Face down that blank page

However, that blank page is staring back at you, daring you to pen a single word on its pristine surface. In the following paragraphs, I aim to dispel that vacant thought and inspire you to embellish that paper with reams of your thoughts and stories.

Research

I cannot reiterate enough that research is the first thing you should do when planning a piece of writing. Always check out the facts, or information you are giving out with your article. You do not want to mis-inform your readers, they need to trust you. You should also look at others work in the same subject areas and opposing views so that you can give a more balanced viewpoint. Make notes as you go along. Do not just restrict your research to the internet, as unfortunately there is also a lot of published false information. The library and its books are still a viable source for your research.

List

Start with a list of points you would like to make in your article, then you can write under each item. This will start to create your piece, there you go, no more blank page and without even trying hard. Making these small sections will ease you into writing longer paragraphs, as you can go back and add sentences in. Some of these points can be subject headings, which will aid your reader in selecting the section they wish to scan first. Unfortunately, we humans do just scan headlines first to decide whether to read on.

Title

As I said people over just read the title and skim over the rest, so you need to make your impact in the title. Choose something that grabs the reader. Start with a working title and do not stress too much until you have written your piece. That is the time to contemplate an eye-catching title. Consider the audience you want for your writing. Then use words that might attract them.

As you write

As you start to flow with your writing, stop now and then to check for spelling and grammar, if you use the computer to do this, also do a manual check, as the computer does not notice some words. It is a good idea to reduce your usage of passive sentences too. Read aloud, to see if the words flow.  Doing these, will often point out where you need to make changes.

I hope that these points have started you off on your writing journey and your page has at least a few notes to inspire you. Remember once you have a beginning, you need the main body of your article or story, and then a closing end. Good luck.