Writing

The Anatomy Of An Article

How to let your mind do the writing

I normally capitaiseToday, like most days, I only had a rough idea of what I might write about. It was going to be an article based upon how somebody once got me the sack. Then I thought how more than once I got the sack because of somebody's vicious lies. So I started to give a little background, which actually became the fifth paragraph of the article I ended up writing.

Somehow I found myself going off at a tangent that came at me from nowhere. Rather than fight the narrative to get it back on to my original line of thinking, I decided to run with it to see where it wanted to go. It's a little like pouring a trickle of water onto an undulating dirt track and watching where it wants to go.

I worked in very ad-hoc haphazard sort of way flitting from the a new beginning to an as yet un-imagined middle to end. It all came in a very natural feeling stream of consciousness, as I wasn't the one doing the writing at all. Something else was alive in my subconscious was stirring and wanted to come out. So I simply opened the cage door and let the beast roam at its own free will.

By the time I had finished the prose it was easy to come up with a headline and a subheading. However, after publishing the piece, on my way out of the house for a coffee at a local convenience store, I stopped dead in my tracks. When I was done even thinking about it a new subhead and last line popped into my head. I ran back into the house to fire up the pc before I forgot the new ideas and in less than five minutes it was done.

I am not about to claim the article as any sort of literary masterpiece. It is a short bio that flows down that dirt track to a natural conclusion with a little takeaway.

A fellow writer of mine once said that it helps if an article offers something positive.That increases its possibility of being chosen for wider distribution. The theme is one I hope lots of readers can perhaps relate to and learn something from. In these ways the article stands the chance of earning me a few pennies, which is always most welcome.

And now here I am writing an article about writing an article, not out of any vainglorious desire to blow my own trumpet, but rather to help and inspire other writers about the art of writing a readable piece. Its not rocket science as they say, and yet there does seem to be something a little bit mysterious about how it all comes about.

Yes, I always try to make some sort of a plan, even if it is only a rough sketch in my mind. But sometimes it's a good idea to just let something loose and see where it takes you. Little pot boilers like this are always great fun and often allow you to feel like you have accomplished something even if it feels like somebody else was doing all the writing. Give it a try and see what happens, you might be surprised. Meanwhile the link below will take you to the finished piece, which took me no more than thirty minutes to complete. Thank you for reading.

Stuart Englander Dr Mehmet Yildiz Esther George Rebecca Stevens A. Terry Mansfield