Former "Health" magazine editor-in-chief Huang Huiru talks about writing methods of long articles
Media Literacy Education Foundation’s Youwei School has held a series of wonderful Online lectures. Following the lecture “How to write concise short articles” on July 1, 2023, in the afternoon of July 22, Huang Huiru, the former editor-in-chief of “Health” magazine, was invited to share with the topic “How to write long articles” and lead everyone to master the tips of content input and output.
In the Internet age of information explosion, how do we present valuable and good content? The speaker of this lecture is Huang Huiru, a senior media person who is the former editor-in-chief of “Health” magazine and is now a best-selling book and columnist. He is also the host of the podcast. She will share with you how to transform information into valuable knowledge, as well as writing skills for long articles.
At the beginning, Editor-in-Chief Huang first reviewed the key points mentioned last time about content input.
She mentioned that when people need to input, many people will start to think about what content are looking for? At this time, the first thought that may pop up in everyone’s mind is “What are we looking for?” Editor-in-chief Huang said that in fact, many people do not understand that the meaning behind it is “what do I want to write” rather than “what am I looking for”?
Thinking about writing from this perspective, if the creator can think clearly first, then the matter will be easier to solve, and everyone will be able to handle it more smoothly. Editor-in-Chief Huang’s idea for content input is very simple, that is, there must first be a pond with fish.
She said that if the author himself has a big pond with all kinds of fish in it, then it will not be a problem to source the materials and write the book. But just having a pond is not enough, you also need to have clear coordinates.
The “pond” mentioned by editor-in-chief Huang Huiru is actually her inspiration database. That is to say, I usually actively collect various information, and then rely on a lot of reading and thinking to constantly think about the materials at hand. Is it possible to become an interesting topic?
Three coordinates of the writer
Editor-in-chief Huang said: “I have a coordinate, so my input is always searching and accumulating at a coordinate.” As long as it meets my writing needs, I will catch it and throw it into the pond, and then put it into the pot to cook when the time is right. At this time, by adding various ingredients, you can make various delicious dishes with different flavors, such as boiled fish or fried yellow croaker.
What are coordinates? Editor-in-Chief Huang pointed out: “My first priority is to develop the habit of thinking before writing: Who do I want to serve? Who are my readers?” She suggested that friends who run self-media can look at the profiles of their own readers, so that they will know which group of people they are communicating with for a long time. Will they also know clearly what they care about? What do you want to see? What are the pain points in life? In this way, you can slowly start to focus.
Editor-in-chief Huang gave an example. There are quite a lot of topics related to health in the market, but issues like infertility or parenting are not within the scope of her concern, and they will not be the main source of information she proactively provides to readers. The reason is simple, because her readership is more mature, so the issues she focuses on are naturally different.
Take care of your body first, thank you for everything in the past, breathe well, eat well, sleep well, and you will have a shining self in the future. —— Huang Huiru
Having said that, because he knows very well who his readership is, even though the health field is so broad, Chief Editor Huang never loses his way. In fact, she tries not to touch subjects that are outside her guarding range, so she won’t lose focus! Therefore, she suggested that creators should be very clear about their target audience, and it is best to clearly construct an outline or image of the readers in their hearts, and the more specific the better.
Chief Editor Huang mentioned that the second coordinate is what is the significance of this matter in Taiwan?
For example, she had seen an article before called “Big misunderstanding! Peanut butter is healthier than you think.” According to foreign research, peanut butter contains healthy fats and some beneficial micronutrients, including vitamin E, vitamins B3, magnesium, manganese and copper, which also include some nutrients that are harder to get in a daily diet.
At first glance, peanut butter is actually much healthier than you might think. For example, its fatty acids are indeed good, but the situation in Taiwan is different from that of the international community. Although Taiwan has a hepatitis B vaccine and it is no longer such a serious national disease, the proportion of liver cancer is still very high. Moreover, because Taiwan is located in the subtropics, the high temperature and high humidity environment makes it more difficult to preserve peanuts, and it is easy to breed aflatoxin. Therefore, regarding the topic of peanut butter, Editor-in-Chief Huang felt that although this topic sounded interesting, if viewed from the coordinates or perspective of Taiwan, it may not be such a suitable topic for reporting.
