What starts as an idea, a one-liner that makes you smile- becomes THIS.

How good that must feel!

I imagine it would, I hear you saying, but what does this have to do with my writing blog articles?

Aha!

It’s like this-

Whether you’re writing a blog that’s focused on business, on personal development, on sharing your stories or advice or a hobby or a sport or anything at all- you can do all the preparation work and the research you like, but the whole thing is going to fall apart (and I mean, the whole thing) if you ignore just one crucial element of your writing:

You’ve got to KISS*

See, no matter how fascinating or life-changing your story is, no matter how crucial the information you share with your readers, if you trail off with pointless information then your readers are going to trail off before they get to the end. Mission failed. I’m sure you’ve met people over the years who are terrible at this- and it makes conversation with them a painful experience, doesn’t it?

Instead, think of your article like a highway with an appealing destination sign. Once your readers embark on the journey that is your article, you want to make it as simple as possible for them to reach the end- whether that’s the answer or the discovery or your special offer. Wandering details are like traffic jams, potholes and exit ramps. Close them off, patch them up and keep your article as short and sweet as possible. Stick only to the key details. Every sentence and every paragraph should have a specific aim. Either it should a) Share information relevant to the narrative (the people, places, data or facts) or b) It should move the story forward.

To ensure you don’t leave your readers trailing off a side-road and bailing on the big journey halfway through your article, ask yourself: What is your article about, in just one sentence? Because if you can’t do this with a full-stop or even a comma to break up the answer, then there’s a good chance you need to split your idea into two or more smaller posts.

Like when I first sat down to write this article- I asked myself: What is this going to be about in one sentence?

The answer: Why keeping your blog articles as short as possible is so important.

Ensuring that every sentence and every paragraph directly relates to your story means you get your message across in less time and with less words. Your readers hang on to every word from start to finish, they complete the full journey and reach the destination you’ve set for them.

Your message stays with them, like the unforgettable one liners we looked at right at the start!

Keep this in mind every time you sit down to write a new article, and you’ll notice the difference in how people respond to them. If you’ve got an offer to include, more people are going to follow-up simply because you made it easy for them to reach that far.

Alternatively?

You could contact me, and look at how we can achieve this outcome together. Considering how limited time is though, I strongly suggest you follow the words of the great W. Clement Stone and Do It Now. All you need to do is click here…

* KISS= Keep It Simple, Stupid

Finding True Things Of Value (Or, The Best $50 I Ever Wasted)…

To illustrate the point I’m about to make, come back in time with me now- to the early years of this century…

On the political front, Australia is debating whether the Howard government was right to commit troops to Iraq in support of the U.S war effort. On the sporting front, there’s great anticipation about our hosting of the upcoming Rugby World Cup, with optimism that the Wallabies can win their third Championship on home turf. Entertainment-wise, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, P!nk and 50 Cent dominate the airwaves, and people tune into this new show called ‘Australian Idol‘ in the hope that we discover our next homegrown talent to top the charts here and overseas…

And me?

My high school days are months from drawing to a close when one evening, at a friends’ 18th, I meet this girl. We dance late into the night and despite me being just a little drunk (and a relative novice when it comes to the game of romance) I can tell that she likes me.

A week later she invites me out with her and her friends. In the cinema we sit next to each other. Before the movie starts, I glance at the screen of her Nokia to see that she’s saved my name with love heart emoji’s either side of it (did we even have emoji’s back then? I forget…)

Now, nothing actually happens between us that night. For starters, while I’m flattered by the attention, I’m not really into her. Secondly, there’s somebody else I’m interested in. But none of this seems to matter. A few days later via Messenger (remember that?) she asks me to her formal. I figure sure, why not, and accept her invitation. So a few days afterwards, I hit up a formal hire place and try on a few different suits, before picking out one I like and putting down a $50 deposit.

Even though her formal is still a couple of weeks away, I like to get this kind of stuff sorted early. But then something happens…

She meets another guy. They start dating and like that, I’m sidelined. My role as her formal date is relieved. Now I’m not that fussed by it (remember, I was interested in somebody else at the time), but what does annoy me is when I discover that the $50 deposit I laid down is non-refundable. I mean, $50 was a night out with mates. $50 was still enough for a carton of domestic beer, with change left over for beef jerky. That’s what I’d blown!

