The Hartsock Agency

If you’re new to blogging and you want to come up with posts to inspire viewers to “read and click-forward” to friends, then one way to determine what you want to write for your readership is to look at characters in movies.

One of the tricks that screenplay writers often employ to avoid writer’s block is to write their screenplays with movie stars already in mind. Not only does it help them flesh out their character in livable form, but it also helps them create the minutiae for the character.

You can use this same tool for your blog in determining who you want to read your blog and creating content that movie character might enjoy reading!

If you’re writing a blog around being a mom, then think of the strong mom characters you’ve loved in movies and imagine them reading your blog. I always loved Sally Field’s character in “Steel Magnolias” or “Forest Gump,” strong mom, smart mom and dedicated mom. Here’s a good example of the blog those characters might read.

If you’re writing a blog on auto racing then you might build your content around the Tom Cruise character in “Days of Thunder.” What content would drive that character to read your blog on a daily basis? See this racing blog for example – http://fullthrottle.cranialcavity.net/ or this one – http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/ .

This works with real people too – what kind of food blog would Julia Child have enjoyed? Maybe this one – http://chocolateandzucchini.com/ .

With blogs if you can identify a real person or even a movie character who you’re writing your blogs posts to – it will contribute to a more engaging and community focused blog long-term.

Also, speaking of characters, I’m going to upload all my interviews from 1995 to 1998 with the folks who were the movers and shakers on the Internet. Many of them are still around today and I’m looking forward to sharing the early Cluetrain interview, the usability interview with Jakob Nielsen and others who are still on the Web (just like me).

Look for a new regular feature on this blog called, “Archived Web Genius.”

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