Write Your First Article
By: Omowunmi Sanyaolu
Write your first article! You must have heard the story of the chained eagle, for years it sat in a cage watching other eagles fly, this eagle never knew he was of the same specie with, the eagles that flew over its cage, finally one day, its cage opened up, our eagle walked out, occasionally flapping its wings.
Gradually it began to raise its wings, and then for the first time in its life it flew, soon it was soaring like an eagle that it was. Deep inside of you there is a writer, waiting to be released. May be you belong to the school of thought that believes that writing is a talent, permit me to disagree with you, to the eagle soaring is not a talent, its a way of life, and so to man writing is not a talent, its a lifestyle. Whether you will end up as a prolific writer, or as a miserable one, largely depends on what you do with the writer chained inside of you.
Maybe tomorrow: People say procrastination is the thief of time, to me time is not the only thing procrastination steals it steals everything. So many people will never write their first article because they want to write it tomorrow, you and I know that there has never been any day called tomorrow, and there will never be, tomorrow lives in the heart of man and it will never come. So why not pick up your pen and write your first article now.
Its not good enough:
Another major reason why you may never write your first article is because you feel your draft is just not good enough. What ever happens sweetheart keep writing, things will only get better, put in extra effort to write articles, don't bother about making it the best article on the internet, if you wait till when you will be able to write your best article, you'd be waiting forever, no matter how it looks write.
Finish before you start: Never start an article you have not finished, take extra time to plan your articles, this will enable you predefine the pattern in which your article will go, if all you do is just to pick up your pen and write, you may end up distracting your reader, and diverting their attention, from where you first began, this might leave them more confused after reading your article, than they were before then, carefully jot down the main points of your article, and how it will go.
Arm yourself: There are so many tools you will need to perfect your writing skills, however for starters, please take advantage of, the dictionary, search engines and other peoples articles.While search engines will help you search out resource materials you will be needing to make up your articles, a constant visit to the dictionary will not only improve your vocabulary, it will make you a more confident writer, if all you learn in a day is a new word, at the end of the year you will have added 365 more words to your
vocabulary. Going through articles of prolific writers will give you the opportunity of comparing their writing styles; it will teach you so many tips on writing flawlessly, if you are observant you will also learn from them how to catch your readers attention and keep them glued to your article till the very end.
Find a niche area: As a beginner, concentrate on a selected niche area, and use it to master the art of writing, learn to express yourself literarily, push your words out from within, with time you will mature into taking control of your words, and by then you will be able to dabble into any niche area and still make impact. In choosing this niche area, look within, what makes you happy? What makes you sad? What kind of person are you? What you feel about this niche area will determine your passion for it. If for instance you love pets, your passion for pets can increase your desire to search out information concerning pets. If you hate a situation, you will give all you can to either correct it or bring it to an end.
Pick a title: Haven identified your niche, pick a title. The title you pick for your article is very important; your title is like your articles dress, someone who is meeting you for the first time, will be able to say one or two things about you based on the way you are dressed, let me ask you a simple question, your article is posted alongside a hundred others on one page, and all I can see are hundreds of article titles, what will make me leave the other articles and choose to read your own? You must have a catchy title, no matter how good your article is, no matter how rich in information it is, people might never get to read it, unless you brand it well, just as you learn the art of writing articles, also learn to write catchy titles, its highly important.
Break it down: After picking a title, break it down, this enables you to ensure that every information you want to pass on to your reader is contained in the article, it also makes your job easier as you will be able to think through each subgroup before linking them together.
Be creative: Don't just write, write creatively, if you write just any thing you will kill you readers interest, think about this, why do you read just a few lines of some articles, and read some over and again? Its because of the writer's skill, write with extra care; think of the best way to express your self, use stories, humor, motivation, quotes, if there is a need for it, whatever you do try to be as creative as you can.
Read, read, read: Someone said 'the man who wont read has no advantage over the man who can't read', reading extensively, exposes you to so much information, as an article writer you should know so many things, because you can't give what you don't have, you cant tell people what you don't know, if you want to succeed as an article writer you have no choice, read books on your niche area, read articles on it, please educate your self.
Accept criticism: Writing is sure not an easy task, and after you have taken time to research a topic and write on it, someone sends you a hate mail and says yours was the worst article he read in the past 5 years, please smile, send him a thank you mail, at least he took his time to read the nonsense you wrote, pull your self together and please keep writing, you can only get better.
Write on: Make writing a part of you, get a personal note book for your articles, write when you feel like, write when you don't,Whenever an idea comes to you write it down, nothing will perfect your writing skills like practice, keep writing.
Omowunmi Sanyaolu is a Nigerian Accountant, she writes motivational articles, short stories, and poems.
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