Don't write sloppy articles, write solid articles, high-quality article writing skills

Writing is a process of continuous practice and improvement of one's own thinking. If you find writing difficult, it is probably because you don't have information logic. I hope the following sharing will be helpful to you.

I want to "write something solid" to calm my thoughts, but I'm worried that I won't be able to write anything. I just have something in my mind that I want to write, but I just can't squeeze it out.

Many people find it strange that they can talk endlessly when chatting with others, but when it comes to writing, they can only sit there in a daze.

The answer is: when you talk to someone, you provide enough information, and he will use his own logic to fix the loopholes in the process and process it into a complete conclusion. You think you have something because others are summarizing it for you.

The reason why you find writing difficult is mostly because you have neither information nor logic.

To a certain extent, logic is the ability to organize information, and writing is the process of organizing information.

If the topic determines the direction of writing, then sticking to the topic is the beginning of preparing an article.

1. Why do we need to find problems?

When many people start writing, their first thought is "What should I say?" Then they start with "I think xxxx", "I think xxxx", "I know xxxx..."

Because I have this information, I want to write it down. This is the first thought of most people.

But when you write like this, you are doomed to lose interest in advance when the reader has a desire for a "solution". If you only care about your own desire to express yourself and don't connect with the readers, you will naturally not attract them.

People only feel an urge to change and take action when they are uncomfortable. The problem lies behind their discomfort. What can attract readers is to find problems that are related to them.

When we define a problem, we are essentially using the problem as a frame to fit your target readers.

The bigger the question, the more readers it will cover; the more specific the question, the more attention it will attract.

The question itself is a call to the reader. A good question will clearly tell the reader what the goal of the journey is.

2. How to find the real problem

To judge a problem, we need to start from the level of the problem. All problems are composed of two levels: questions and problems.

What is a doubt?

There are 6 glasses of water on the table. Xiao Ming drank 2 glasses. How many glasses of water are left on the table?

Each question has only one correct answer.

And the process of seeking this unique correct answer is the solution.

What is a difficult problem?

How should we distribute the 5 cups of water on the table to the 6 leaders? This is the problem.

A difficult problem can correspond to multiple possible solutions. The process of seeking a better solution through comparison, analysis, thinking, is called "problem solving."

When we write content, we are leading readers from a starting point to an end point, either answering readers' questions or solving readers' problems.

For example:

Xiao Wang is an operations person who has just joined the company.

At a meeting, the leader proposed that the company should start the private domain project and asked Xiao Wang to give an operation plan before the end of the month. In order to write this plan, Xiao Wang needed to start searching for relevant information.

"Private domain operation", "private domain operation planning", "operation planning" and so on are basically the words he would search for.

In the search results, there are generally these categories: popular science on the concept of private domain, case analysis of xx private domain, and summary of scattered methodologies.

Seeing this example, some people will say that the problem Xiao Wang faces is: he doesn’t know how to write a private domain operation plan.

If we think further, we will find that: he doesn’t want you to teach him how to write, what he wants is a plan that he can “copy” to get the job done.

Here we will find that what he wants is not to answer questions, but to solve problems.

3. Extraction of Conflicts and Contradictions

In addition to finding the reader's core problem, we also need to analyze their core contradiction/conflict points in this issue.

Generally speaking, the main reason for such problems is that either a certain element is missing or there is a misunderstanding in a certain area.

The first situation is information gap (that is, telling him something he doesn’t know).

I won’t go into details here, it’s easy to understand.

The second is the existence of wrong cognition (that is, correcting his cognition).

Here’s a case I saw:

If you are a merchant selling crutches.

It’s easy to conclude when defining your audience:

The target audience of walking sticks is generally people aged 60-85.

The real situation is far more complicated than this.

As an auxiliary tool, the purpose of crutches is to solve the pain points of walking and activities for the elderly.

But the fact is that many elderly people who are just beginning to have mobility problems are reluctant to accept that they have reached an age where they need to use a cane.

The first crutch in life often comes from the decisions made by your children.

At this point someone will ask, where did you draw this conclusion?

Sometimes you only need to look at the merchant’s review section to find out, and complicated market research is not necessary.

This is an example of the separation between buyers and users.

How to find the core contradiction? Here we actually use some commonly used thinking models to solve it.

Generally speaking, for simple "things", you can use MECE to organize them, and for those involving "people and things", SQCA is also sufficient.

4. Choose the right identity

I think the reason for choosing a certain identity is to better answer the readers' questions from a certain perspective.

If you are speaking from the perspective of a senior, then you need to provide your identity information. Behind this is the use of platform endorsements + well-known cases to influence readers.

If you are looking at it from the perspective of a peer, then you need to approach it from the perspective of empathy, solving emotional problems first and then logical problems.

Sometimes a problem involves multiple perspectives, so we need to look at who are the parties involved in this matter and what perspective is more appropriate.

For example, when talking to job seekers about interviews, all parties involved in the interview include the job seeker, HR, business manager, and boss.

There are four angles at this time.

If you are from the perspective of a job seeker: then you can share your own successful interview experience.

From the HR perspective: it represents more of the basic requirements of the position, and looks at the key points of the job applicant interview from a professional perspective.

If you are from the perspective of a business manager: start from the perspective of business needs.

If you look at it from the boss's perspective: start with the personal style of employing people.

The perspective you choose determines which readers are attracted to you.

5. Decide how to say it and what to say

The previous solution was the logic of "things", which helped us locate the real problem. Now we are solving the status of "people" and figuring out their expectations. Because sometimes the real answer may not be acceptable to others, we need to make judgments based on the situation:

Finding solutions based on the current situation: Status + Method

Emphasizing the status of the crowd (no money, no education, no foundation, no methods), the most important thing for this type of readers is to give them confidence.

Improvement based on numbers: Amplify digital results

Emphasizing the improvement from low numbers to high numbers, the most important thing for this type of readers is to give methods and steps.

Seeking experience based on the past: Experience sharing by experienced people

Emphasis is placed on answering questions and solving problems through experience of experienced people, and sharing of current situations. This type of readers is more eager to be understood.

Seeking judgment based on status: weighing the pros and cons

Emphasizing the choice between two states of things, this type of readers want logic and methods.

Seeking recommendations based on categories: satisfying curiosity/answering questions

Emphasizing general needs, selling points, etc., this type of readers is most directly interested in talking about the pros and cons.

at last

Writing is a process of continuous practice and improvement of one's own thinking. "Writing something useful" is not to prove anything to anyone, but to keep the readers in mind, because all our cognition comes from the feedback of those around us.

Expose your thoughts through writing, which will attract people to communicate with you, correct you, and then you will grow better. The above is today's sharing, I hope it can help you solve the writing problems to a certain extent.

Author: Zhizhong

WeChat public account: Shixian Operation (ID: yyshixian)