Do you have something in your healing practice that you’re dying to share with the world? Write an article about it for the Miracles Directory Newsletter!
We are looking for practitioners eager to share their knowledge, wisdom and experience through articles that explore subjects and matters of expertise in all areas of the healing arts. Our goal is to have a robust newsletter with new and interesting articles each month that will engage readers on our website and attract clients to your business. We want to have the best and most appealing newsletter possible. So, to accomplish this, we need articles that are clear, concise and professional while engrossing the reader and inspiring them to learn more about your subject and inquire about your service.
But you may think, “I’m not a writer. So, how do I write that article?” Let’s examine the best way to go about this by looking at a few simple guidelines you can follow. Doing so will allow you to write your best article possible and save me time having to edit your material.
Structure
It’s important for your article to have structure. It should have a clear beginning, middle and end. But we must begin with deciding what to write.
Topic
What is the topic? The first thing to do is pick a main topic for your article. Think of a subject within the holistic or healing arts that you know well. You have substantial experience in practicing it, you have researched it extensively, or you even have obtained considerable skill and mastery in it. This is your moment to shine and exhibit your knowledge or expertise. If you are a yoga master, discuss yoga posture and breathing. If you’re an astrologer, talk about the stars or the universe. If you teach meditation, you might want to examine the benefits of meditation in everyday life.
Alternatively, you can probe into the origins of any of these subject matters and how they came to be. There could be any number or different theories or beliefs around these origin stories, and you might explore one or all of them in your article. Or you can share your origin story, explaining how and why you came into your particular practice, and how it changed your life for the better. Any of these topics would fascinate readers!
The article should not be about you personally or the particulars about your individual business.
Decide whether you will write one article or a series of articles. If your topic is so engrossing and multi-faceted, that you just can’t fit all into a mere thousand words, you may want to consider writing several articles! We welcome the submission of series. Please just let us know in advance what topics you intend to write about for each article.
Purpose
Start with the end in mind. This will help you come up with a thesis statement. A thesis is that sentence in the very first paragraph of your article that presents a viewpoint you want to express to the reader. What do you want that reader to come away with by the end of your article? That is, define the Purpose of your article. What is the main point or theme? State this point up front. If you picked meditation as a topic, for example, you might begin by saying, “Meditation is vital to daily health, both physical and mental, for many reasons.” Then, you will remind them of this same point at the end, in your article’s conclusion, only restated in a slightly different way.
Subtopics: Problems & Solutions
The rest of your article lays out reasons that support the point of view you expressed in your thesis statement.
Subtopics
Your article can focus on one topic or multiple topics (subtopics) as long as you can tie them back into the main topic in some interrelated, organized way. Subtopics are minor points that support your main point (e.g., “Meditation is vital to daily health”). So, your subtopics could discuss different facets of meditation, such as (1) the importance of grounding and staying grounded, (2) breathing techniques to help you bring your attention into the present moment and center yourself in your body, and (3) accessing your own information from within yourself through meditation. All of these topics can be explored while staying focused on the benefits of meditation for daily health. Or you might relate different, interesting, personal experiences that you or people you’ve known (family, friends or clients) have had.
Flow
Your article should have coherent flow. Think about how your points or subtopics will flow from one to the next. Using the meditation example, think to yourself as you write: “What are the reasons why meditation is vital to health that I want people to know?” Enumerate the reasons through:
- facts or statistics;
- benefits;
- historical background (such as the origin of the art / science of meditation); and/or
- personal stories or case histories, including challenges and personal breakthroughs.
Problem
If you choose Item 4 for your article, state the problem or situation. Identify a challenge (or several) faced by many people that your field of practice or expertise can help resolve. You can cite a universal problem, a problem you yourself overcame, or one you helped a client through.
Solution
How does your practice or healing art address or solve the problem? The solution can be one that you yourself have experienced or discovered, or one you’ve heard or read about. Explain how this happens – through meditation, for instance. Include information you know related to that healing art or practice. This information can be general or specific.
Headings
If you want, add headings to help organize your article by point or subtopic and to bring separate attention to each one. For example, the reasons why “meditation is vital to daily health” are:
Heading #1: [followed by text explaining Reason #1];
Heading #2: [followed by text explaining Reason #2];
Heading #3: [followed by text explaining Reason #3], and so on.
Headings also make your article easier for readers to follow. If you find you have too many headings, you may want to split these out into separate articles, and write a series.
Conclusion
Remind the reader of the same point at the end, restated in a slightly different way. “I’ve found meditation to be essential for all the reasons stated above. I believe that if everyone in the world meditated, we would have a healthier, saner and more peaceful world.”
Recap
To recap, when you write your article, pay attention to the following elements:
- Topic: the subject of focus in your article, which is one of the healing arts. Example: meditation.
- Purpose: the reason for writing your article, the main point you want to express to your reader about your topic. Example: “Meditation is vital to daily health.”
- Subtopics: minor points that support your Purpose (the main point).
- Problems: subtopics that explore a challenge faced by others that your field of practice or expertise can help resolve.
- Solutions: how your healing art or practice answers the problems or situations you just raised.
As long as you keep these suggestions in mind, your article will meet the requirements of our newsletter and should be a joy to read! This will be the first of three articles providing specific guidelines on how to write an engaging article.
We eagerly look forward to your submissions!
by Scott Herod
Marketing Content Editor, Miracles Directory