Don’t let overwhelm hold you back— follow this expert advice and start writing your promotional article today.In Part 1, I talked about
importance of planning and structuring your article. Here are three more essential steps to help you make sure your article is ready to go.
4. Avoid clichés (like plague). As in, clichéd language, clichéd advice, and clichéd topics. To refresh your memory, a cliché is anything that's over-used, banal, or tired. It's anything we've all heard 1,000 times before and hoped we'd never hear again.
Some typical examples of overworked expressions (and there are thousands):
... bring you up to speed, at end of day, since time immemorial, chilled to bone, a gleam in his eye, her heart leapt into her mouth, a level playing field, when all is said and done, on same page ...
Clichéd language can be fixed with a good edit. First, determine whether you really need that phrase. If you do, express concepts in ordinary terms. So, for "see if we’re on same page", substitute "see if we all agree".
Clichéd advice and topics might include:
"Achieve your goals" "Build life you want" "Don't worry, be happy" "Empower yourself" and, my personal fave, sent to me in an e-mail newsletter: "Take a bubble bath".
I include in this category any concept that's corny and sentimental, or writing that attempts to express inexpressible: all those fluttering leaves, vibrant sunsets, and yearning sighs.
It's really tough to write about intense emotions or universal experiences in a way that's original and subtle. Great novelists and poets spend their lives struggling to do this. If you’re not careful, it's easy to end up sounding like a 50-cent greeting card.
Fixing clichéd ideas is more challenging than fixing clichéd language. You need to ask tough questions:
"What does this phrase mean? What am I really saying here? What situations illustrate this? What do I want people to get? What value am I adding here?"
Remember that people are looking for straight talk and solutions to problems. Your solutions. They want your ideas, expressed with your urgency and importance.
So don't give your readers hackneyed ideas expressed in stale language. Don't fob them off with a bubble bath, try shoving them into a brisk, eye-opening cold shower instead.
5. Proofread Your article has to be 100% perfect in grammar, spelling and punctuation before public gets to see it. The public means anyone visiting your Web site, and anyone you submit your article to for feedback or possible publication.
I confess, I did work as a professional proofreader for a time. And when you spend your life looking for missing periods and dots over i's, you tend to get a little demanding. But there's a reason for my concern.
Your article isn't like a casual e-mail that you zap off without reviewing or editing: It's more permanent and public. Your article is you, and people are going to assess your value by how you present it.
