WRITING

How to Be an Influential Writer — 33 Insights from a Pro

Let’s compare notes

Writing is living for me. Journaling, poetry, and most of all influential articles and stories. I want to color the world a brighter shade of warm-blooded red. I write for the regular press. I blog successfully. And I write inspiring educational materials

So, let’s dive in deep today and share some goodies

Give a good start to 2023…

1- Have something to say

Leading an interesting life is not difficult. You only have to go out there, be a curious observer and listener, and use your imagination. You can do it anywhere. In the cafe. Inspired by a blade of grass in the pavement. You name it…

2- Details matter

The devil is in the details. And the Goddess is there too. Describe your observations with your heart and soul

3- Urgency Makes Bestsellers

Your readers need to recognize themselves in your stories. And the more you relate your stories to urgency in the real world, the better they sell. You need to be relevant for current times

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

4- Connect unexpected dots

If you shift perspectives, connect different subjects, or are surprising in any other way, you will hook your readers and make them finish your story

5- Write unpopular opinions

People know what they already know. Some of them are reading because they just want to stay in their bubble. But those are boring readers. The fascinating readers are the ones you can have discussions with

People like titles that are unpopular. Sharp. Surprising. And then in the story itself, you must live up to your promise. Give your readers what they expected

6- Add structure to your story

I’m a Wild Writer. I don’t do templates or boring structures. But still, it is important to give a reader structure unless you want to be an artist and literature changer. Give your readers a beginning, a middle, and an end with bullet points to copy into their lives. A conclusion

7- Be Warm-blooded Red

Emotions color your stories. At 3 AM at night, the veil with the universe and your own emotions is the thinnest. Try writing at 3 AM. Don’t set the alarm clock, just set an intention before you go to bed. When you suffer from lack of sleep afterward, take a siesta in the afternoon

8- Walk Your Talk

People only copy those who do. So, make your life simple. Walk your talk and show this to the world. Your social media followers will appreciate it. Our think-and-do-tank Abundanism is based on Minimalism. We are nomads without stuff

We travel. We do futurist projects. And tell people about those nature and culture details inspiringly

9- Use Inspiring Metaphors

My metaphors are always from Gaia. Our planet. Nature. It’s my subject. I love nature, I know about her and I copy her with Biomimicry. I connect humans to nature. Open your senses to life. But other successful writers use mechanical metaphors. Clocks. Cars. Airplanes

10- Shift Perspectives

In this story, I make a bird of prey become an airplane. I use certain words and white lines and structure to enhance the suspension of the protagonist

11- Go Philosophical and Don’t Overdo It

People are not reading you to hear about some unknown person doing big philosophy. Your readers either want to be entertained or want to learn something for their lives

12- Use Pictures that are Relevant and Surprising

Hold two opposed ideas in your mind at the same time. That’s what I want for my readers. First-rate intelligence. So, I include opposing things. And pictures are part of that whole package. Writing is always more than just the words

13- Don’t Shock - Surprise Instead

I never try to shock. That would be pointless and my writing has meaning. No, I want to enhance the intelligence of my readers by handing them connected, opposing views. There are always more options if you start connecting the dots in life. And I want your imagination to be triggered so you can find solutions for yourself next time around

Breathing In Between

Pffeewww, that was 13. Take a little breather. What have you learned so far? Is anything of interest to you as a writer? What kind of a writer do you want to be? That’s always a good question to ask yourself

I am a Wild Writer. I go this way and that. Write about technology, the future, mind shifts, personal development, and much more

But what is your passion?

Some of my favorite writers on this platform have become mighty popular with one subject. Have a look at some of my favorite Wild Woman Writers Rebecca Romanelli Yael Wolfe Kaia Maeve Tingley Rebecca Stevens A. Dennett Ravyne Hawke Dr. Christine Bradstreet Filza Chaudhry Gurpreet Dhariwal Ruth Glendinning Sumera Rizwan and others

Check them out! You’ll love their varied perspectives…

Always start with your passion. You can never get successful if you hate what you do. Spend only part of your life behind the keyboards. And the rest? Go exploring. Have experiences you can write about

Ready for the next series of tips?

