Talking about Writing

New media writing is no stranger to us. Compared with traditional paper media, new media is more active, which may be the main battlefield for many writers.

But what exactly is new media writing? Where is the underlying logic of new media writing? What's the difference between new media writing and traditional writing? Do you really understand whether you are engaged in or intend to engage in new media writing?

On the evening of June 13, Mr. Xin Kai Xiao Yi, the teacher of Talking about Writing, answered these questions, explaining in detail the four skills of new media writing and the three mentalities of writers.

To understand the underlying logic of new media writing, we must first know what new media writing is.

In layman's terms, we can call writing through the medium of "mobile phone" new media writing. For example, WeChat friends circle, WeChat official account, Weibo, headlines, etc.

Compared with traditional paper media, new media writing has a wider range of topics and a lower threshold. It is no exaggeration to say that in modern society, everyone is equivalent to a self-media person.

Accurately speaking, the definition of new media writing can be summarized as the following sentence:

From the above definition, it is not difficult to see that new media writing has three characteristics:

1. target value writing

The biggest difference between new media writing and traditional literature writing is that new media writing has strong pertinence (clear audience) and can bring specific value to readers.

Just as the teacher wrote in "What is the essence of new media writing? It is mentioned in the article that many new media writers have their own clear positioning.

For example, Peng Xiaoliu's official WeChat account writing is mainly to provide continuous value for people who like reading. Uncle Akiba, focus on PPT. Fan Deng mainly talks about books. Bank screw is a financial manager, WeChat official account. There are also some WeChat official account who write emotional stories, parenting, workplace, marriage and so on.

On the basis of accurately positioning the audience, new media writing also requires the author to continuously output valuable words. This value varies with different audiences.

For example, teachers themselves like articles with "dry goods". Such articles can solve some puzzles in their parenting, life or work-this is the value. From these articles, she can also see the author's unique thoughts and viewpoints, which is also the embodiment of "value".

If the reader's mentality is like this, then the writer should think about how he should write to bring value to the reader. Only by thinking clearly about this problem can we really start new media writing.

2. Interactive writing

All articles in the new media have comment areas, where authors and readers can interact in real time. The interactivity of new media writing has at least three advantages:

1) Increase user stickiness: Most readers like to go to the comment area, and both other readers' comments and the author's replies can increase the fun of reading. Moreover, they can reply to other readers' comments, thus creating more sense of participation.

Therefore, as a writer of new media, you can effectively use the function of the comment area and increase the stickiness of users.

2) Provide feedback and guidance for the author: Through the comment area, the author can quickly get readers' feedback on the article.

For example, can the article attract readers' attention? Can you solve the reader's problem? Are there still some unsolved problems? Through interaction with readers, the author can get feedback and constantly adjust his writing direction.

3) Provide inspiration for the author's second creation: the interaction between the author and the reader is a process of mutual benefit. The author may find inspiration for re-creation from readers' feedback.

For example, the teacher mentioned that Li Xiaolai is a creator who can particularly interact with readers. He will record and accumulate the inspiration generated in the interaction with readers as the source of his next re-creation.

3. Have a certain methodology writing routine.

New media writing has a certain molding methodology from article conception, story selection, frame construction, title and beginning. We can also learn these methods through various channels and apply them to our writing practice, including:

1) Attend a writing training class: you can learn a relatively complete writing system and method, and you can also practice it and get guidance from teachers; The most important thing is to find a group of people with the same frequency, encourage each other and stick to writing better.

2) Theme reading of writing books: You can make a list of theme books about new media writing for theme reading. These books can be obtained on platforms such as Zhihu and Xing Hang, or by consulting a writing teacher. Through a lot of reading, I can also gradually explore the underlying logic, framework and system of writing.

3) Dismantle articles on excellent platforms directly: that is, find articles of the same type that you like to disassemble, imitate and practice. This is a more efficient and fast learning method. Franklin learned to write in this way.

It is said that in order to practice writing, he bought an English magazine "Observer" for repeated research, carefully scrutinized several articles, and then put down the magazine to write these articles himself, and then compared them with these articles in the magazine to see his own shortcomings.

In this way, after continuous training, his own writing level has been greatly improved, laying a solid foundation for him to become a writer.

These imitated and practiced articles can also be put on the platform to get feedback from readers; And can adjust itself according to the feedback.

