Afraid to Blog Because You Don’t Know How to Write?

Since I’ve started blogging I’ve made several attempts to get people who’d provide beneficial information to the Internet to blog. One of the main excuses I hear is, “I don’t know how to write. My writing skills suck.” My reply is often, “So what?” Many a-bloggers don’t know how to write, yet they manage to generate huge amounts of traffic. A perfect example is the famous John Chow. Here’s an excerpt from his very first blog post on December 1st, 2005.

“I’m sure most people were getting sick and tire of my picture splashed across this home page. For the first time visitor, this site use to be call The Wired World Of John Chow. Now it’s call the John Chow dot Com The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul, because that is what I am - a Dot Com Mogul - and that is what I’ll be doing - rambling.“

See what I mean? John Chow left off ed on several words throughout the post, but today, he makes money blogging about how much money he makes blogging. Ingenious! “This site use to be call The Wired World…” jeez.

Anyway, the point is, whether you’re foreign, or just don’t know how to write, do it anyway! If you’re still concerned about your writing skills, here are a few tips.

Avoid Using Passive Voice

Passive voice often makes understanding an author’s point difficult to follow. There’s a lack of clarity involved with passive voice, especially when used too frequently. The best way to circumvent this is to write with active voice, instead. Here are some examples.

Example 1:

Passive Voice:

“I won’t be writing tonight because I’ll be eating dinner at a place by Third and Main”

Active Voice:

“I won’t write tonight because I’m eating dinner at a place near Third and Main. “

Example 2:

Passive Voice:

“The quick brown fox will be jumping over the lazy dog by the lake.”

Active Voice:

“The quick brown fox is jumping over the lazy dog near the lake.”

Notice the difference? Maybe not, but when writing a paragraph, the ability to comprehend what the author is saying becomes much easier. The writing becomes smoother and just flows. Some words to avoid to ensure you’re not using passive voice are: by, be, will be, can be. Instead, use: is.

Use Proper Nouns Instead of Pronouns

Another great way to ensure clarity is to use proper nouns instead of pronouns. An abundance of: he, she, it, them, they, we, etc can produce hard to follow posts. Convey what you’re saying with proper nouns to avoid confusion - this prevents the reader from having to look back in the text if they (the reader :P) get lost.

I’m no expert at writing, but I do know writing styles I enjoy. The tips above are just a couple methods I try to incorporate into my writing. I’ve also noticed when authors avoid passive voice and excessive pronouns, I tend to stick around and read more of their posts.

Write First, Then Proof Read, Proof Read, Proof Read

Skellie over at problogger wrote a fantastic post that described several ways to become a prolific blogger. One of the tips included Taking Your Foot Off the Brake. Skellie explained that continuously hitting the backspace key while writing can take away from the joy of writing. Instead, just write, and don’t hit the backspace key until you’ve completed the post. Then, re-read the post to correct errors. You’ll identify more errors that you may not have caught continuously hitting the backspace key. Another tip is to just have someone else proof read your post. Another set of eyes can provide a different perspective and see things you may have over looked.

Got any tips of your own? Share them below! And if you haven’t already, subscribe to my RSS feed.