Yet from this experience came an important lesson. Had I been wiser or if somebody was around to impart the wisdom upon me at the time, it’s a lesson I could’ve learned right then. Instead, it would take nearly another decade for it to sink in:

Nothing of real value comes easily.

In this case, the person who falls for you quickly will probably fall for somebody else just as quickly- and depart from your life at the same speed they entered it.

A new scheme that vows to make people wealthy quickly, often sends them financially into the red with the smaller details.

How many times have we heard about the lottery winners who pissed away their winnings and ended up even worse off than they were before their numbers lined up?

Last year, in an article I wrote, I spoke more on this concept of delayed gratification, on the sweetness of success that comes after a struggle or a dry season in life: What Paul Kelly Teaches Us About Success

There are likely going to be times where it feels as if you’re hitting a metaphorical wall- in some particular area you can’t move onward and upward. It’s not that you lack the ability, it’s just that you don’t have any idea what you need to do from here? During these periods in time, it can be difficult to maintain your motivation, I know. Especially if you see friends, family, colleagues succeeding at what they do, while you’re stuck in the same place with no notable improvement.

In times like these, the temptation looms to drop it. To give up. It’s too hard or you’re too dumb or the game is rigged or whatever it is- you think this is it and you can’t go on.

But what if you just keep doing?

If you enjoy what you do, if you finish your days with a sense of achievement, of contribution- then why stop that?

There are plenty of ‘easier’ paths you could choose. Easier workloads, less hours, less to organise, better pay. But these are a slow death of the spirit. Do you want to walk the straight path- or climb the mountain?

Because one is far easier, and you know what you’re going to get.

But the other one is going to demand far more of you. The other one can be unpredictable and wear you down and make you feel as if you’re an idiot for not choosing the easier path.

But what about that view, should you reach your goal?

“Every man dies, not every man really lives“

William Wallace

A successful business, a great body, an amazing story worth sharing- nothing of real value comes easily. There are plenty of counterfeits, plenty of things that seem great and easy on the surface- but it’s only later you see how fickle and unrewarding it is.

You see eventually, I realised that all along I was better off pursuing the girls I actually liked (risking rejection that meant something) than just going with whoever went for me.

I choose the mountain over the footpath. I choose the rollercoaster over the merry-go-round. I choose to earn wealth rather than get rich quick.

I choose these things because I am obsessed with getting value and giving value. And nothing of value comes easily.

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How To Write Unique, Memorable Blog Articles That Stand Out

 

I can still remember one of the first things that made me begin to question what the media told me…

It wasn’t something I read on a mainstream media website, saw on the news or read in a newspaper that sowed these seeds of doubt…

I was back in my first year of uni, not yet 20 years old. And in the brand new edition of our university’s quarterly magazine, I read an article about the recent University Games, held up in Cairns…

I’d gone to the games, playing in my campus Rugby League 7’s team. We’d stayed in a nice holiday apartment complex, just across the road from Cairns Central Shopping Centre and walking distance from the footy grounds, the centre of town and (most importantly) a well-known establishment by the name of Gilligan’s. And even though it was the middle of winter, we were in tropical North Queensland. So every day we’d get around in summer gear. In the early hours one morning, traipsing back from another big night at Gilligan’s (the designated party venue for students throughout games week), it was raining. But even at 3am and walking home in a singlet, shorts and thongs, the humidity had made the short trek perfectly bearable…

Yet here in the student magazine was an editorial from some girl, complaining about the accomodation her team had been put up in. She was going on about how sub-standard it was, adding that “most of the time it was cold and raining”.

You liar! I thought.

It’d rained (on and off) for one and a half days out of the 7 we were there. And even if it was the middle of winter, it was never cold. Yet here this girl was, making shit up to try and make the living conditions of her and her team-mates sound even worse.

It was kind of surreal, imagining all the people on my campus (Griffith, Gold Coast if you must know) reading this article, people who didn’t go to the uni games, and thinking that we’d all suffered through a cold and rainy week in Cairns when it just wasn’t so.

This led me to wonder: how much of what was presented as ‘fact’ each day in the media, actually so? How much of it was made up of half-truths or (to precede Donald Trump by a decade) “Fake News”

Maybe it wasn’t just the Murdoch Media empire or “those bloody lefties at the ABC and Fairfax” who put their own spin on the truth- maybe they all did it, to some degree? But one thing for sure- my trust in the media would never be the same again…

Now where was I? Oh yes- explaining how this ties in with the art of writing posts that make YOU memorable as a writer!

