By no means am I a veteran in the field. Yet, I wanted to share my process of creating a blog post, from skills attained at work experience and education. There are many transferable skills that you can apply to other daily tasks, and hopefully this will become evident.
The beauty of starting a blog is that there are no limits to what you can write about. Do you want it to become a place for investigative journalism, or cooking tutorials, or sports opinion (amongst others)? The content that you focus on should spark your interest or challenge your understanding of something. By writing about it, you can learn a lot more about topics you didn't think you'd care about. By expanding your comprehension of a topic, you create a environment for development, and that's what I like to focus on. So where to begin?
Research, research, research...
Like all pieces of literature, the key base of any piece of work such as a blog post is research. The buck stops here, as it will be the foundation for everything else to follow. I like to survey news, read studies, scroll through social media and message friends to conjure up a topic which I would like to speak on. Aligning your interests with a topic that you can develop on is a great way to start. Sometimes, focussing on a subject like sports, travel, politics, (or in the very niche cases) species of flower, or Nike boots can automatically develop your writing ability because you have the initial interest to find out more about said certain topic. It's difficult to write about something you don't have an interest in.
Once I have scanned the internet for interesting topics and researched their content, I then try to take a different angle on whichever topic I have decided to focus on. This is tricky, because it requires you to be as critical and intuitive as possible. Let's give an example:
Here, we have the BBC News website. Of course this is only one source out of many, but for the sake of this exercise, we're going to focus on it.
The eye of the needle...
There are already a wide variety of topics to choose from on this one page. It lists UK politics, foreign politics, environmentalism, crime, health etc. As the BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB), you can be assured that their coverage of each article is mostly impartial and unbiased. In the case of The Flip Side, I like to take a step back and critique the content that a news organisation such as the BBC has published. So to not analyse a wholly controversial topic, let's have a look at the article regarding firefighters using sewage water. The title alone poses questions as to the reasons for using sewage water, and that's why stories such as these are intriguing to read. We can then highlight small details which uncover a narrative that you can develop on with the subject matter:
Even from this small excerpt, there is lots to decipher. You could start off with the authors of said article, conduct research on previous content and their backgrounds, and make judgments on their pre-dispositions and biases to this particular piece. This applies to a variety of content streams that can be deconstructed, such as theses, research papers, reports, videos etc. It's usually a good idea to attempt to discover the attributors motive for their work.
The structure of the article is short, direct and informative, typical of investigative journalism that is designed to rationally inform the masses (AKA normative reporting). You can be assured that this is due to the BBC's responsibility to inform as a PSB should. You'll also notice that as you're reading this article, your inner voice might sound like what you would hear from BBC News at Six on TV. It's sole purpose is to convey information in an orderly fashion to readers, and it does just that. They call upon expert sources such as National Resources Wales, Welsh Water and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescure Service to provide first-hand perspectives on the usage of sewage water for firefighting.
These structural changes vary from different sources of content, from tabloid newspapers (emotive, populist, spectacular), to YouTube channels (engaging, eye-catching, colourful), to lifestyle blogs (educational, reflective, personal). It is vital that you identify the way in which content has been curated, otherwise you will be missing the point of the content entirely.
Mull it over...
At first glance, the obvious focus of this excerpt from the BBC is the impact of climate change on water levels in Wales, and the effects on fire services in Wales in 2022. You can assume that the scope of reference (i.e. who does this story influence?) is appealing to people living in Wales, those interested in climate change stories, and those who like water treatment methods (not sure I'm one).
You'll remember that I mentioned about understanding the attributor's motives - this is because you want to determine who the story is written for, and why? We know that this consideration takes place because of the way different news companies report the same events. The content material would be wildly different if GB News was to report on this story, and you have to ask yourself why this is? This is another key aspect of writing your own story, to know your audience and target it. The BBC has a wide range of ages, genders and demographics that consume its content, so it must appeal to the wider consumer. They will of course aim to attract as many people as possible with their reporting, but also keep the news relevant for those it concerns.
And then, you must properly read. It may seem like the process before actually reading the article is slow and laborious, but eventually, you become used to it, and do it as you read. You can get a sense of these factors just from remembering recurring authors and their motive from the content itself, regardless of which publication or scope of reference.
You should repeat this process for however many articles you see fit. I personally like to take in around 8-15 written texts from reputable sources to study a subject before I even think about writing. This is something that university moulded in to my brain, because as I've realised, research is the key to discover something new about a subject. You can't find out something new from a topic you know nothing about beforehand. Hopefully, by aligning your current knowledge with research that you've done, you're able to find a story within it, and build on it from there.
And they're off...
Once you're happy that you've fully analysed whatever research it is you've found, the onus is now on you to uncover what makes something interesting. As you're writing, keep referring back to your research and findings to expose more ideas in your head. It's not a step-by-process in a lot of ways, I find it to be more like a web.
Do not be disheartened if you find yourself getting stuck. This is normal. Sometimes the best way to continue a piece of writing is to walk away. Studies on humans' "cycle of alertness" shows that the maximum time someone can focus non-stop is 90 minutes. Take your time. If you rush your work it won't be up to scratch.
I don't recommend deleting what you've written as you go along however. Get to a finishing point and rearrange your work. You might find that something you've written initally poorly fits in quite nicely in another part of your blog post. This is why you have to proof-read mercliessly. (See my point?) Typo's aren't a great look, and I've left many in work before unfortunately. Just try to be as diligent as possible. Give your work to others for criticism as well. Not just for grammar, but for alternative viewpoints on content. This is optional of course, but it can heighten the standard of writing no doubt.
Now all that is left to do is publish. Good luck!
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I hope this has given you a nice idea of the processes that I utilise to write my work. If you enjoy it, then maybe you'll have an appreciation for how I do things on here. If not, someone else on the internet definitely has a better how-to guide anyway.
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