cindy reed storytelling for travel bloggers bacon14 vegas.pdf
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Focus on Writing for Bloggers: Hook 'em with a headline; keep 'em with a story. How to write killer headlines and engaging stories to create raving fans who'll linger, dig into your archives, share your stuff, and come back for more.TRANSCRIPT
FOCUS ON WRITING
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Turn Casual Visitors into Raving Fans
with Killer Headlines and Powerful Personal Stories
CINDY REED Writer | Blogger | Speaker | Teacher
cindyreed.me
www.reedsterspeaks.com
Twitter: @ Reedster2
Email: [email protected]
Hook ‘em with a headline.
Keep ‘em with a story.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
If your headline sucks, your blog is invisible.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Infographic credit:
Neil Patel, “The Formula for a Perfect Headline” (July 3, 2014)
http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/07/03/the-formula-for-a-perfect-headline/
The Headline Formula
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Number or Trigger Word (how, why, etc.)
+ Interesting Adjective
+ SEO Keywords
+ Promise
= KILLER HEADLINE
Plug in the words…
© 2014 Cindy Reed
100
CRAZY
SNACKS YOU CAN DEEP-FRY
IN YOUR MICROWAVE
TONIGHT.
= HEADLINE
Another take…
© 2014 Cindy Reed
10
PAIN-FREE WAYS
TO VISIT DISNEY WITH YOUR TODDLER
THIS CHRISTMAS.
= HEADLINE
Clickable headlines get ‘em to your site.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
© 2014 Cindy Reed Image credit:
http://aboutmodafinil.com/
Compelling stories keep ‘em there.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Spin a good yarn and your readers will:
Linger.
Dig through your archives.
Share your stuff.
Come back for more.
Story engages.
“The brain of the person telling a story and the
person listening to it can synchronize.”
~ Leo Widrich
“The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains” (December 5, 2012 Lifehacker)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Story persuades.
“Facts tell, but stories sell.”
~ Bryan Eisenberg
“Content Marketing: Superheroes Teach the Art of Storytelling” (ClickZ)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
WHAT IS STORY?
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Story is more than an emotion or an idea.
“This happened and I was sad
or angry or elated” is NOT a story.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Story is more than a sales pitch.
“Use this product because of
these five bullet points” is NOT a story.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Story is more than a list of facts.
Chronologies, instructions, and itineraries
are NOT stories.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
STORY REQUIRES STRUCTURE.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
“Not every word that comes out of our
mouths is a story.
Story is narrative.”
~ Christina Baldwin, Storycatcher:
Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story
(New World Library 2007)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
In the beginning.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
© 2014 Cindy Reed
WORDY
“I was flying from Asheville to
Las Vegas, connecting through
Atlanta, on my way to speak at
a conference that is literally
called BACON.”
PUNCHY
“I dropped into the window
seat, on the wing.
The exit row.”
Stuck in the middle.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
~ Mark Twain
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Show, don’t tell.
Example: Crowded Taekwondo
Telling Showing
“It was crowded at my
daughter’s taekwondo
class.”
“The backside of a
backpacked dad poked
into me, uncomfortably
adjacent to my face.”
~ Cindy Reed
“The Layered Look Only Works if You Wear Layers”
(The Reedster Speaks, Jan. 16, 2014)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
… and in the end.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
KNOW WHEN TO STOP.
No Neat Bows
© 2014 Cindy Reed
No Navel Gazing
No Summing Up
Follow the Coco Chanel rule.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Find your voice.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
DON’T write like you talk.
Write like you ARE.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Discovering your Voice.
What’s your personality?
How do you speak?
How does your mind work?
What do you think about?
© 2014 Cindy Reed
HOW DO WE TELL STORIES ON OUR BLOGS?
IN A FLASH = 500 WORDS (OR SO)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
© 2014 Cindy Reed
© 2014 Cindy Reed
RUTHLESSLY EDIT.
The takeaway.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
© 2014 Cindy Reed
What’s Your Story?
CINDY REED
Writer | Blogger | Speaker | Teacher
http://cindyreed.me
www.reedsterspeaks.com
[email protected] © 2014 Cindy Reed
Resources for writers.
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Resources | Headlines
“How to Write Magnetic Headlines”
(free e-book from Copyblogger.com)
Neil Patel, “The Formula for a
Perfect Headline” (7/3/14 Quicksprout)
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Resources | Writing
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius within You by Ray Bradbury
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
The Situation and The Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick
Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussion on Story Writing by Ursula LeGuin
Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by Jon Franklin
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser
© 2014 Cindy Reed
Resources | Grammar
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
by Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
© 2014 Cindy Reed