Writing A Good Article Is Telling A Good Story

Article writing assignments used to be pure torture for me. Not entirely, of course, because I probably would have thrown up my hands and stopped cold. Why would anyone put themselves through so much anxiety if they didn't have to?

What prevented me from quitting was the knowledge that once I got beyond a certain point, everything would fall into place. Easy, right? Just push yourself through to what I began to call the Jazz Hands point and it was smooth sailing from there. The problem was that getting to Jazz Hands was the torture part. And there was no predictable way to know how long it would last. It could be an hour or five hours or three days. I had no way of knowing.

You can see the dilemma. If I was going to continue writing good articles I had to figure out a way to get to Jazz Hands as quickly as possible. That pretty much meant finding a process that allowed me to short circuit the torture part at will. I had to find the "no detours" route to Jazz Hands.

Finding Jazz Hands

I should probably explain why I thought of the process as Jazz Hands. I'm a big fan of the old Hollywood song and dance movies. One thing you could always count on was the Big Dance Number. Sometimes it involved 50 or 60 dancers dressed to the nines in gowns and tuxedos. Dancing their way through the routine, going up and down elaborate staircases with feet tapping in unison was always an awesome sight.

I waited in anticipation for the point where the gentlemen raised their white gloved hands waving them from side to side. Jazz Hands. For me, that was where it all came together and made the routine visually and emotionally memorable.

It is the same with my writing. Writing good articles means that you first have to understand the guidelines and boundaries required.

*Topic
*Focus
*Length
*Audience

Without these guidelines, without knowing the boundaries, you might as well set up the nearest chimp with a computer keyboard and tell him to have at it. With any luck the chimp won't make you look like a chump. Okay, mildly corny but you get the point.

Boundaries Equal Freedom

As contradictory as it may sound, knowing the boundaries actually gives you a lot of freedom. It allows you to immediately eliminate distractions and to sharpen your focus. My intent to write a good article was hampered by my inability to find a focus. Staring at the keyboard without striking a single key allowed me to chalk up a lot of work hours. It sounded good until I looked at the empty pages.

Knowing the boundaries doesn't mean not to think and write outside of the box. It just means that you know when you've made that magical leap from writing an okay article to writing a really good article. In my experience, thinking outside the box almost always requires some passion for what you are doing. Passion makes all the difference in the world.

When all is said and done, writing a good article is about telling a story. I could care less about fly fishing but I can be passionate about telling a story about fly fishing. It's the process. It's where I find my Jazz Hands.

First I define the guidelines and boundaries. And then I ask, how can I tell this story in the most compelling way? I know I've found Jazz Hands when I can say, I'm going to tell you a story that happens to be about fly fishing. When there is passion in the process, I know I am writing a good article.

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