Aspiring Writer’s Guide: Mastering the Art of Content Creation

Not all of us want to spend their life with numbers. Some of us are wordsmiths, visual storytellers and artistically inclined. We like to shift mindsets with our stories. We see beauty and inspiration all around us and give flight to our imagination to create maximum impact. We want to be writers, content creators, storytellers.

There are many kinds of content and many ways to consume content. Writing for podcasts, webinars, ebooks, magazines, newspapers, websites, social media, films can be a great way to showcase your expertise in storytelling. Creating videos and reels is another way of telling your story. I like the documentary style of videos, informative and educative. Byte-sized videos are a norm in current times, so punch lines are the key here.

Understanding Your Audience

Now, each medium requires a different approach, as I learned the hard way. I started my career as a feature writer, way back in 1999. Writing in a magazine meant a story that went up to 3,000 words! It would be divided into sub-heads with deep analytical insights by experts.

As time passed, the word count decreased to 1,000-1,500 words and finally 250-300 words. As I saw the internet take gigantic proportions, the paragraphs turned into checklists and bullet points; photographs turned into infographics and illustrations, memes and videos beat them all. So, writing and content creation is now also an AI-generated affair. This means, you need to fight man, his attention span and machines when taking a leap into a career in storytelling, writing and content creation.

Before beginning your career in writing, blogging, vlogging, podcasting, YouTubeing, ask yourself some pertinent questions:

What is your area of interest and expertise?

Who are going to be your ideal listeners or readers?

What are their pain points, needs, and interests?

How will your content help them solve a problem, learn something new, or take action?

Knowing your purpose and audience will help you craft a relevant and compelling content strategy.

Mastering Different Content Formats

As someone who professionally creates books, podcasts, magazines, newspaper articles, newsletters, social media, blogs, vlogs, and fiction, I know that each format has its own nuances and process of creation. People often go with the format they are most familiar, as audiences understand the details to some extent.

How do you write for different formats? What are the best practices to follow?

Writing generic forms of content does not help in building a community. Creating for a specific content does garner more attention. So, defining your target segment and understanding their expectations and behaviour is crucial.

Depending on the type and length of your content, you’ll need to choose the most suitable format and structure to deliver your information.

For podcasts, you can opt for solo, interview, or co-hosted formats, depending on your topic and style. You’ll also need to decide how long your episodes will be, and how often you’ll publish them.

For webinars, you can use slides, videos, polls, or Q&A sessions to make your presentation interactive and engaging. You’ll also need to plan how long your webinar will last, and how you’ll follow up with your attendees.

For ebooks/books, you can use text, images, charts, or infographics to illustrate your points. You’ll also need to organize your ebook into chapters, sections, and subheadings, and include a table of contents, an introduction, and a conclusion.

Writing for a visual medium such as YouTube, vlogs, social media starts with “show, don’t tell” perspective.

You can watch some of my videos on YouTube and Instagram.

Crafting Compelling Content

Regardless of the format, the content should be clear, concise, and captivating. You should avoid jargon, fluff, and complex sentences that might confuse or bore your audience.

Injecting personal touches and experiential tone into your content makes it more relatable, memorable and motivational. You can do this by using stories, anecdotes, examples, humour, or emotions.

You can also use rhetorical devices, such as questions, repetition, or contrast, to emphasize your points and keep your audience’s attention.

Writing or creating content for an audience is a dialogue not a monologue. It’s important to be open to feedback and constructive suggestions.

You can get expert opinion or work with people in the industry to ensure you surpass industry standards.

Optimizing Content for SEO

Optimizing your content for search engines and conversions, using the best SEO practices, keywords and trends helps your content reach a larger audience.

SEO keywords define the topic, categories, issues discussed in the article. SEO keywords in your text, headlines and hashtags helps the audience find your content.

Be sure to add titles, meta descriptions, and tags that match your audience’s search intent and expectations.

For retaining the audience, you should include a clear and compelling calls to action, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a freebie, or registering for a course.

Before publishing or sharing your content, you must edit and proofread carefully. Your content should be free of grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors that might undermine your credibility or professionalism. You should check your content for clarity, coherence, and consistency. You can also ask someone else to review your content and give you feedback.

Promoting and Repurposing Content

People consume content across places and regions, so their preferences vary. You can use the same content in different formats across different platforms.

You should share your content on your website, blog, social media, email list, or other channels, and encourage your audience to listen, watch, or read it.

You can repurpose your content into visually stimulating social media posts, infographics, or videos.

No matter what format your podcast, webinar, or book has, creating a regular schedule for promotion and repurposing helps audiences stay in touch and wait for your content. For example, if you have a podcast, post an audiogram teaser a few days before an episode goes live.

With a regular rhythm, the audience trusts your consistency, and you’ll also know in advance how much time you need to set aside to do the original content justice.

You’ll always have a set of assets from each episode, webinar, or ebook to show sponsors, agents, clients, and inspire engagement on your channels.

You can always publish non-scheduled material as appropriate, such as curated content related to a show topic or a personal experience, to keep your channels from feeling too predictable.