Writing is like planting your own garden. You can’t make fresh fruits and vegetables appear just by snapping your fingers. It takes time for a garden to grow. You must seed the soil, water and feed plants to help them take root, pull weeds to provide room for growth and protect your crops from dangers such as stormy weather or bugs.
Content production follows a similar principle. An article, blog post or press release rarely springs forth from a writer’s mind as fully formed and polished products. You must carefully nourish ideas and words through each stage of development.
Key stages of content development for your press release writing service
Going from idea to finished content represents a journey of several small steps. An author writing a novel can only unravel a story word by word and scene by scene. A journalist writing a newspaper article and a PR professional writing a press release must follow the same formula:
This formula for content production includes these key stages of development:
Remain in research mode: Ideas don’t grow on trees. You need to place yourself in a research mode at all times. It does not need to be resolved for planning or brainstorming sessions alone. Once an idea emerges in your mind, begin writing down ways you can develop that idea. Then, gather resources you can use to help flesh it out. Your content’s quality will become dramatically enhanced if you don’t wait.
Use your own voice: Beginning writers are often told to imitate the writing styles of successful writers until they find their own voice. This is a good starting point. Eventually, though, you must move on from being a copycat. Your content should have an individual style that represents your own brand or personality. Everything your produce should be in this voice that is unique to you.
Focus on a single topic: Content should get to the point right away and focus on a main topic. Before you write, decide on your central topic and then stick to it. Edit out anything that detracts from the main topic at hand – no matter how well written it reads or sounds. If a reader gets lost reading your content, you lose their attention and interest.
Find original angles: Covering the same topics that other people are already writing about only works if you add something new to the conversation. Make an effort to find a unique angle or fresh take on a subject. If you can’t find it, then write about something else. No one pays attention to a copycat.
Match depth and length: Two bad habits can undermine content. One is not giving enough detail to fully flesh out an idea. The other is giving more detail than necessary in limited space. Tackle topics in depth when space permits. Short articles should touch on main points. Longer articles can add more details to a topic.
John C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