In Writing Class for Masters: Good Writing is Readable, the author Shu summed up four "useful" writing methods, namely, useful, informative, powerful and interesting. This can also be used to guide us to write new media.

1. Useful: This is the core element of new media writing, that is, articles should provide value for readers.

For example, if we want to write and read articles, what kind of articles are valuable? The teacher suggested that there are two kinds of articles to try:

The first is the article about the book list. The average annual reading of China citizens is low, with an average of less than five books, so reading articles has a wide audience.

If the author reads widely, he can select books that are valuable to readers from the books he has read and introduce them. This kind of book list article can save the time for readers to find and consult, and also provide some thinking directions for readers.

On this point, I personally have some experience. I have written two articles about the book list, one is about the introduction of classic books, and the other is about the introduction of writing books, both of which have gained good reading volume and reader feedback.

Secondly, you can also try to open the manuscript to write. That is to say, use easy-to-understand language or vivid examples to interpret the boring and difficult content in the original work. By visualizing the abstract concepts in the book, an open manuscript is equivalent to building a communication bridge between readers and authors.

Therefore, writing a manuscript is not only meaningful to the author himself-it can strengthen the understanding of the concepts in the book and be helpful to work and life. At the same time, it can also inspire others who are reading or want to read this book.

These are all manifestations of value.

2. Material: It means that the article has the author's own real experience and unique fresh details. And this detail is unimaginable or fabricated to any extent, rich and true details and feelings.

So, how can we have these vivid and informative materials? This is inseparable from the accumulation in daily life.

The teacher suggested that we should pay more attention to the material things in life, such as the advertising copy around us, the hot time and the big events around us. It is best to mobilize all senses and capture information and materials in all directions, just like installing a radar on yourself.

Writers are good at capturing materials, which will increase their understanding of the world and make them more sensitive and keen. Writing one's own understanding and feeling about life will bring readers a unique and profound feeling.

3. Powerful: including thinking and feelings.

1) the strength of thinking: the depth of thinking often determines the height of the article. As writers, we often need to ask ourselves, can we think more than others? Can you think of something that others can't? Can you dig out the deep-seated reasons behind the incident?

The world is complicated. As a writer, we should find the law and essence behind it through complex appearances and present it to readers.

2) the intensity of feelings: that is, let readers feel the temperature and touch, and impress readers with sincerity and emotion.

4. Interesting: Everyone likes to read interesting words. As a new media article, it is more important to be interesting and attractive.

Interesting words can make the author's ideas easier for readers to understand. Just as the teacher wrote in the article "Grasping Four Ones and Farewell to Self-satisfied Writing",

If the abstract content can be visualized and vivid through vivid language, stories, fables or metaphors, readers will unconsciously understand the truth to be conveyed by the article.

For beginners, it may not be "interesting" at first, so they need to train slowly and pursue vividness, image and interest on the basis of simplicity and clarity.

1. Craftsmanship: Writing is a skill that can be learned, which needs constant practice to master and finally achieve perfection. Writing is essentially a "craft", which requires a writer to have the same craftsman spirit as a "craftsman".

Writing an article is like carving a work of art. After the first draft is finished, it needs to be polished carefully. The first draft and the final draft are often far apart, and our words will be close to accuracy and perfection in repeated revisions.

So good works are never written, but changed.

2. Stick to the end: There are many masters of new media writing who seem to become famous overnight, but their persistence in writing is often several years. Maybe we can't imagine their obsession with writing.

Therefore, for writing, we have to ask ourselves, are we persistent enough and how long can we persist? Is it three days to fish and two days to dry the net?

Ask yourself this question every day, stick to it and you will see the dawn of hope. You know, the road to success is not crowded. Because not many people insist on walking.

3. Stall mentality: The stall mentality of writing does not mean that you can write casually. Instead, we should regard our article as a product, which can provide value and solve readers' doubts.

The teacher pointed out that articles written by new media must be tested by the market for readers to judge. Creators need to constantly revise and adjust themselves according to reading data and reader feedback.

In a word, new media writing is different from traditional literature writing, and has unique laws and methods. If you intend to engage in new media writing, you need to master certain methods and go all out.

In-depth analysis of market and user characteristics, reader-centered, creative value output; This will eventually be seen by readers and recognized by the market.