The 3-Step Approach to Writing Anything Worth Reading
I’m fascinated when I hear about people with little background in a particular skill suddenly rise to the influencer status.
I personally know some of these folks.
For example, Tori Dunlap never studied personal finance, but today has over 3 million followers reading her financial advice. Erik Kennedy teaches one of the best UI/UX design courses in existence and has the most highly-rated Medium article on the topic — but described himself as “hopeless” as a new designer. Did Tori and Erik just get lucky?
Not really.
They have mastered how to take frustrating, complicated, a-million-unhelpful-articles-written-about-it-already stuff, and change it into something easy to understand, empowering, actionable. Something that makes their readers feel on top of the world.
Think, Feel, Do
The “begin with the end in mind” mantra, made famous by Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, is the exact approach to tap into. People want every word to support the ultimate point you’re trying to make. They can sniff a waste of time from a mile away.
Here is how I start every single piece of content I intend on publishing:
After having finished reading, what do I want the reader to think, feel, and do? The more specific the answer, the better.
- Think — This is the intellectual part. What new technique, pattern, insight should the reader have fresh in their mind that they can apply to their life right now?
- Feel — Good content elicits strong emotion. Really good content also energizes the reader. I typically pick a “positive energy” emotion (such as “empowered” or “enthusiastic”) in addition to 1–2 other emotions related to the story I want to tell in the article.
- Do — What specifically should the reader think or do differently with the new information they have learned? The answers to this question can vary quite a bit, and overlap with #1 — if so, try to dig one layer deeper. One of my massive pet peeves is when an author discusses a problem but doesn’t offer anything that I can do about it (“We’re screwed, so good luck” — Jerk).
And then, make every single sentence point back to one of the above.
Being a good writer is about more than writing clear writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes… Writing is today’s currency for good ideas. — Jason Fried, Rework
