Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web
www.CindyMillerCommunications.com

Cindy Edward Joe Kimberly

Facebook.com/CindyMillerCommunications
Instagram.com/CindyMillerCommunications
@CindyMillerATL
CindyMillerCommunications.com/blog

Strategy

1. Who is your audience?

2. What are your key messages?

Storytelling

Once upon a time ... Suddenly ...
Template for Storytelling
Fortunately ... ... Happily ever after!

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate ... we can not consecrate ... we can not hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain —
… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Once Upon a Time ...
Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal.

Suddenly ...
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation, so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We
are met on a great battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a
final resting place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.

Fortunately ...
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate ... we can not consecrate ...
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the
great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain —

Happily Ever After ...
… that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom — and that
government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from
the earth.

Once upon a time ...
Suddenly ...
Fortunately ...
... Happily ever after?

Platform

Facebook

• Engaging and original
• Write in 1st person
• Target your audience
• Call to action

Rhythm

Like good music,
good writing has a flow
and harmony
that produces meaning.

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words.
Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become
monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is
getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck
record.
The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music.
The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony.
I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length.

And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested,
I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length,
a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus
of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals --
sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences.
Create a sound that pleases the reader's ear.
Don't just write words.

Write music.

Six-Word Memoir

‘For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn.’

‘Fifteen years since
last professional haircut.’

‘Couldn’t cope
so I wrote songs.’

‘Well, I thought
it was funny.’

Edit

Everybody needs an editor.

Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web

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