Questions

Article writing tips are something that should be shared between and amongst all those who labor over producing quality content for whatever reasons. Be it for blog post or article marketing, routinely developing writing ideas that are popular with our readers can be difficult.

The ability to find topics to fuel your creative writing is more a learned skill then it is a talent. Learning to write articles your readers will enjoy and on a continual basis is a key to your success as an author. Developing an efficient writing process that will regularly produce positive results serves only to save you time and keep you motivated.

Today we’re going to address 5 simple tactics that we can use to find popular topics upon which to base our article writing.  

Blog Comments

If you’ve got a blog look the comments left and take some direction from them. Usually readers will indicate if a post was of interest to them and why. The more comments you get on a particular post the more popular the topic is to readers.

Branch out from popular post with sub-topics and write about them

No Blog No Problem

If you don’t have your own blog visit sites within your niche and review the comments left there for ideas. Remember you’re looking at comments left by ‘real’ people and their indications as to what is of interest to them is a gold mine of ideas for your article writing.

Twitter

This fast growing social network site is a great source of popular and up to date topics. Just log in and look on the right hand side of the screen for trending topics. This is where members are having smaller discussions on issues and/or events that are of interest to them.

Twitter is an invaluable real time search engine and can be used for many different research projects.



Search a Topic Using Google Suggest Tool

When you’re typing a particular topic into the menu bar while doing a search on Google a pull down menu will appear suggesting other popular searches. By taking each suggestion and retyping them into the search bar you’ll come up with a whole new list of ‘popular’ suggestions to research or write about.

Keyword Research

Take keywords relative to your area of interest and search for other keywords you can use. Similar to using the Google Keyword Suggestion tool we spoke of above here you’ll re-enter popular keywords you found to develop a whole new list of words or phrases. Fresh ideas for hot topics to write about.

Simply target the most searched upon words since this indicates their popularity. In a nutshell you’re just learning to write articles based upon the popularity of the topic itself and not by choosing your topics on a whim.

Anybody that composes content on a regular basis always appreciates any article writing tips that will make things easier. Maintaining a steady supply of writing ideas whose topics are popular with the readers certainly helps streamline the entire writing process itself. By utilizing any or all of the above discussed techniques you should be easily able to stimulate your creative writing juices. Keeping readers informed on subjects they have an interest in will serve to make your article marketing and blog posting efforts easier and more productive.


- TJ Philpott

Was the movie Hart’s War a true story based on real people?
- Alicia O

In short story writing, dialogue is very important for a number of reasons. I’ve listed a few below, not in order of importance - all are important - but to give a ‘points to ponder’ rundown. So - what about dialogue, then?

Dialogue can be defined as the interaction between two characters on a vocal level. Good dialogue can and should convey mood, information and move the story along.

It is important within a story specifically written for printing in, say, women’s magazines that there is dialogue within the story. Any story can be written as a narrative, that is to say as a descriptive passage - the ‘he said, she said, they went, they did this’ type of writing.

There’s nothing wrong with this at all, but on a magazine page it can look blocky and boring, with text-heavy paragraphs. Always try to intersperse dialogue - my research shows, very roughly, an 80/20 split between narrative and dialogue in women’s magazine stories.

Dialogue gives the reader an impression that the characters are real people - and that’s vital. Real people talk to each other, don’t they? However, characters in any story do NOT talk like real people. Let’s look at an example.

Real Life: ‘Hey, Tom - how are you? Did you stay late, er you know, after that row that Dan and Kate had? I mean, you know, that was really, well, quite a doozy. Could’ve wrecked the party, yeah? Don’t know what they were, you know, rowing about, do you?’

‘Hi, Bill, I’m fine. No, Mary and me had to get back for the sitter - you know how it is - so we left after a couple more drinks. Er, I haven’t seen Dan today, I think he’s working, maybe. But I think you’re right - the party was, like, finished by that row.’

Story Life: ‘Hi Tom, It’s Bill. That row between Dan and Kate was a real party killer, wasn’t it? Do you know what it was about?’

‘Not a clue. We left after a couple more drinks, anyway - the party was finished. I haven’t seen Dan since to ask him what the problem was.’

Which reads better? And yet the ’story life’ snippet is not the way people really talk to each other, is it? Prove it to yourself - next time you’re anywhere people are having a conversation, listen to all the ‘Ums’, ‘ah wells’ and ‘ers’.

The reason that this works for people in real life is that their communication isn’t restricted to speech. They convey emotion, opinion, suggestion and a host of other information by facial expression, tone of voice and body language - things that are very difficult to indicate accurately on the page. Too, the shorter, punchier speech used in ’story life’ moves the story along - and if you’ve only got 2,000 words to work with your story needs to move pretty quickly.

Dialogue can introduce tension into a story that’s almost impossible to include in narrative. Whilst it’s true that a good writer can wind his reader up to screaming pitch with expert narrative, there usually simply isn’t either room or a call for it in the 2,000-worder.

For an example of narrative power, try reading Steven King’s ‘The Shining’ - the part where the bushes seem to come to life. That’s narrative description at its best. It’s much easier - and quicker - for a novice writer to escalate tension, or indicate a mood or feeling, by use of tight, accurate dialogue.

Try an exercise. Write a dialogue piece about two people discussing the day’s news - maybe there’s been a building fire, or a politician has been exposed for dirty dealing - it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about word length - take the dialogue to its conclusion. Dont use any narrative - make it a pure ‘talking heads situation.

When you have finished, rewrite it using half the wordage whilst still keeping all the main points of conversation. Do you notice the improvement? Now read both aloud. Which do you think reads better?

There should be a balance between dialogue and narrative. In the example I just asked you to write, I mentioned ‘talking heads’. There is a danger when writing dialogue that this is what your story becomes - one long conversation. Again, in real life this can happen but in story life it doesn’t.

A temptation creeps in when writing to include every last detail in dialogue - the exact opposite of the ‘he said, she said’ reportive narrative. Whilst a fairly long dialogue string is not a problem - it is especially good for building tension through the use of very short sentences - used to excess it can leave a pretty bare-looking page. Long dialogue takes room.

I’ve read novels where there are two, three and more full pages of solid dialogue. At least in a novel you have the room to do this - in a short story you’ll likely run out of wordage. Also, long dialogue strings can be tricky to handle if the reader is not to ‘get lost’.

This is especially true if the characters have a similar ‘voice - it’s much easier to keep the reader on track if you have two very different ‘voices for your characters. Consider how differently a lecturer may speak in your story compared with one of his or her students - and how much easier the dialogue string is to handle if it’s to go on for any length of time!

In conclusion, I can summarise that although dialogue is crucial to your story it mustn’t be allowed to dominate it. Always aim for a balance - the 80/20 split I mentioned earlier is a good benchmark to aim for as a novice short-story writer.

Keep sentences short, leave out ums, ahs and so forth - they have no real place in written dialogue unless for a special effect ( a person with a bad speech impediment, for instance). And read! It’s all a part of knowing how it’s done - and most good writers are voracious readers.

Get to know your market also - if you aim to write for women’s magazines - read them! (And guys - you can always pretend they’re for your wife or girlfriend at the checkout like I do!)


- Steve Dempster

My protagonist is an aspiring race car driver and I would like to make some comments about Nascar, some of the drivers and possibly their car numbers or sponsors. What is allowed without permission? I would like to publish it when I’m done.
- periwinkleme