14. 3. Make contact.
• Be polite
• Give some of your qualifications and
interests
• No boilerplate
• Keep it to just a few sentences
• Link to other work you’ve had
published, if applicable
16. “Let’s say that he should go out and
hang himself because he finds that
writing well is impossibly difficult.
Then he should be cut down
without mercy and forced by his
own self to write as well as he can
for the rest of his life. At least he
will have the story of the hanging to
commence with.”
—Ernest Hemingway
17. 1. Find a subject you care about
and are knowledgeable about.
• Commit to only one
18. 2. Learn about your target
publication.
•
•
•
•
Tone
Person
Word count
Technical level
19. 3. Take inspiration from what
you like to read.
•
•
•
•
•
Style
Words
Examples
Quotations
References
20. 4. Discover what organizational
method works for you.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Notes
Outline
Burst of inspiration
Music
Walk away
Sit and commit
21. 5. Have the courage to write
badly.
• Fear gives you writer’s block
• The first sentence is just something to
build on
• Get through the first draft
• Revisit, revise, rewrite
22. 6. Start with a bang.
• Grab your reader
• Set up what’s to come
• Look for inspiration
23. 7. Avoid clichés like the plague.
•
•
•
•
Definitions
Google search results
Most people…
Just like me
24. 8. Choose your words wisely.
•
•
•
•
•
Generic
Pretentious
Wordiness
Sensationalism
Alphabet soup
25. 9. Short is sweet.
•
•
•
•
Break up run-on sentences
3 to 5 sentences per paragraph
Optimized for screens
White space is less intimidating
26. 10. End with a decisive last
sentence.
•
•
•
•
Summary
Looking ahead
Quotation
Call to action
28. 1. Come back to it.
•
•
•
•
•
Reread immediately
Clear your head
Sleep on it
Any questions?
Try to be objective
29. 2. Read it out loud.
• Make sure it sounds natural
• Revise for length
30. 3. Employ another set of eyes.
•
•
•
•
Someone whose opinion you value
Preferably another writer
Someone in your field
Take criticism/suggestions seriously
33. 1. Use action words.
• More verbs and adverbs, fewer nouns
and adjectives
Compare:
• Twitter soars 73% in stock market debut
• Twitter IPO shares up 73% by end of day
34. 2. Use numbers.
• Lists
• Numerals, not words
• Place at beginning of headline
Instead of: “Maximize your time with
these five tips”
Write: “5 tips to maximize your time”
35. 3. Teach the people.
• “An introduction to”
• “How to”
• “The beginner’s guide to”
36. 4. But don’t be pushy.
This analysis was based on a sample of over 100,000 paid links that ran in
Outbrain’s network between April and November 2012.
37. 5. Be a Negative Nancy.
• Use “no,” “not,” “without,” “stop”
Instead of: “This app will make your
life easier”
Write: “The app you can’t live without”
38. 6. Add some power words.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Smart
Surprising
Science
History
Hacks (hacking, hackers, etc.)
Huge/ big
Critical
Iris Shoor and her company Takipi analyzed the top 100 blogs to see which
words in headlines made a post get more shares
39. 7. Consider SEO.
• Be specific
• Include terms people will search for
Instead of: “Get better at organizing
your day”
Write: “A guide to organizing your day
and increasing focus”
Write: “10 smart tips to organize your
day and make you more productive”
45. Exercise 1: Story topics
Write a short paragraph
that sums up an original
story idea. This should
establish what the rest of
your story will be about.
46. Example 1:
Using the recent problems plaguing the
Healthcare.gov site as a case study, this story will
show readers the importance of an organization being
able to support a healthy project culture in order to
mitigate these types of project disasters.
Example 2:
While we all know that agile software development
has grown enormously over the past several years,
many companies still find themselves practicing
waterfall development. This story will detail the
obstacles preventing an organization from adopting
agile and the problems organizations have when
confronting change.
47. Exercise 2: Writing
headlines
Read the beginnings of
the following two stories
and write three headlines
designed to get the most
clicks.
48. An analysis of Steve Jobs’ career revealed that his
rather unceremonious exit from his first tenure at
Apple made him learn new skills that were needed to
run a large corporation. One of the skills was
improving the ability to work with a diverse set of
people, which is broadly an attribute of good
teamwork. Of the many sources available to learn
about teamwork, sports-related metaphors are often
the best.
The Tour de France is one of the most arduous cycling
events in the world. Being strong, aggressive, and
strategic are often mentioned as key skills needed to
master this event. But in addition to these skills,
teamwork is usually the key factor that separates the
winners from the losers.
49. The black swan theory is a metaphor used to
describe an event that comes as a surprise and has
major consequences. Black swans have been
receiving attention lately because of the
Healthcare.gov technical woes, but the health care
rollout isn’t the first software project to be
characterized as a black swan.
In the Computerworld article about the project’s
problems, it defines black swan as an event that is
difficult to predict and is disruptive. But given the
long history of flawed and failed projects and plenty
written on lessons learned, why should any
software disaster come as such a surprise that it’s
called a black swan event?
