Bad content writing habits

So I stumbled upon this great article by Neil Patel where he outlines bad content writing habits (I can't post links yet unfortunately) and thought that it will make a great thread, where we can discuss different bad habits while writing our content. To start things of, I will say that a bad habit is not planning the blog post in advance. I think too many people just start typing away in Word without any idea where they are going. It's always good to do a basic layout of the blog post on a piece of paper and then start filling it out in Word. What about you? What do you think are the bad content writing habits that get in the way of getting the most out of our content?

So, you didn't really learn much from that article?

Of course I learned something, I just thought that it could have been longer.

I think the article that the OP is referring to is this recent one: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/bad-writing-habits
In that article Neil talks more about how to communicate ideas as efficient as possible. The entire goal of planning is to understand exactly what you're trying to say and for that you need a good oversight. Planning does play a vital role in it but it's also important to take a look at how you want to structure your content in such a way where you don't need to write an entire novel to express an idea that could be conveyed in just 1 sentence.

Also the use of certain buzzwords. I think it really depends on what you are writing about or who you are representing. If the brand that you are representing has already established a name for itself and actually, literally can live up to words like: Innovative, Dynamic, Cutting-Edge, etc. Then it's ok to use them in a non excessive matter.

But if you're trying to present something completely new...

Well, imagine if everyone used the word: "Innovative" to describe their business or the idea that they have. But it has turned out all to be the same as everyone else's. And then you come along and use the same words to present your idea/content. How is the audience going to perceive those buzzwords? They'll most likely attach it to those who have used those words themselves in the past but never were able to live up to it. So to the reader, those buzzwords will almost become like ghost words.

So I'd say in that regard, avoid buzzwords if you're presenting something that's really new and you're trying to make it stand out.

It's really a useful article.
But, although I love Neil Patel, sometimes I feel he writes a really long long article, and basically says nothing

My bad content writing habit is I say fuck a lot.
Probably the words is like 1-2% in the whole fucking article. I will not be surprised if my blog get ranked with the porn sites out there lol

the worst content writing habit i dont like is stealing/ copying the ideas and views of the other writer.

ADLUDUM said:

I think the article that the OP is referring to is this recent one: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/bad-writing-habits

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Thanks for sharing the article. Neil Patel has some really interesting and useful articles...

The worst writing habit is NOT writing. Plain and simple. You procrastinate, you don't get nothin' done, son!

That's Neil Patel from SproutSocial yeah? Met him once, awfully nice guy.
Yeah sometimes there's fluff in his articles but they're mostly alright. I think he writes them in a way that's easy to digest.

From my experience as a somewhat-writer, I think the worst writing habit is thinking you can't do it. If you can't then you can't, FOREVER! So be motivated, everyone can write, just gotta pick up the pen or tap on the keyboard to do it!

nishan said:

That's Neil Patel from SproutSocial yeah? Met him once, awfully nice guy.
Yeah sometimes there's fluff in his articles but they're mostly alright. I think he writes them in a way that's easy to digest.

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I like his writing style as well.

On the subject of not planning your blog, I guess some people really don't outline their content. I. on the other hand, prefer to outline everything on Google Docs and give it a skeletal frame before editing and adding more "meat."

The worst (to my mind) is starting to write without understanding the material.

I was trained at, worked at, and eventually trained others at a major American network.

Other than the basics that are in Strunk and White, the best advice I ever got was this:
"Read and understand the source material, then put it away and write your own article from what's in your head, not by referring back to the sources. If you need specific numbers or statistics, you can look back at the sources - but only then. If you don't remember and understand enough of the material to write your own article, you have no business writing it in the first place."

So true. If you keep referring back to the sources, that's called rewriting.

For me, I guess it's procrastination. I've been guilty of this countless times. It's a bad habit I have, and I'm trying bloody hard to kick. I guess having a to-do app at my disposal alerting me of important tasks helped immensely.

reallife said:

The worst (to my mind) is starting to write without understanding the material.

I was trained at, worked at, and eventually trained others at a major American network.

Other than the basics that are in Strunk and White, the best advice I ever got was this:
"Read and understand the source material, then put it away and write your own article from what's in your head, not by referring back to the sources. If you need specific numbers or statistics, you can look back at the sources - but only then. If you don't remember and understand enough of the material to write your own article, you have no business writing it in the first place."

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Thread moved to the "Associated Content & Writing Articles" section.

copying ideas from other articles r sentences from other articles may be bad writing habits

The worst according to me is to feel demotivated before writing the article. It is better not to write something that you don't want to. Another thing could be not understanding the concept. If you are not clear about the instructions on the article, all you have to do is ask out. It saves a lot of time and energy for both the writer as well as the requester.

I've been rewriting some content for a customer, and I don't know what it is with the ESLs but some of their habits are so annoying.

They love the word "typically" and it grinds my gears. Their writing is so weak. "Water is typically wet." "Lightning typically strikes." JFC it's OK to say "Water is wet." "Lightning strikes." Stop filling the content with wishy washy junk.

So, to the ESLs I say "fucking stop using the shitty filler words."

Hi dude!
I think that a bad content writer will start typing directly to the blog post.
A good writer will first write on any paper or Word to write a unique article. It will help the writer to get his/her mistakes in the article that writer can recover.

Yes good tip is to get a structure for the blog post.

Prior to writing the blog post I would go look on the internet to find similar articles and see how they structured it and at the same time get inspiration for the structure.

QuantumBlue said:

So I stumbled upon this great article by Neil Patel where he outlines bad content writing habits (I can't post links yet unfortunately) and thought that it will make a great thread, where we can discuss different bad habits while writing our content. To start things of, I will say that a bad habit is not planning the blog post in advance. I think too many people just start typing away in Word without any idea where they are going. It's always good to do a basic layout of the blog post on a piece of paper and then start filling it out in Word. What about you? What do you think are the bad content writing habits that get in the way of getting the most out of our content?

Click to expand...