Back in the day when putting bread on my table depended on my ability to write articles quickly, I developed an easy system that I use to this day.
1. Decide on the number of words in your article. For illustration, let’s say you want to write a 500 word article on collecting political campaign buttons.
2. Next, figure out how many sub-topics you want to write about, i.e. Republican, Democrat, Third Party, and value. So you have 4 sub-topics of the main topic: How to collect campaign buttons.
3. Assume you’ll write 75 words in your opening paragraph and 25 words in your closing paragraph (this is an estimate – but close enough). Opening and closing graphs take up 100 of your 500 words.
4. Take the remaining 400 words and divide them equally among your sub-topics. That means each of your topics will get 100 words each. Writing 100 words is a breeze. (This article already has 154 words)
5. Write your article!
Here’s the deal. Once you follow the formula above, you know exactly how many words you need to write about each sub-topic. This will keep you focused and concise–and if you use this technique consistently, writing an article in 15 or 20 minutes will become second nature.
Try this article writing technique next time you’re facing the blank page and let me know how it works for you.
