Writing
10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Next Blog Post With a Bang
“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t induce him to continue to the third sentence, it’s equally dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until … safely hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit: the lead.” – William Zinsser, On Writing Well
With respect, I must disagree with Mr. Zinsser. We all know the most important part of an article is the title. Without a compelling title, your reader won’t get to the first sentence. After the title, however, the first few sentences are certainly the most important part.
Journalists call this critical introductory section the “lede,” and when properly executed, it’s the bridge that carries your reader from an attention-grabbing headline into the body of your blog post.
If you want to get it right, try one of these 10 clever ways to open your next blog post with a bang.
Believe This: There Are People Out There Right Now Just Waiting for You to Show Up
From The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.
Do it or don’t do it.
It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.
You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.
Creative work is not a selfish act of a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.
See also: The Art of Doing Remarkable Things (Lateral Action Interview with Steven Pressfield)
Break Through Blogger’s Block With These 10 Creative Tactics to Generate Topics for Blog
This is a guest post from Laura Bell, a freelance writer and social media activist.
You got the memo about blogging loud and clear. You know that blogging can improve traffic to your site, build lasting relationships and help convert those relationships into sales. You even know that you should consistently create new content and use that SEO stuff.
But, what on earth do you write about each day? How can you consistently come up with new material that your readers will actually want to read?
Take a breath. You are not alone. With minimal effort on your part, you are probably sitting on a gold mine of really great topics and you don’t even know it. When the ideas are running dry, try these 10 tips for generating blog topics for your small business blog.
Interview: The Writer’s Brain and Overcoming Writer’s Block With Rosanne Bane
In this episode of Bigger Life Radio, I speak with Rosanne Bane (blog | website). Rosanne is a writer and a creative coach who works with writers, entrepreneurs and other creative folks to help them overcome their resistance to being creative.
She’s also the author of the upcoming book Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Write the Way You Want, which will be published in early 2012.
During our chat, we discuss the writer’s brain and how to overcome writer’s block, as well as some of the pitfalls that are part of living a creative life.
The interview runs a little over 54 minutes, and I hope you enjoy it.
10 Inspirational Quotes About Writing and Living the Creative Life
From Writing FAST by Jeff Bollow
“And the reason you hate writing so much is because you start analyzing your work before you’re done pouring it onto the page. Your Left-brain won’t let your Right-brain do it’s job … Your Right-brain gets the words on the page. The Left-brain makes them sing.”
From Escaping Into the Open by Elizabeth Berg:
“There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I’d taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts … Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.”
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