A guest post submitted by Jennifer Harshman from Harshman Services.
Research about writing
Before you start to write something, you should conduct some research about your writing topic. What form that research takes depends on things like your resources, including the amount of time you have to do the work, and upon your preferences. Some people prefer to flip through books to find their information. Others prefer quick and dirty research online, tossing things into a swipe file on their computer for reference and inspiration.
One of the types of research you’ll want to do might sound a little surprising. It certainly makes sense for blogs and website content, but it’s also applicable to books and other forms of writing. It’s called keyword research, which is a subset of SEO (search engine optimization).
Keyword research
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is gathering the data regarding what people are searching for online, what they type into search engines. If you know exactly what people are typing into Google or other search engines, then you can know precisely how to title your pieces and what to use as headings.
Blog keyword research
Use keyword research to outline your book or blog posts. People search for information using a variety of levels of specificity, from general and broad to very specific and esoteric long-tail searches. The term “long tail” comes from the Bell-Shaped Curve. It refers to the portion at either side of the shape, where there are very few data points, but they are spread out into a long, flat tail.
That striation of specificity levels often helps in defining titles and headings. Online tools can give you great blog keyword research, and you can apply that data to books and podcasts as well. You just have to take five steps:
Access the keyword research tools.
Use them effectively.
Interpret the data.
Make decisions based on that data.
Write the outline.
If you hate to outline, you might like this video about how to Let SEO Write Your Outline for You. I’ll let you in on a secret. Despite what the title says, it’s a way to keep your cake and eat it, too.
After you’ve done some research and chosen a topic, you’ll want to decide on which style of writing you’ll use.
What writing styles are there?
There are six main types of writing:
Narrative Writing
Analytical Writing
Expository Writing
Persuasive Writing
Technical Writing
Poetic Writing
Narrative writing is less formal than expository writing, although both are “telling” types of writing. Persuasive writing is designed to convince a reader of something. Essays and many blog posts are intended to be persuasive writing—and so are sales letters and other ads.
What writing techniques are best?
The writing techniques that are best are whichever techniques you will use. Now, granted, some types of writing do lend themselves to certain topics more readily, and some are more . . . shall we say unusual? For instance, a poetic approach to a piece on how to replace a car battery would be . . . interesting.
How to research for writing
Citing sources
Much to the chagrin of editors and conscientious readers everywhere, citing sources is one of the writing activities that is falling by the wayside in so many cases. Some people are not aware that they are still required to cite their sources. Perhaps you are one of those people. If so, don’t worry. Just give it a little thought, and you’ll see that it’s the right thing to do. Give credit where credit is due. If something is common knowledge, you don’t have to cite a source unless you’re taking a direct quotation from that source. There is more than one way to properly cite a source.
Footnotes/Endnotes
Sources should be cited, but where? One place to cite sources is to put them in either the footnotes or the endnotes. A piece has one or the other, not both. Which to use is a matter of preference. Endnotes are easier for a formatter to work with, but footnotes give readers instant gratification. They just need to look at the bottom of the page. But better than either of these, in my opinion, is to take the approach that is a cinch for a writer and a reader. That is in-line citations, also called in-text citations.
In-line citations or in-text citations look like this: According to Pastor John Stange in his book Overcoming Negative Self-Talk with the Gospel, forcing yourself to hear your negative self-talk out loud and see the look on your loved one’s face as you say those terrible things to them might be just the kind of jolt you need to change what you say to yourself.
Fact-checking
Fact-checking is more important now than ever. Sources such as news, documentaries, and newspaper and magazine articles used to be fairly reliable. As a popular meme says, “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” Signed, Abraham Lincoln. Check your facts, and preferably use more than one source that is trustworthy. It’s getting harder and harder to find reliable sources. Your original research (which is research that a writer does themselves) is of course trustworthy because you did it yourself.
Literature review
A literature review is conducted during the research phase, when a writer is trying to decide what to write about. If thousands of books or blog posts already exist on the topic, then that writer might decide against writing a piece on it. On the other hand, they might decide to proceed despite the number of sources already available because they bring their own unique spin to the topic. No one has your exact experiences and approach. And, conversely, if no books or posts exist on the topic, a writer might ask themselves why not. Is there no interest, or no money in it?
Other things to research
Researching editors
Researching editors might seem like a task for after you’re completely done with your book. Most people mistakenly believe that editing comes after the writing. It actually comes at several stages before, during, and after the writing; and it involves more than one editor. Ideally, you’ll have a developmental editor, a line editor, a copy editor, and then, after the layout is complete, a true proofreader.
You can find some good editors by approaching authors and bloggers you know and asking them who does their editing or who they could recommend to you. Make a list, and then contact those professionals to find out more about them. Or, if you’re a little shy, stalk them online a bit first. Another way is to look at the copyright page inside books you find to be done well, and see if the editor is listed. If so, Google their name and look them up. See what they’ve done and if it looks like they might be a good fit for you. The author–editor fit is the most important factor because if you don’t have a good fit, you could end up with a nightmare, and no one wants that. You can get Find a REAL Editor: Avoiding the Posers and Scammers for free.
Researching self-publishing
Whether to seek out traditional publishing or to self-publish is another choice that depends on more than one factor and can involve extensive research. Pastor John has done both. He has self-published some of his books, and he’s landed contracts with traditional publishing houses for other books. It doesn’t have to be an either-or decision, and doing one does not mean that you cannot later take the other path.
Some famous books were once self-published before a publishing house picked them up. Here are some examples:
The Joy of Cooking
The Well-Fed Writer
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
48 Days to the Work You Love
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
What Color is Your Parachute?
So, do your research. Decide which topic(s) you want to write on, and whether you’ll write a blog post or a book. Determine how you’d like to approach that writing, which style you’ll use, whether expository or persuasive, for example.
