Bruce Watson is a Features Writer for AOL's Money and Finance sites, including DailyFinance and WalletPop.

The key to constructing a compelling narrative lies in determining the part of the story that interests your audience and lopping off the parts that don't. This is particularly important when you're writing for the internet, as most of your readers will only give you a few minutes to capture their attention, make your case, and tie everything up. If your article starts to extend past 500 words, the narrative has to be vitally interesting or you will lose readers; by the time you get to 1000 words, even the most engaged audience will be getting antsy.

The Three W's
When narrowing down your story, ask yourself three basic questions:
  • Who is my target audience?
  • Why have they chosen to visit this site?
  • Which part of this story will be most interesting or useful to them?

Once you determine the answer to these questions, you will at least have a few ideas on the entry point for your piece. As you research your article, you can narrow down your options by keeping an eye on the approaches that other writers have taken. Generally speaking, you will want to avoid reiterating an argument that someone else has already made.

Craft Your Story
Having chosen an approach, think about the story that you want to tell. Good posts almost always have a narrative arc, leading from an event to its ramifications. If you feel that the event itself lacks punch, you might try using your title to draw your readers' attention to the story that you want to tell. A key angle to remember is that readers are generally willing to give you a little time to develop a story if they think that the payoff will be worth it.

Bravo for Brevity
Remember, short paragraphs and short sentences are generally more exciting and more effective than long ones. They also read better for online viewing. This isn't to say that you should try to write all your pieces in Twitter rhythm. Instead, try to vary sentence length, with a preference toward brevity.

Relay Relevance
Your final paragraph needs to address the question of relevance. Your readers should leave your piece with an understanding of the key elements of the story, an awareness of the ramifications of the event, and a realization of how the story could affect their lives. This doesn't mean that you have to resolve all the issues that you raise; in fact, there's a lot to be said to ending your piece with an open question. Such an approach can also prompt your online readers to respond with comments of their own – one of the best benefits of online writing. However, your readers should never leave your piece wondering why they took the time to read it.

A few final points: Repetitious word usage, passive voice, run-on sentences, and a reliance on cliches will all tend to deplete the energy and vitality of your writing. While all of these things will crop up from time to time, try to avoid them as much as possible.

Examples of excellence:

Gadling's Cockpit Chronicles: Flying Drunk (by Joe Balzer)
DailyFinance's Blockbuster Employee Stabs Himself to Avoid Getting Fired
DailyFinance's It's the End of the Recession as We Know It. Why Don't We Feel Fine?


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