11 April 2012
Explainers
How to write a how-to.... They're a cliche and laughable-- and perhaps the most popular genre of story on the web. Writing them hones your ability to explain things clearly mainly by cutting out jargon and imagining what your readers will experience reading your piece and whether they'll read it through or click away.
Some examples pulled pretty much at random: swatting flies, public speaking, writing a novel, writing a novel a different way and, (a guaranteed crowd magnet) how to lose ten pounds.
Tips:
People mostly want to know not how to do something new but how to do something better-faster-smoother.
Get to the point! No irrelevancies. No extra words. No sidetracks.
Be informal and always be thinking about the reader's needs.
Write it as if it were a well-done email to a pal.
Break it up because people scan these things. Use subheads, paragraph breaks, bullet points.
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