Baking Delicious Content - The beginner’s recipe for writing your own content by Philip Montague

In my new job I need to engage personally with an audience that’s larger than I can manage face to face. I want to create a community that’s interested in what I have to say but that assumes I have something to contribute. Unfortunately I’ve never had the will to create my own content, and the idea of paying for, or in my case relying on marketing to create this for me, just doesn’t sit well.

When I looked at how to get started it was clear that I didn’t have the recipe for success! I did what comes most naturally to me and found people in my network that could cook better. Setting out to bake my first article but lacking any inspiration I chose to write about HOW I got started and full disclosure; you’re reading my first attempt!

Ingredients

3 Cups - good habits

• Record your ideas all the time
• Schedule time to write and stick to it even when you struggle
• Ask someone that isn’t worried about your ego to read it
• The thesaurus is your friend IF you use it to find shorter words

1 Cup - basic building blocks

• Pick one of your subjects and condense it down to get the title
• Write one sentence that sums up the whole piece
• Put the valuable information at the top
• Write what you’re writing like a short story

Seasoning - my lessons learned

• I found an expert and asked for help
• I was good at recording ideas once I realised it was about the audience
• I put time to write in my diary but only got to it after missing my own appointment twice
• I spent way too long writing the first time but I got quicker fast

Method

Step One: Record all those little ideas you have

Coming up with ideas isn’t easy, I struggled with this for days. The problem solved itself after attending some presentation training and I was reminded that I needed to focus on my audience. As soon as I started thinking about all the challenges my customers have, I literally filled up with inspiration. They were good ideas too because it was all about how I can solve their problems.

In the beginning I wrote ideas down in a notepad I used to carry. I’m sure there are now ideas that I’ll never find again, lost in the pages of my work meetings. Now I use OneNote and Cortana but you should use whatever is immediately at hand. My only recommendation is that it should always be with you so I use those apps on my phone.

Step two: schedule regular times to get the job done

I used my calendar to schedule thirty minutes to write some content each week. I chose a Friday just after lunch when it’s quieter in my diary. For the first two weeks I used this time to do other things. What finally got me motivated was the commitment I’d made to someone else in the business that I’d do this. At the time of my third scheduled Friday I got on with writing. Don’t ignore your muse though, if you feel like writing while you’re on the train, write.

Step three: write short and small

Research says that people find it easier to read and understand more when they read smaller words in common use. It felt weird writing like this the first time, like I’d speak to my children but it’s not about dumbing down so much as being clear. Despite my initial feelings the results were better received by my mentor and colleagues than my previous writing. I’ve stuck to it. I found the best way to get over this is to write how you’ve always done. Then re-read with the simple goal of making sentences shorter and swapping less common words for more widely used ones. Alternatively, write the way you would speak when explaining something to a friend down the pub.

Step four: bake a tasty title

Getting to a title that’s creative, catchy and all those other good things was a real headache. It was the thing that took up most of my time writing this piece. I’ve simplified what I’ve learned as much as possible here to save you that time. Start by describing what you want to
achieve. In my case it was things like; know you need to write some content but don’t want to do it? Or homemade content production. These will tend to be a direct reflection of the notes you’ve been taking on ideas. I think I was lucky to zero in on the baking theme and all of a sudden the title was obvious. I should note that my original title was ‘Baking Homemade Content’ before the expert I asked for help suggested something more tantalising.

Write down the things that are most useful from your research, as I’ve done at the top of this article in my ingredient list.  It’s simply the things I remembered most after my research and which I felt would be most useful to my audience. When I start to think about the next thing I’m going to write it feels like the same approach will work just fine: Pick a subject, do some research, bullet point the things you found most interesting and useful.

Serving suggestion

Get it tasted by someone else

The blessing of working for a big company is that I can always find someone to help but I’m really new so I could only ask people I didn’t know that well. This worked because they gave objective advice and they read the piece with the same perspective as my real audience will have. My suggestion is you ask someone on the fringes of your network to look over your first couple of attempts, particularly if they produce a lot of content successfully already.

Dish up a good story

I wrote what feels like a short story, a simple summary of what I set out to do and how I did it. When I looked back over what I’ve written with that in mind it was easier to structure the information I wanted to share. In the end it’s always a good story that people enjoy reading most. Truth be told I’m finishing this off on a Sunday night when I finally have some quiet time. I’ve spent far too long writing all this and I am still carrying some doubt about whether it’s for me. I feel more relaxed about the idea of writing regularly now though. It’s early days but if you want to improve at something you need to push through the limits you impose on yourself.

Was it all harder than I thought?

Yes.

Was it worth it?

You tell me.

This blog post was written by Philip Montague.

 

I have a huge passion for business and have gained so much energy from launching, mentoring and growing small and medium sized businesses over the past 8 years. Through mentoring companies and launching new initiatives, I have contributed towards creating new jobs, millions in profit, and experienced a lot of smiles, laughs and tears along the way! Now I work at Microsoft where I focus on helping small businesses thrive through creating partnerships at a local and national level.

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2015
  "Ask someone that isn’t worried about your ego to read it"

• you know you can always rely on me for this... :-D

• Anonymous
  February 24, 2015
  Such a good title, and that is something that I always struggle with creating. If the title had been more bland or generic - I wouldn't have read the article because I've read a million like it before but the way you've 'marketed' and slanted the content made it fresh and interesting again. It also feels human - again which is something I struggle with in my own writing and perhaps that comes from your use of smaller words alongside the honesty and humility of the piece. So thank you, I think it was worth it, it will help people and do stick at it - it's a process but one i'm sure you'll learn to love and, ultimately, conquer!

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2015
  Hi Philip Yes, worth it. Love the metaphor and beautiful small child picture. Both of which are bound to make a blog go down better but mostly love the message about focussing on your audience ;~) Thanks for mentioning the blog at the breakfast meeting today, I'm rarely inspired to read at breakfast meetings... Rachel

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  Hi Philip Excellent article and you are so right about self-discipline. I couldn't agree more about replacing flowery or impressive sounding words with simple ones.  I used to write the internal communications for a previous boss iand he always said he imagined that he was talking to people over a beer on a Friday after work.  This really helped with the tone once I imagined him doing that, the right words flowed naturally. Looking forward to your next post. Helen

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  Thank you Phillip I enjoyed reading the blog

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  Love the title and the metaphorical baking reference !! The best stories are metaphors. More pictures and colour would be good. But then I am not great with the written word.

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  Great piece! I never thought about using Cortana to help me capture my ideas - will give it a try!

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  March 01, 2015
  Give me another slice Philip!  Awesome blog post!

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2015
  There's another one in the oven! Thank you for the feedback everyone.