How to Write a Compelling 500-word Blog

There are so many opinions what constitutes good writing that anyone seeking to improve his/her work is besieged with contradictory nuggets of advice and paralyzing admonitions. So you should approach all such “boastful” articles with much skepticism.

If you are indeed able to suspend that very skepticism for 3 minutes, I’d like to offer a set of recommendations for a very specific type of writing- the 500 word blog. Whether you are writing on matters of culture, sociology, or business, in such blogs, your goal is clear: to convince readers of something and, likely, to impel a “next step.”

In such short-form writing, complexity is hard to come by. So too is multiplicity of ideas. This leads to a basic axiom for this form: You have to have one clear idea or “meta-point” which should be written in a provocative style. Lest you get worried here, “provocative” needn’t suggest that it provokes anger, sadness or other “bad” emotions; instead, it should provoke further exploration. Examples in my own writing are: “In Marketing, the focus on measurability leads to terrible work-product” or “Churchill was no hero, he was a tyrant.” Natural agreement or disagreement with the point is often irrelevant- the bold statement almost “requires” further reading.

So you lead paragraph one with a strong statement then you restate it. You then discuss this as a breakthrough. This comes in the form of “Generally, people think X, but in reality Y or 1/X is a better way to look at it.” You’re right and they’re wrong (or too simplistic.)

In paragraph two, you state then dissect the conventional wisdom. You are stridently opining against that wisdom but you need to define your “prey” first.

Paragraph three serves a “bridging” function. You connect the common view with your own, with some clever transition language. Something like- “It’s understandable why the general public thinks X, because the textbooks/most stuff they read suggests that interpretation. Reality however is more complex and unyielding.”

Paragraph four puts the burden on you to substantiate your view. Here, you expand your opinion with 2–3 clear statements and then 2–5 crisp examples. An example from my own writing: “Churchill in fact could be said to have presided over as many deaths as any of the worst tyrants in history. For instance, take the Bengal Famine, where 4 million perished for want of the grain Churchill withheld, or the scores of thousands of Mau-May killed in British “gulags.”

Paragraph 5 ends the piece with either an inspiration or a challenge. For instance “So which do you want to be? Creator or Destroyer?” or “If you tread this path, you will have embraced risk and made yourself a better person.”

With this “formula” you incite interest in a topic but avoid the excessive surface area that prompts most of us to put our feet in our mouth!