The Importance of Writing Interesting
What do I mean by the importance of writing interesting? Well it's something I must admit, I haven't given enough thought to myself until recently. It's one thing to pay lip service to something, it's another to actually do it.
I consider myself a good technical writer. I'm not bragging, it's something I've worked at for years. I have a good grasp of the way a sentence should be put together. A good grasp of how grammar works. This is no guarantee that people will be interested in what I have to say.
If you love music and I'm writing about Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, it doesn't matter how well I write, you won't give my article more than a cursory glance. It just won't interest you.
On the other hand, if I write about the giant rhinoceros that was seen rampaging through the streets of downtown Niagara Falls I'll capture a wider audience. At least initially. I'll have grabbed your attention, if only for a moment. The question is how do you hold it?
Well for one thing you have to remember you can't be all things to all people. I can make writing about accounting as interesting as possible. I can include background stories about my childhood, and real life examples of my ideas in action, but at the end of the day, if you have no interest in accounting, you simply won't read my article. That's okay, your audience will always be finite.
Accept the limitations of your topic and move on. Once you've done that, think about how you can spice things up. Bring a little passion to your writing. You've lived, you have experiences. Bring them into your writing.
In my office we like to throw in a little humour to get us through our day. We do our job and we do it well, but we do it with a little fun. Treat your blog like your own office. Spice it up. Don't just muddle through. You're not writing a technical training module. you're writing a blog! Bring it to life.
Oh and by the way, I made up the giant rhinoceros. Do you find you're writing to be a little bland? Do you think you could spice things up? Give it a go, make a conscious effort to bring your next blog post to life. Let me know how it works out. I'd love to hear from you.
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