The third coordinate is now, and we also need to understand the reader’s thoughts. Why should everyone watch it now? This issue is very important. If a writer rushes into writing without thinking clearly in advance, it may be difficult to attract the attention of the public!
Find a unique perspective on writing
After all, in this era of information explosion, we actually have no shortage of all kinds of information, but why do readers need to read this article you wrote now?
Therefore, Chief Editor Huang suggested that content creators should have the ability to read the social atmosphere. In this way, when content creators are dealing with this article or manuscript - even if they are simply following the news, or if they really want to discuss the issues that everyone is most concerned about at the moment, they should first have their own ideas or angles.
Editor-in-Chief Huang uses her own writing as an example. Although she has now left the media job, she only needs to write a column every two weeks. Even if she does not need to keep up with news and current events, the work of observation and thinking is indispensable! To do these two things well, you also need to rely on long-term and extensive reading. Only in this way can you have your own views or unique perspectives on this matter.
Many people are busy chasing traffic, but they ignore what is the purpose of readers reading? Some media people pursue traffic, while others pursue influence like her. Chief Editor Huang reminds everyone to think clearly about this matter.
If we take the publishing industry as an example, in the end everyone just wants to create best-selling books one after another. So, when you are planning your publishing plan and writing route, you must think clearly in your mind: Which groups of people will need this book? Or do you just want to write it yourself? Another important point is, can you convey value through this book and help yourself and the publisher establish a strong position in a specific field?
The solution may not necessarily lie with your competitors. The reader’s needs may be satisfied by going to the gym and taking an aerobics class or taking a yoga class. The solution may not be the content itself.
Editor-in-chief Huang reminded everyone that the solution may not necessarily be on the competitor’s side. She gave an example that if many office workers contract gastroenteritis, they don’t necessarily need to read “Health” magazine or “Good Morning Health”. They may only need to go to a clinic near the alley to register! He may not necessarily need to read articles or buy books, or he may only need to learn aerobics or take a yoga class to solve his health needs.
Therefore, no matter how wonderful your book or article is, he will not pay for it. This is not a problem with this book or this article, but he might just go to the gym and take an aerobics class or a yoga class and be satisfied! Therefore, the solution may not be the content itself, nor may it be your competitors. In other words, the needs behind consumers are actually a very complex issue, which makes it relatively difficult for everyone to gain insights. It is not as easy as you think.
Editor-in-Chief Huang has shared with you many methods of content input, but the most important thing is that it should be accumulated over a long period of time and then become a part of our daily habits.
Develop the habit of typing regularly
Many people suffer from procrastination, but you can’t say that you’re just starting a Google search because a manuscript suddenly came due. Editor-in-chief Huang looked back on his past work experience and said with a smile that if he encountered this kind of situation, it would definitely be miserable or very hard! It is inevitable that everyone will have an escape mentality, but if you want to “make things happen” every time, it will not be easy and it will also bring great pressure to yourself. Therefore, Editor-in-Chief Huang recommends that everyone develop the habit of regular input.
No matter how busy you are at work, you must reserve some fixed time for yourself to read every day. For example, Chief Editor Huang is used to reading work-related information in the morning, so he will read something different in the evening. Try to get yourself into a regular typing schedule and put interesting material into the pond.
After that, throw these ingredients into several pots that are cooking on the stove, and you can create a table of gourmet dishes in a very short time. For content creators, there is always something cooking, which means you have many topics to work on and you will never run out of inspiration. When you know what you want to do, it’s easier to shop for it! Editor-in-Chief Huang gave an analogy, like if you originally wanted to make a dish of salivary fish, then you would know that you need to prepare things related to salivary fish in advance!
