What a seven-year-old can teach you about writing

‘What are you doing Mummy? What are you writing? Who is it for? What is it about? Why? Why? Why?‘

I’m sure a lot of us had to work with this kind of interrogation from our mini-colleagues during lockdown. But far from being a distraction, I found that my seven-year-old hit on some valid questions.

It started well. My son and daughter were engrossed in their Lego, creating a ninja/princess mash-up that I hoped would take them at least 45 minutes. Just enough time to review and polish an article I’d been working on for a client. For ten minutes the Lego worked. Then the questions started.

Deep breath. Inward swear words. I resigned myself to an evening of work after they were peacefully tucked up in bed.

But the questions got me thinking. What was I doing? What was I writing? Who was it for? What was it about?

It reminded me that so often the temptation is to launch into writing an article (a newsletter, an e-shot) with the sole objective of getting it done. Finish it and tick it off your to do list, then onto the next thing. It reminded me how much better the result is when you take a step back to think about who you are writing for and why.

Here are some useful questions to ask yourself.

Who is this for?

I find it helps to be really specific here. Have one client or potential client in your mind and write for them. Trying to write for multiple audiences is a recipe for something bland and vague that will appeal to very few people.

What do they want to know?

Flip your perspective from you to them. This is not about what you want to say. It is about what your clients want to hear. The most engaging articles are ones which are approached from the reader’s point of view. What questions to they have? What insight are they looking for? What problem would they like your help to solve?

What is it about?

It is always worth asking yourself this basic question at the outset. Understanding who you are writing for and what they want to know will help with this. If you realise your topic is not going to be interesting for your customer, step away from the keyboard. Your time will be better spent thinking about a different topic that your customers can’t wait to hear your perspective on.

What do I want them to do?

Be clear about your call to action.

So next time you set out to write something, channel your inner seven-year-old and ask yourself some searching questions.