How Not to Get Lost
11/11/24
A friend of mine, in response to my previous blog, asked me to lay out my method for researching a topic I am not familiar with. How do you not get lost in information, he asked.
The truth is that I don’t really have one method. How I work depends on what I’m doing, whether I’m writing original or marketing content, editing, or even translating.
When it comes to writing, everything starts with the brief. There is nothing more reassuring to a content writer than a clear, well-organized, and comprehensive brief. It is a gift. Once you have a brief, the key is understanding the story your client wants to tell. Even writing about the driest of topics- car insurance, for instance, involves telling a story.
In order to tell the story, you need information. This is when the research begins. Hopefully, your client will have provided you with some basic information and leads as to where to start your search. If they haven’t, well, Google is your friend. After that, it is a matter of extracting the information that builds your story.
For instance, if the story your car insurance client wants to tell is: these are the dangers of driving in the snow (and that is why you should buy insurance from us), statistics about car crashes in rainy weather in Wisconsin (a place that gets a lot of snow in the winter) won’t help you, but statistics about accidents in icy conditions in South Carolina (which tends to get less snow), does.
Finally, you can start writing, taking care to stick to the client’s brief and to make the argument as clear as possible via the story you tell. (Driving in the snow can be dangerous both for people who are used to snow and those who aren’t. This is why it is good to have insurance coverage- insert link to company’s policy here).
Hopefully, with a clear enough brief and a good sense of what information is relevant and what isn’t you will be able to produce a piece of writing that is both engaging and informational.
As for editing, well, that’s going to have to wait until next month.