Author: C111

The advice, “write what you know”, came from Mark Twain to encourage people to embody their own personal experiences in their writing. Is this bad advice or was he spot on? To answer this question immediately, I’d say he was one hundred percent correct.

There’s a but, here.

You may be limiting yourself to an audience that can benefit from your writing. What does that mean? It’s simple, really. If you have writer’s block, you’ll feel better after you’re done reading this.

What Writing What You Know Means

It means that you don’t dabble in writing about how to be a heart surgeon if you’re a dentist. It means not writing about how to care for someone with Parkinson’s disease if you have only cared for those with Alzheimer’s disease. It means not writing about how to get a cat to love you when you’ve only ever known dogs.

Okay, that last one was stupid, but you get the point.

What we write needs to come with some form of expertise or experience. For instance, if I have owned cats my entire life domestically, but hardly ever cared for a stray cat outside my house, I could still write about how I accomplished getting a tiny feral beast to rub its head across my hand in less than two weeks.

How Writing What You Know Limits You

Mark Twain wasn’t wrong in his advice, so that alone isn’t what is limiting you. You, yourself, are limiting you. You could run out of ideas quickly if you only wrote what you knew because you would think you couldn’t expand a little. You’d stick to a tiny niche.

Let’s say you love to cook and you focus on American cuisine with a gourmet touch. You’ve been practicing this style of cooking for decades and only once or twice have cooked recipes from El Salvador. You’d be selling yourself short not to include dishes like pupusas in your mix.
The entire concept is that you know cooking. That doesn’t just have to be American cooking, you can cook anything you want and broaden your practice and expertise! Chances are that cooking is relatable throughout the world with little hacks here or there. Teach your audience about leveling up their American homemade recipes with a little tip from the Middle East – like adding Za’Atar to their common scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast.

You Don’t Have to Leave Your Niche

As you can see with the example above, you’re not writing about how to use Za’Atar in Middle Eastern dishes, you’re writing about how to add this delicious spice to American dishes. You see the connection? You’re still on topic but with a little flare added in. This makes you unique.

With the Internet, We All Know the Same Thing

It’s sad, really, that everyone is an “expert” on every topic. Have you ever spoken to someone who could explain the entire autobiography about an actor just because they watched one reel on social media? Have you been corrected with your own knowledge about the life expectancy for opossums only to be corrected by someone who said they asked AI and AI told them no, they don’t live only 3-5 years? Who’s right? This is what I thought I knew!

I’m on a rant here. But the point is that everyone seems to know everything about every topic on this planet just because the internet and social media exist. How are we supposed to stand out with our copywriting content? How are we supposed to be an expert in our field – in other words, how are we supposed to PROVE we’re an expert?
Go get a PhD. Just kidding. You don’t have to although that would build credibility.

Truth is, be unique. It’s a battle out there. Even still, there is a special audience who will like you and follow you. All of us have our own favorite person we listen to on a podcast. We have our favorite fitness influencer. We have our favorite news station. We have our favorite baseball team.

Seriously, you can tell me the Yankees are the best team on the planet, but I will always root for the Dodgers. Hopefully I didn’t lose you there.
Don’t be afraid to expand your writing and the topics you cover. Write what you know but also write everything you know and combine them. If you do write about cooking and you also love cats, try adding a special blog post about cooking for your cat. Seriously! I will even read it.

If you’ve read my blog posts then you know they vary away from just 500 words. That’s not a strategy; I’m literally writing as many words as it takes to get my message across. That could be 500 words, that could also be 1300 words. I don’t have a measurement, but I do keep to a flexible system.

Why Does Word Count Matter?

You can’t just write 50 words and call it a blog. A post like that will surely lack value and will teach readers nothing. Even 150 words is too little. A paragraph isn’t a blog, it’s a poem or an essay, or a short story. You can do it, sure, but if you’re writing a blog then you want to have a little more than that because you want to give the reader something to take home. Don’t waste their time, offer what you’ve got – tell them what you need to tell them.

Why There is No Secret Number for the Perfect Blog

If you write with the intention of delivering a topic, then you won’t have to worry about a word count. Only those who write pointless copy actually focus on word count.
“I need to have 500-word blogs or I’ll never keep a reader on my site!”
That’s the wrong idea.
I’m willing to bet that your blog post is going to be made up stuff with filler words just to hit that sweet spot.

