Confessions of a Serial Writer

I’m not sure when it began or who’s to blame, but at some point in my writing career I got lazy. Or maybe I got smart. I started skipping the long research on a topic and reading up on its history. I just started making a list of main points and then writing out a couple of sentences on each item.

I think I got the idea from Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, who said if you can write a 7 item grocery list, you can write a good article. Now Jeff teaches article writing for people who struggle with writing and have a hard time coming up with stuff.

That’s not my problem. I love writing – but my problem is writing too much. Anyone with a doctorate suffers from the same disease. Dissertation-itis. Nobody has time to read all those words anymore, especially not online.

That’s when I fell in love with the "Make a List" writing school. Their theory is anything worth reading can be written in a list of bulleted points.

I confess, I’ve taken the list building approach to an extreme. I’ve become a serial writer.

I wish I could say that it’s the cure for writer’s block, or that it’ll turn your work into Internet gold. I will proclaim it to be a rousing success for saving you time and energy whenever you’re faced with writing for your ezine, blog, web pages, press releases, and even white papers.

Here’s how to start a serial writing project: (in list form, of course)

1. Find an idea your readers want to know more about that will benefit them
    
2. Make a list of 5 main points
3. Write an overview of the idea with the 5 points listed and post it on your blog
    
4. Each day for the next 5 days write a blog post about each of the 5 points
5. Write a summary of the 5 points, reviewing them and reminding readers why this is important
6. Edit each blog post into a stand alone article
7. Compile the 7 articles into one full article.
8. Use the full article as a PDF special report or ebook bonus
9. Turn the blog posts into an autoresponder series or mini ecourse
10. Edit your work so that it is appropriate for article directories, press releases, white papers
     

This follows my secret writing formula: 1 idea = 5 points + intro + summary = 7 articles + 1 PDF report, or 1=5+2=7+1.

The key, of course, is writing with the reader’s interests in mind, keeping it benefit oriented. But I’ll confess, the real reason I’m a serial writer is for me: to save myself time and energy and to get the most mileage from my writing. Of course, readers benefit because it is easy for them to digest information in lists and chunks.

But I’m doing it more for myself. There, I’ve said it. I feel better.

Link to read Serial Writing Formula 1+5+2=7+1 here.