You remember ‘Mary Poppins’? A delightful kids’ movie, and even though I normally hated musicals growing up, I actually found this 1966 Walt Disney classic to be quite charming. You wouldn’t call it scary, would you? But what if people did some editing tricks and made you believe it was a horror masterpiece? Could people even do that? You be the judge:

The same footage. The same dialogue. The same music all found in the original. But what a different impression you get of the entire movie, just from how this material is presented in a 1 minute clip!

Writing articles gives you the same power.

You have the power to take what could otherwise be static information, easily found on Google, and give it your own slant. Include your unique stories and experiences and your own ‘voice’ and bingo! People remember you.

Living in Australia, like many I grew up listening to the music of Paul Kelly. It wasn’t until I grew older that I realised he wasn’t just someone my parents listened to, but he was in fact a household name across Australia- to audiences blue and white collar, urban and country dwelling, European and Indigenous. Why was this?

Because even though so many of his songs cover the same material as other artists from around the world, he has this way of writing lyrics- there’s a candidness, a vulnerability that comes forth in his music and the ability to narrate a scene or tell a whole story in song- and it draws you in.

In similar fashion, even if you’d never heard of the book before and didn’t know who’d written it, you could pick up a written piece and soon recognise Tim Winton’s fingerprints all over it.

The lack of quotation marks.

The setting of a fictional coastal town in Western Australia.

The use of language and the terminologies (Hey sport/ orright/ Christ!)

The vivid, descriptive prose to portray scenes or seasons or sensations, that make you feel like you’re right there as it’s happening.

It’s a voice that is uniquely Tim’s. And while (like everybody) he has his critics, likewise there are people everywhere who love to read his works.

Having to read ‘Cloudstreet’ in Year 12= my introduction to the unique prose of Tim Winton…

If you want to make your pieces memorable, let them feel the weight of who you are, let them hear your voice. And make them feel something. In a world where so much business is carried out online, we’re still looking for anything that helps us to feel like we’ve made a connection with another human being.

Let me give you a further two examples of what I’m talking about here, because nailing this is so important to making your articles worth the time they take to write:

Firstly, I was listening to the following YouTube video, (Frank Ocean Sings ‘Nikes’ Without Autotune) when I came across this comment in the comments section:

Summer 16….i was one year out of high school. I had just broken up with my girl and went to chicago to stay with my dad side of the family. There i met this girl who was so beautiful she made me nervous. The way she looked at me gave me warm chills like icey hot. I could never notice my surroundings when i was with her. This song played in the back ground when we first kissed. Butterflies filled my chest as if she was my first. She made my summer one to remember that year…nikes and ivey were our theme songs. Once i went back home we kept in touch but we faded away because only so much can keep a woman warm…it’s 2019 and she’s now pregnant and engaged….yet here i am listening to this song…single and wishing the summer of 2016 never ended.

Judging from the 4k + likes this comment received at last check, I’m not the only one who loved it. But why?

Because as you read it, can’t you picture the scene he sets out? Even if you’ve never had this exact experience, don’t you feel as if you can relate?

This is what makes your writing memorable- when you make people feel something. What you write or what you actually say has less of an impact than how they feel. For my second example-

Last year I went along to an event hosted by a colleague of mine, Tara Mollel. During one exercise, she talked about the value of compliments and wanted a volunteer. I figured what was the worst that could happen, so I raised my hand. I should note that by this stage, we’d been there a couple of hours, done a few exercises and I’d played a reasonably active part in the group discussions- so it wasn’t as if Tara knew nothing about me before she spoke.

What she then said to me, after volunteering…I remember the first part, where she thanked me for giving my time to come along to the event. But what she said next, I don’t remember. I just remember that I got that same feeling you get in a movie, when the protagonist delivers an inspirational, profound speech and stirring music soars and leaves you with this fresh, uplifted sensation. Needless to say, by the time Tara finished addressing me in front of the room, I was glowing.

To this day, I remember it clearly. But even though I can’t remember what she said, I remember it so vividly because of how I felt.

So think about this when you write- because yes the technical details matter. But if you can go beyond just sharing helpful information with your readers- if you can find your unique voice, take people into what it’s like to be you and see things as you do- and make them feel something?

You will truly be memorable. I wish you all the best as you go ahead and write…

And if you want to find out how we can achieve this with your content? Contact me