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Ann Handley's Writing GPS

Wall Street Journal Bestseller Ann Handley's Writing GPS: EVERYBODY STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS FOR WRITES WRITING YOUR NEXT PIECE OF CONTENT { } Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content Use these 12 steps from Ann Handley's Everybody Writes to take your writing from a discombobulated mess to a coherent, useful piece of content that ANN HANDLEY engages audiences. WILEY {1} GOAL What's your business goal? What are you trying to achieve? Anything you write-even an individual blog post-should be aligned with a larger (business or marketing) goal. "I want to drive awareness of and interest in the launch of our incredibly cool new collaborative editing software BECAUSE we want to sell more of it." The key is to care about the purpose of what you're writing. {2 REFRAME Put your reader into it. Reframe the idea to relate it to your readers. Ask “So what?" and then answer, "Because..." until you've exhausted your ability to reach an answer. For example... Because that's a I want to drive interest in the launch of our new collaborative text So pain to deal with for virtual teams. So what? Because our editor what? editing software. makes it stupid-easy to collaborate remotely without overwriting each other's stuff. So what? Because pain... it hurts and is.. uт... bad. You get the idea. Express your reframed idea as a clear statement. Then put that at the top of the page to remind you where you're headed with your writing. 3 SEEK OUT DATA AND EXAMPLES What credible sources and data support your main idea? Can you cite examples? If you have relevant experience, use yourself as a source. 4 ORGANIZE CASE STUDYy ..ll What format or structure would best communicate your point: opinionated blog post, explanatory how-to article, infographic, case study...? HOW-TO 5. WRITE TO ONE PERSON Imagine the one person you're helping with this piece of writing. And then write directly to that person (using you, as opposed to using people or they). {6 PRODUCE THE UGLY FIRST DRAFT Producing The Ugly First Draft (TUFD) is basically where you show up and throw up. im Write badly. Write as if no one will ever read it. {7}WALK AWAY Put some distance between your first-draft ugliness and your second draft. {8 REWRITE Shape that mess into something that your reader wants to read. In your head, swap places with your reader as you do so. 9 GIVE IT A GREAT HEADLINE OR TITLE Spend as much time on the headline as you do on writing the piece itself. Respect the headline. {10 HAVE SOMEONE EDIT Ideally, the person who edits your piece will have a tight grip on grammar, usage, style, and punctuation. Like a bona fide editor. 11}ONE FINAL LOOK FOR READABILITY Does your piece look inviting, alluring, easy to scan? With short paragraphs and bold subheads? Are your lists numbered or bulleted? {12 PUBLISH But not before answering one more reader question: "What now?" Don't leave your readers just standing awkwardly in the middle of the dance floor after the music stops. Tell them what you want them to do next. Get your copy of EVERYBODY WRITES at EverybodyWrites.com produced by visually Premium on-demand creative services Source: Ann Handley, Everybody Writes

Ann Handley's Writing GPS

shared by annhandley on Apr 01
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Use these 12 steps from Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes to take your writing from a discombobulated mess to a coherent, useful piece of content that engages audiences.

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