Author: Idrees Patel

Idrees Patel is a Bachelor of Management Studies graduate, and is located in India. His goal for Writers’ Treasure to make it a resource which provides in-depth and effective writing advice for writers.

Magnetic writing enemy: boredomMagnetic writing enemy: boredom

The epidemic of boredom has attacked nearly everything.

All the new things are boring these days. Innovation in all fields is now at record low levels. New scientific and technological devices may be impressive on a technical perspective, but for the average unimpressed consumer, they’re just more marketing nonsense.

They’ve even managed to make smartphones boring these days. The latest phones from Samsung, HTC, Apple, Nokia, LG, etc. may have new features and sky-high prices, but they offer astonishingly little in terms of actual benefits over older, cheaper handsets.

But what does this have to with magnetic writing, you ask? It’s because writing, by default, is boring. It’s not interactive like a video. It’s not even as interactive as audio. It’s the oldest and safest method of communication, but writing isn’t enough these days.

You could end up writing something which is useful for your readers, but most of them won’t even bother to fully read it.

Why? They’re bored. They need help to turn the page even because there is so much they can do, so many things demanding their attention. Market saturation? Yes. But we can still defeat boredom.

We can still make our writing magnetic by ensuring it isn’t boring first. To change the default condition of a piece of writing from boring to compelling, here are the things you should keep in mind for transformation:

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What is good writing?What is good writing?

Good writing. More precisely, a piece of writing or multiple pieces of writing which have been labelled with the quality of goodness. Everyone strives to have their writing become, through hard work, good writing. Good writing is a great thing, a thing to strive for.

But what is it, really?

Why is that we don’t have a single complete definition of what exactly good writing means?

Is it because good writing is subjective? After all, for one person, a piece of writing may be good. But that same piece of writing could be pathetic for a different reader. There lies the problem. Any definition of good writing won’t hold water for a second if it’s based on the writer’s own opinion. One could say, “good writing is writing which contains so-and-so”, and then a reader with different likes / dislikes will say: “What? Those qualities worsen a piece of writing instead of the other way around…”

How can anyone define good writing when people are not really thinking of good writing as such but good writing for them (a substantial difference) and when people are thinking of effective writing and not good writing?

Takeaway: let’s forget “good writing” for a moment. Consider a different concept, effective writing. Why? Because that can be measured. And the measurement leads to comparison in terms of degrees. The most effective writing turns out to be irresistible writing. Irresistible writing, in the proper context, leads to magnetic, award-winning, profit-making and productive writing.

With that in mind, let’s move on to the qualities of good writing — ahem, I mean effective writing…

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The power of touch typing in writingThe power of touch typing in writing

We would all like writing to get easier, right?

When your writing medium is the keyboard (typing), though, it gets difficult. Imagine you are hunting and pecking your way across the keyboard with two fingers but then you spot a typo. You correct it. Then you laboriously continue to hunt and peck again. Once again you make mistakes. Then you correct mistakes. While you are correcting the mistakes, your focus is lost and you have to think again for a while, before continuing and in some cases losing your state of concentration.

It’s annoying without a doubt.

It’s because of this reason many writers continue to use the pen and paper for writing. It’s easier, faster for them, and is more creatively-oriented (you can’t press backspace, editing with red pen feels more familiar and effective in some cases etc.)

But be that as it may, there is no denying that writing using pen and paper is inconvenient in this day and age. So what can we do to make typing less annoying, and maybe, even fun?

I’m sure you guessed what I was going to say: the answer is simple. Learn touch typing.
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Tips and tricks to write effectively for web readers – Web Writing 101Tips and tricks to write effectively for web readers – Web Writing 101

You know that web writing is a lot different from print writing.

It’s because web readers are different from print readers.

Why is that, though? What makes web readers different?

Is it because they skim content before reading it (and many times they never read the full content)? Is it because they read headlines first to determine whether the content is any good? Is it because their attention spans are shorter than ever? Or is it a combination of all three?

If you said the last option, congratulations: you’re right.

The fact is: if you want your web writing to be effective web writing, you need to ensure that it follows all the correct requirements which web readers love. But what are they, anyway? Let’s see!
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Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?Warning: Do You Know that Your Paragraphs are Not Good Enough?

Have you ever wondered why your writing was not good enough?

We’ve all done it.

You write and you write. You stress over your choice of words and your sentence structure. You’ve got the headlines and the subheads perfected. Your content is fantastic, something that deserves to get viral, deserves to be read by people. It’s helpful, informative and funny as well. It’s brilliant according to you, and yet no one bothers to read it (even if you market it like crazy).

So where’s the problem here? If there were one more sentence before the 2nd and 3rd sentences in the last paragraph, a sentence like this… “You write superb paragraphs.” Then it would explain the problem. Why, though?

It’s like this: a bricklayer can do his work brilliantly, but if his fundamental blocks – the bricks – are of poor quality, then how is his work and the result going to be perfect?

If the fundamental building blocks are of low quality, then how can the overall result be a masterpiece?

And what are the fundamental building blocks in writing? … Paragraphs.

So how do we get these paragraphs right so that we can speed on our way to other important things that matter? In short, how can we master the art of writing awesome paragraphs?

That’s what we’re here for. So let’s begin, class is in session!
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Writers’ Treasure Redesign: Minimalist, Responsive, Better TypographyWriters’ Treasure Redesign: Minimalist, Responsive, Better Typography

After nearly a year of waiting, the new Writers’ Treasure design is here. Yup, it’s finally here. After last redesigning this blog way back in December 2010, I started work on this design a year ago, but was forced to put it on hold for my exams (see last article). But now, it’s here. And it looks better than ever, don’t you think?

The key features of this redesign are:

  • Minimalist. Over the last year or so, web design trends have rapidly evolved. From clutter and the mess that were three-column designs came minimalism and two-column designs. There’s something so soothing about cream backgrounds and simple two columns… much better than the three-column mess the old design used to be (and not to mention that the new cream background looks so much better than the old oh-so-garish dark blue background). This is a writer’s blog, and now, it really looks like it.

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