Are you struggling to get noticed, to get your message seen, your story heard? Then this post is for you.
In my previous @minnowmentor explains posts, I've talked already about having a standout title, and driving the why question at the front end.
Now it's time to get into the guts of it. The content itself.
Once you have got people motivated to read your content, it's time to settle them down, and bring them into your world.
And that's basically what this is about, and why we love blogging, and more importantly reading other peoples blogs so much. Because the sort of people who appreciate blogs are the ones who want to understand the reality of others, not just their own. They genuinely want to step into someone elses head for a little while, and experience the world from a completely different perspective.
TV makes you brain lazy
A while ago, I was doing a talk in a secondary school, and I asked some of the students to write down their favourite book, and give a brief synopsis of it. What was interesting was the vast differences in what they were into. But one kid stuck his hand up and said "I don't read books, I just like the telly...you don't have to think".
Of course, some of the other kids laughed, but I realised that there was a very important point here about the written word. In our modern world, we are obsessed with having it done for us.
Some people these days don't realise that Lord of the Rings is actually a book written before their grandparents were born, because all they know is the film, which of course is brilliant, yet still limited and missing huge chunks of narrative.
And this is the value of the written word. Instead of having the film given to us, piece by piece, we are forced to visualise the written or spoken word for ourselves. And this is the true gift of blogging!!!
If I was to say whatever you do, don't think of a penguin.... you suddenly realise that there's one in your head.
If I ask you if you've ever been to Egypt and seen the Pyramids, you might never have been there in flesh, but I'm damn sure you can see them right now. Not because they're on a screen, being presented to you, but because you're experiencing them from inside your own head. That's right... Right now... See them?
These are your Internal Representations. And in order to understand language, for it to make any sense whatsoever, it has to trigger your Internal Representations.
In other words, if you speak it, another person has to see it.
Ok, they don't always see it. Sometimes their Internal Representation is a sound, a smell, a feeling. But more often than not, it's a picture in the mind.
This is the power of your words. And the reason blogging, or writing anything, is so important.
Your words hypnotise... they take people on journeys.
So the question is this. Is your story compelling? Is it filled with detail, with richness, vibrancy, colour, contrast? When you write it, do you go into the inner world of your Internal Representations? Of course you do. And so will others. Which is why it's important to give them the opportunity to explore their inner minds.
You don't have to give all the bits of detail...let their own mind create it. Because sometimes it's so much more fun than having it handed to you on a plate.
When I was a kid, I used to love playing at being different people. One minute I would be flying my spaceship around my Grandfathers garden, and he would watch me, his grey unkempt hair flapping in the breeze, smiling as I became a cowboy, a professional wrestler, a member of the zombie hoarde, or whatever and wherever my mind could take me. Surely you can identify with that, because it is what it was to be a child. To be free to disappear into your juicily creative mind and play it out.
Of course, now you're an adult, you're beyond such things. That's right. You think adult things. Like about making sure you get into the office early, long before you're paid to be there. Or maybe you're focussed on the important stuff, like paying your tax, or swapping gas suppliers.
And you certainly wouldn't want to just play. Playing is a waste of time. There's so much more work to be done, right?
Nope. Playing, and stretching your mind, experiencing new and interesting Internal Representations is vital for the health of your brain, and the overall long term wellbeing of your mind.
In fact, only an idiot would turn down the opportunity to play, to enhance their minds creative power, and to spent some time in the world of the waking dream. I think everyone who blogs, reads books, philosophises, makes music, art or whatever gets that.
Your blog is your story... make it a bestseller
The greatest blogs are often simply great stories. Yes, you can give a load of informative information, and that has its place, but writing a blog is more than that. And only you get to choose the format of it.
Is your Steemit blog like a modern day diary, recording your life into the blockchain, where nobody can ever accidentally lose it? Or is it your blank canvas, a place to get your thoughts out and down, not because you want to world to necessarily give you validation and agree, but sometimes because you want to spark real debate and intellectual thought.
Is your Steemit blog somewhere to stretch the muscles of your mind, like a globally connected head-gym, or do you really see Steemit as a way of earning a few bucks just for writing any old shite?
Guess what people...there are many good reasons to be here on Steemit, but making money is not really the top one!!!
Being compelling is a story, not just a fiction. Even when you tell people something factual, if you can spin it as a story, do you think they are more or less likely to connect with it?
Our language is one of the greatest gifts we have. Use it. Never be afraid to explore the depths of your words. Whatever is your mother tongue, let your words be the vehicle which takes people on a ride they will never forget. They may move on, and focus on other things, but if you can get just one element of your storyline to connect, because the language created such dynamic Internal Representations, they will never forget it.
And you may find that they take what you gave them and pass it on to someone else....and that's your memes spreading, your ideas taking hold in the universe. And ideas that spread can last forever.
So that's it. Think about how you can take your audience on a journey. Tease them with richness and vibrancy of your words, let them stroll down the boulevard of verbose, and have a little tea party with the inhabitants of their mind.
And as you invite others to do it, you must have gone through the process yourself too.
Good wasn't it?
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