I will share about social media success now

14- Surf Social Media. Social. Social. Social

Social media are social. Algorithms love it when you connect. They know. They see. So, you need to have conversations. The biggest success can be gained if you talk to people. Your readers are your friends. I have built close relationships with some of you

And I love my life because of all my friendships

15- Do more than one platform

Choose your platforms. There are many. You can build success by answering questions on Quora. I have conversations on LinkedIn because that’s the best platform for conversations now. But you can go win money prices on Vocal+ for all you like…

The biggest success comes when you combine it with video or voice (podcasts). 82% of the internet is video nowadays

I don’t do videos yet, although we do have our YouTube channel with videos that have inspired our work at Abundanism. So, that’s good news for me

The best is still to come… Hihihi… Lots of space to improve still…

16- Make every comment count

Comments should always be more than just I agree or I don’t. Make your comments count. Respect the opinion of the other and say what you want to add that they might not have seen yet. Be adding. Be surprising. And always use your own unique voice. I bet my writers can smell from a distance that comments come from me. It’s my voice. My choice of words. My favorite expressions

Yessssssss…

I’m an enthusiastic person who goes over the top sometimes

A mermaid, dancing with my feet in the sea…

17- Be supportive

As said, social media are social. You spend your time on social media to be inspired. Not to be bashed over the head by some arrogant know-it-all

18- Make Inspiring Titles

Titles are what make people click in the first place. Please, see your story as a layered work of art. The first step is readers need to click. The second step is readers need to find value. The third step is you need to keep your readers hooked to the end

Let’s see if I can manage that in this very long story…

19- Pitch your stories to the press

If you want to go professional, it’s time to go and start pitching stories to the regular press. Find editor details online. Read the guidelines for freelance writers and pitch your ideas. A short description. Say who you can interview to give the article depth. Mention a bottom line as a oneliner. And never forget to say why it is of interest to their readers. Often, I make a follow-up of another story they already published (by another writer)

The editor will know I read their magazine or paper

20- Be professional with SEO

Search engine optimization is what you do when you publish online. You want new readers. So, you want search engines like Google to find you. On this platform, always fill in the SEO details. You find them underneath … the three dots top right of the page. Make one sentence full of smart search words that seekers in need of your wisdom might use

21- Take your writing seriously

I can’t say it loud enough. I shout! I hammer it into your thick skull! Be professional. Take your writing seriously! Learn about your craft. Learn about what works and what doesn’t. Learn about writing styles. Styles are different for blogs (more YOU). For serious articles (less YOU). For art and literature (more metaphors)

Observe. Do your research. Experiment. WRITE! And do it better next time

You don’t have to be complicated in your writing. Be clear!

22- Be professional about pictures

Don’t use pictures when there’s a copyright on them. Be professional about that too. Use the free picture websites. Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, and others. If you want to be original, cooperate with picture artists or illustrators

Market your work together with one or more visual artists…

A Tiny Break Again

Pffeewww. Time for a cup of coffee? Or are you a quick-scanning reader? Going from top left to bottom right? Quick reading helps in writing. And quick thinking and connecting the dots with what you already know

But what’s most important is to take a break in between. Relax your grey cells. Taking a nap and going to your unconscious is the best advice for decision-making. You can take a little distraction too. A small song in between. Gazing at the stars. Moving your body in a little dance

The Smart Unconscious explains it scientifically. It has to do with your parasympathetic nervous system. Rest and digest

Only 11 more to go…

23- Be a marketer of your own work

Marketing skills always come in handy. You are an entrepreneur. You want to live a good life from your writing, don’t you? Well, go out there and learn about (digital) marketing then

24- Get a topic — it makes marketing easier

I always feel uncomfortable bragging about myself and my work. So, I have a topic I am passionate about instead. I’m a marketeer for Gaia. She inspires me. Everything about her I love and cherish. It’s easy for me to promote nature insights for business models. For marketing. For sense-opening. For relaxing. For personal development. And for traveling

And the future of course, never forget a good future

It helps me that Biomimicry is the #1 innovation method in the world right now. And that climate change and sustainability are such hot topics. Dying for solutions. I have those solutions. I work on them every day. So that’s easy to share. Together with my Gaia-theory-love and science

