Writing is Conversation
How to write an engaging text in 6 simple steps
Have you ever wanted to write about a topic but had no idea how to actually do it?
Is the feeling of having something big to share, but not knowing how to connect all those ideas floating around your head, familiar to you?
If so, then this post is for you.
I get it, I used to be the same. I’d sit down to write, would start tapping away but then quickly find myself running head first into a wall of frustration.
Then, last week, I learned a super simple writing method that changed all that.
It’s not rocket science, but it completely changed how I approach the act of writing.
After reading it, I was able to write this whole post in a way that was much more enjoyable and, I hope, engaging for you.
Let’s get into it.
Outline all your main points
Even though people rarely do this, your first step is very simple:
Write out all the main points you want to talk about.
These are the topics you’ll want your reader to take away from your text. For example, if you want to write about how to cook, you'd write something like this:
Learning the fundamentals
Grocery shopping
Food prepping
Cooking (aka applying heat)
As you can see, these are the big steps needed to get your reader from “I don’t know how to cook” to “Here’s a dish I just cooked”.
So do the same for what you want to talk about.
What are the main talking points you want your reader to take away from reading what you wrote?
Write them down. (Don’t worry too much about the order of the points at this stage, you’ll be able to rearrange them later).
Break down each main point into its constituent bits
The next step is also straightforward.
For each main point you came up with above, break it down into its constituent bits of information.
So, for example, under 'Learning the fundamentals', you could bullet-point the following:
Read a cook book that teaches you the fundamentals of cooking, such as Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking1 (which I recommend by the way).
Learn techniques by watching cooking videos on Brian Lagerstrom’s YouTube Channel — (he’s amazing, I love his approach).
Cook together with good cooks and watch what they do. Imitate them.
Try new cuisines and take note of the ingredients they use, their spices and cooking techniques.
Under 'Prepping the food', for example, your breakdown could include all the different cutting techniques or an explanation of the different knives and kitchen tools your reader should use.
You get the idea.
As you're working through your list of main topics, keep an eye out for the order in which all these bits of information will come in.
Aim for a flow that’s logical and builds upon itself.
Have a conversation with your reader
Now that you’ve outlined all your main topics — together with all the bits of info you wrote under each — the fun starts.
Go to your first bit of information, under your first main point and read it out loud.
If your reader was sat across from you as you said that, what would they be likely to ask?
What would their first question to you be?
So, for example, if I told you ‘Read a cook book that teaches you the fundamentals of cooking’, you might ask me the following question:
“Why should I learn about the fundamentals of cooking?”
Now that’s a great question!
Your job, as the writer, now is to answer it:
‘You should learn about the fundamentals of cooking because, no matter what style or cuisine you want to cook, there are four keys dimensions you should be aware of: how will you salt your food, what sources of fat will you use, which ingredient will bring the necessary acidity and, finally, how will you cook it.’
Now imagine what a follow-up question to that could be. ‘How do I salt food?’, for example?
Then answer:
‘Properly salting food depends on the ingredient: If it’s meat, try to salt it the day before cooking; if it’s fish, a couple of hours before cooking will do. If it’s green vegetables, bring salted water to a boil and blanche them for a couple of minutes.’
And then come up with any number of follow-up questions to that.
Keep going in this way until you're out of questions, then stop.
Read what you wrote out loud
The next step is to read everything you just wrote out loud. You’re going to do this at least twice.
The first time, see if you have any further questions based on what you wrote. Is something still unclear? Is what you’re talking about relevant in a different context?
Fill in these gaps and then read the whole text again.
This time, listen to how it sounds. How do the sentences flow?
Are the ideas easy to grasp? (Remember, your goal is that the reader comes away having learned something, so write it in a way that is approachable—just like spoken speech).
Once you’re happy with this section — both in terms of completeness and tone — put it aside and move onto the next sub-topic on your list.
Write like this in distinct sessions and, eventually, you’ll have fleshed out (and edited) all the constituent bits of information that give context to your main points.
Go back and write your introduction
Now that you know exactly what you’ve written about, it’s time to go back and write the introduction.
The only purpose of the introduction is to get your reader to read the rest of what you wrote. As such, it has to be compelling.
It has to tell the reader what benefit they can expect from reading you text and it has to do so in a way that sparks their curiosity.
If you fail here, everything else that you wrote won’t matter because it won’t get read. Luckily, you already know what your reader can expect because you’ve already fleshed out your main points.
So, in our example about learning to cook, the reader can expect to learn about the constituent steps of learning the fundamentals, how to buy and prepare ingredients, and how to cook them.
A good way to package these benefits is to tell a simple story:
Beginning: Before I learned how to cook, everything I made tasted bland. So I spent a ton of money on takeouts and ended up eating junk.
Middle: Then, one day, I — instigating moment — watched a video on how to make sourdough bread. Just three ingredients — flour, water and salt — plus technique and patience is all it takes. That’s when I understood the importance of what I’ll share with you.
End: Now I go to the grocery store without a planned list of ingredients: I buy fresh produce that’s in season (and therefore nutritious and affordable), knowing that I’ll be able to prepare a delicious meal.
Remember, your introduction’s job is to hook your reader. It’s easier to do that if you build a genuine rapport and look at things from their point of view.
Finish by writing your conclusion
Finally, move onto your conclusion. This is nothing more than a summary of what your reader has learned from reading your words.
In my case, I wanted to show you how to approach and break down the act of writing out your big idea.
First, I told you to write out all the main topics you want to talk about.
Second, I asked you to break down each of these main topics into their constituent bits of information.
Third was the process of going through each of these bits of info and asking questions that your reader would likely ask. You job here is to answer them.
Fourth, I asked you to read aloud what you wrote. The point here is to surface any gaps in understanding, as well as making the language conversational.
Fifth; now that you know exactly what you wrote about, it’s time to write your introduction and to hook your reader’s attention.
Sixth, finish with your conclusion by gift wrapping all your takeaways for your reader.
So there you have it.
A simple writing method that invites a change of perspective of what it means to write. It’s no longer about putting words down on a page.
Writing is about having a conversation with you, the reader.
Enjoy it!
ps. If you want to read more about this method, I learned it in a great little book called Write in Steps: The Super Simple Writing Method by Ian Stables.
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This is really helpfull! Thanks!!
I love Salt, Fat and Acid btw! It changed my perspective on food and cooking!