So, for this step, you need to focus on writing better headlines, getting better featured images, and making high quality introductions. There isn’t a set length for leads, but for articles like this one the reader should be hooked before your “more” tag – that is, the preview of the post on the blog’s main page. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.” It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. “Your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. The reader’s eye must be caught and kept hostage until the end of the piece – it’s not good providing value later on if 32% of your audience has left before the 150 word mark. The “lead” is the time it takes for the reader to be hooked, and in this age of on-demand entertainment and social media, it needs to be priority number one. Here’s to improving our writing and avoiding common content writing mistakes, all whilst making an ass of myself.Īfter all, it’s hard enough to build a blog when your writing game is on point, let alone when you’re making mistakes that are next to impossible to spot on your own.īy taking Zinsser’s lessons on writing well, I’m going to assess my own method for:Īnd now, the main event. As such, this On Writing Well review is as much to show the key points to William Zinsser’s thoughts as it is a review of the past year of my own work here at Process Street. That’s what this book is a display of how bad both you and I are at writing. See William write a 300-page book which taught me how to correct the mistakes I never knew I was making. I used to think that I could write well enough…

If you think your writing’s any good, this book will cut you down to size…

On writing well review