Tips for writing an article?

GalwayGuy2

I'm kind of stumped to be honest. My novel writing is improving, but I can't even put pen to paper when trying to write an article.

I understand that they're different writing styles, but I would like to be able to write an article.

So, any tricks of the trade?

Arthur Rimbaud

What kind of an article is it? Comment... Feature... News... Review?

They all require pretty different approaches.

EileenG

As before, what type of article? Who is your reader?

General principles: Keep it simple. Short sentences, short paragraphs, one idea per paragraph. Do an adjective/adverb cull. Start by saying what the article is about, then elaborate. Then summarise.

Remember that many articles are shortened by chopping the end, so make sure that won't kill your article. Don't save the amazing twist for the last paragraph.

It's often useful to bullet point your main points and work from there.

Arthur Rimbaud

And on those lines, here are two defintive, popularly consulted writing guides used by professional journalists.

The Associated Press Stylebook (American, but most of the rules survive the Atlantic)
http://alumni.imsa.edu/org/hadron/ap.pdf

And, on this side of the Atlantic, the Guardian's Style Guide.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2004/07/15/styleguidepdfjuly2004.pdf

donalh087

That Guardian guide is great AR. I could read that for enjoyment.