A friend of mine lamented to me recently that she had a hard time writing articles. All she knew, she said, was to focus on the who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Actually, that’s all she, or anyone else, must know, at first.
Identifying and sharing the who, what, where, when, why, and how are essential. These are the basic blocks one needs to get started.
Coming up with creative ways to share these details is more of a challenge, of course. Depending on the type of article, it can be a most enjoyable one.
Many articles are lists of tips. These articles are especially useful for online readers who want a high-level overview of the topic being discussed.
The writer Harlan Coben provides an excellent example of a tips list with his 5 writing tips article, published last week in Publishers Weekly magazine. The who (implicitly you), what (writing articles), where (here), when (now), and how (see the tips) are all covered.
Other articles have a more story-like approach. For example, I wrote an article on the Seven Lakes High School football team winning its homecoming game for The Katy News. This victory marked the third straight Friday night that the homecoming team won the football game. But the building blocks are there: who (Seven Lakes Spartans), what (won their homecoming game), where (Legacy Stadium), when (Friday night), and how (coming from behind, with speculation that it must be something in the homecoming mums that inspired victory).
It’s easy to think that you need to have these blocks only if you’re writing nonfiction. But you need these blocks for fiction, too. For example, in the Wizard of Oz, we have:
- who (Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man)
- what (they are looking for the Wizard of Oz)
- where (they are walking down the Yellow Brick Road)
- when (right now)
- why (Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas, the Cowardly Lion wants courage, the Scarecrow wants a brain, and the Tin Man wants a heart)
- how (they’ll take it up with the Wizard when they meet)
Consider these things the next time you’re asked to write an article or story.