Why Do People Advise 500 Words?

That’s an older concept. Years ago, blog posts were 500 words because it was thought that the attention span for readers was short. While there is evidence to prove that, yes, attention spans are short – as we’ve seen with shorts versus long-form videos on YouTube, there is still a need. If there wasn’t, why are long videos still posted? Why do people still record long episodes for their podcasts? Why do we still write novels in our Instagram posts? It’s not uncool to have longer content. Readers are not obsolete, if they were, we wouldn’t have books being published.

The most important factor is that you produce quality. If it takes you 657 words to get your point across, help a reader out, and deliver an exceptionally well-read article, then write 657 words. Don’t shave off 157 just to make it 500 words.

Same with a blog post that’s under 500 words. Why would I force out an extra 100 words if 400 is perfect enough?

The Flexible System

Too little words, what’s the point? Too many words, what’s the point? That IS the point! How many words does it take to get your point across? The only system I follow is that – am I getting my message across to my reader? I cannot do that in less than 400 words, most of the time. But if you can, do it.

My guess is that if you’re a copywriter, then you love to write. One thing I know about writers is that they LOVE to write a lot of words. I haven’t met a writer who gives me short sentences and calls it a day. You can always tell a writer in someone you’ve exchanged phone numbers with, too. Want to know how to tell? How long are their text messages. We all know someone who texts way too long of a text. I’m one of them.
Writers have trouble knowing when to stop. So, follow some form of a flexible system, like 500-1200 words if you can. Give yourself some room without restrictions. That frame gives you ample space to get your point across but also caps your addiction to words.

But get rid of the idea that is has to be 500 and only that. You wouldn’t want to let your reader down by writing them “5 Tips for Copywriting” and only giving them four. Of course, you wouldn’t do that, but don’t limit how much detail those five tips truly come with just to hit a certain word count.

Good content is easy to read and if you’ve got bold text, large fonts versus small fonts, bullet points, or numerical lists, then sure, it’s going to read well.

But not every blog you write has to be written that way.

It all comes down to the #1 rule in copywriting which is…

What does it take to get your message across?

Creating An Art Form

See how I added the title just above this paragraph?

That wasn’t necessary, but it’s pleasing to your eye to understand the topic you are reading better.

It’s an art because I used psychology.

If you know ahead what topic you’re about to read, then you are more likely to grasp the concept better.

You’re not going in so blindly.

At the end of your blog, you’ll be doing some edits to make it appear more aesthetically appealing.

You can add some color and some pictures, too.

You’ll make sure your sentences don’t run on poorly, but I tend to love run-on sentences.

I also love it when sentences are broken up in short sentences of 3-5 words.

If you were to read your blog out loud, with full animation, how would it sound?

That’s how you write.

And that is an art.

That is a symphony of words.

You Are Not a Writer

Okay, if you write on a keyboard or with pen and paper, you are a writer.

What I mean here is that essentially, when all is written, you are an orator. Your words may just be on a screen or notepad, but when someone is reading it there comes with it a voice. Their voice.
As they read, your words will sound out in their minds. It’s like music. Ever wonder how we can memorize lyrics so quickly but forget what someone told us verbatim just five minutes ago? It’s because there is a melody attached to the words in a song, whereas normal day-to-day speech doesn’t come with too many variations in sound frequency.
Write with Music in Mind
When you type or write out your words, think about how it will sound to your reader in their own mind. Is there a melody to it? Do your sentences harmonize? Does it read like a poem or like a scientific study out of a medical journal? Whatever your aim is, remember the rule to ensure you are getting your message across well.
That is the end goal. You want to make sure your readers understand the topic you are writing about. To do that, let’s refresh:
You need to polish your blog with aesthetics, like bullet points, bold text, colors, pictures, and whatever you intuitively feel is best
You need to have a title that fully summarizes what your topic is about and try not to stray with a rant on another topic
You need to write with music in mind to help the reader memorize what they read
You need to make sure that before you publish the blog you cover everything you needed, so the message is fully delivered
In other words, don’t write with a mission to have everything perfect. If you treat it like an art form, then you’re more likely to deliver a good message that is easy to read and also entertaining enough – even if it is a study or more complex with jargon. Have fun with whatever it is you blog about. If you do that, then your readers will keep coming back because they can tell you are authentic, grammatical errors or not. Be yourself and you’ll write the best content out there.