25- Write for a broad and diverse audience

You can imagine why broad audiences are better. The bigger the cake, the bigger your slice. However, you can earn a great living in a niche too. I do niche. I do broad. But please, be aware that you don’t dilute your work. Keep a strong personal voice. A strong YOU in everything you do. Otherwise, you will blend into the background

And you will not be remembered

Oops. A broad audience needs women, men, and all genders in between

I mentioned the Wild Women Writers I admire. But where are the men? Henery X Dr Mehmet Yildiz Shin Jie Yong George J. Ziogas The Maverick Files. Check them out. You’ll love the diversity of their work

26- Never be just about you

Many bloggers make the mistake that they act as if they are influential influencers already. They make it all about them. Their hair. Their experience. Their place. Their opinion

Well, that works for movie stars. It will not work for you and me

Sorry, girls and guys. You really must have something to say. And say it with a feeling for your readers. They want to love you. Be inspired by you. They don’t want to hate you. Or be booooooored…

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” ― Maya Angelou

27- Interlink your social media

Post your Medium articles on another platform. But never do it without a savvy comment. An inspiring quote from the text. Something that makes people want to click the hyperlink

28- Make a Linktree and share it in bios

I must say, this is one I don’t do well enough myself. I do have a Linktree, but I have not built it cleverly (yet). A clever one has stories in it. Topics. Things you want to highlight

You can share your Linktree on your Instagram or other podia

And this #28 is exactly why you have to keep blogging. While I write, I remember stuff and then I update or do it. I forgot about my Linktree. And now, I’m going to use it again in ways that will make me more successful because I have seen how others use it in the meantime

29- Be general. Be specific

This is a general article. Giving some very general writing advice. But of course, I’ve written other articles too. More specific. About how I gained my first 1000 followers. Or how to build a portfolio. Or about my successful newsletter on LinkedIn

Go to my list of writing tips stories and scan a few of those

About algorithms and marketing. I’ve been a professional marketeer and writer all my life, you know. It comes in handy now that I’m a marketeer for Gaia

General stories can become successful. This one is my test about length. Can I hold your attention for so long with a simple listicle? Specific blogs can be very insightful for your readers too. Successful blogging is just around the corner. You never know which one will really fly

30- Keep writing

The proof is in the pudding. Mastership is gained after 10,000 hours of doing something. Well, that’s a whole lifetime. And in between, you become successful with what you love

What more do you want in life?

It’s been a long story. Are you still awake?

The last 3 tips are always the best

31- Be YOU

There will never be anyone like you. You can admire whatever guru you like but then there’s YOU. You are good enough! I’m not even a native English speaker. I’m not even a young, good-looking chicky with the future ahead of her

If I can be successful, you can do it too!

32- Combine social media with a website and professional offers

The money is in the selling. Not in just in the engagement. You need to have something to sell. Something people want to buy. For me, that’s professional consultancy and education and books and essays

For you, it can be something else

Courses? Find the best course platform, create your videos, and be out there selling your wisdom in a course

Art and gimmicks? Sell on Etsy. Or go surf the new hypes and create NFTs. They are marvelous. I have a few NFTs now. But I’m far from an expert on how to make them successful (yet)

But if you want to learn. Google and learn.

33- Be curious and don’t do everything at once

All good things take time. Don’t do it all at once. Explore. Learn more. Ask questions to your tribe or in general on the internet. Search. Research. Be curious. Talk to your friends about how they do stuff

And then experiment. Explore. And live a great life…

IMPORTANT BONUS

Get a writing routine. You don’t want burnout! Farzana Rijas put it in the comments and it’s important enough to edit the article for! I write for a few hours every morning. But I don’t have children to attend to and I’m a freelancer. My work projects start only later in the day…

But please find your own writing routine…

It will be the subject of my next writing article…

Happy exploring, my friends! I wish you the best 2023 ever!

And please use the comments to tell me about tips I missed. Tell me about your experiences in life and with writing. I’ll always read and answer questions…

I’m a systemic designer. A (digital) nomad. An environmental change-maker. Coach to powerful leaders. And to students of life. Stay tuned via our website Abundanism.com

Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing © Désirée Driesenaar, 2023