Storage is very important, so there needs to be a system or structure to assist. If you don’t tidy up your pond regularly, those treasured materials will become messy.
Editor-in-Chief Huang took writing a book as an example. She already had a clue about the next book she wanted to write or the next one. How much did she know what she wanted to write? Even if it may not be so specific, you can discuss it in detail with the publisher, but at least you have a rough idea of what topic you want to write about. You can make good use of digital note-taking tools such as Anytype or Notion to create your own knowledge management system.
Therefore, as long as she usually has materials related to this field, she will collect the information in advance and put it in her own pond. Of course, if the next manuscript is due at the end of August, you may not need to store it in any special way now, because you have already entered the stage and state of writing.
Editor-in-chief Huang said with a smile, but she also has plans for the next book! Therefore, she will continue to collect all kinds of interesting and good topics! She will not easily let go of any material that can be written into a new book, and will collect relevant things into her own pond.
She once again reminded everyone to develop the habit of fixed input under their own coordinates. Do you need to input consciously to know who your readers are? What do they care about? What do they care about? What are their pain points? Are there any other troubling things that need to be resolved? Then, what is the significance of this matter in Taiwan? And why does this subject need to be written about now?
Common phenomena and bottlenecks in book writing
Editor-in-Chief Huang mentioned that she had the opportunity to host a radio program last year. She found that some current radio programs really rely on many local authors to provide content. The reason is very simple, because the authors can talk about a variety of content in order to be on the radio program, so it is easier to support a program.
During the short period of two or three months as the substitute host, Editor-in-Chief Huang interviewed about thirty authors, allowing her to have some in-depth observations and feelings about these local books.
She found that many book authors had no argumentative ability. Therefore, when readers read certain books, they cannot see the overall picture, that is, they cannot grasp the whole picture of the whole thing, and it is difficult to understand why the author wrote this book? In addition, Editor-in-Chief Huang also discovered something, that is, some authors do not have the ability to transform. For example, when the author needs to write about some scientific documents, he will write very hard, which is completely difficult for ordinary people to understand. Some authors add some cute sentences in the context of the text. They probably think that being cute is enough to express an easy-to-understand style.
However, if the reader cannot understand the large section in the middle, it means that the author did not pay attention to the conversion of words. The so-called conversion means that when we find a percentage or the result of this matter from a paper, we must try to convert it into plain text that everyone can understand. It doesn’t mean that adding some cute sentences will make it easy to understand.
Next, Editor-in-Chief Huang also discovered that there are many books in the market that are written in very colloquial language. Some books read as if they were just speaking with your mouth, without the precious feeling of printing your brainchild into words. Therefore, the whole book feels loose and colloquial, and the pleasure of reading is lost.
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Writers should strengthen their discussion and questioning skills
The phenomena mentioned by Editor-in-Chief Huang seem to be quite common in Taiwan’s current publishing market. These things are actually interrelated. If you want to improve the quality of your books, you must start by strengthening your exposition skills.
You can’t just describe what you see on the surface, but dig a little deeper. You have to dig down layer by layer, so that what you write will be a little different from others!
Editor-in-Chief Huang gave an example. He once produced a long-term care program called “Please, let us grow old in peace”. At that time, when she and her colleagues went to interview Minister A and Zhong, the minister could only allocate 40 minutes for the interview due to his busy work schedule. In fact, we have talked about the issue of long-term care a lot before, but out of curiosity about people, a good interviewer still has to find ways to ask questions that have nothing to do with what he is talking about. In this way, readers will have a better understanding of the interviewee’s background and thoughts, and how he will promote these things? It may even be clearer why he does these things and the values behind them.
Editor-in-Chief Huang said that if you want to write differently from others, you need to receive this kind of rigorous training, that is, you have to ask why layer by layer? Ask why five times in a row? Only by digging down layer by layer can you write something different from others. In addition, it is also important to make good use of data when writing.
When writing a report, you need to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. If we could put Taiwan’s own coordinates into perspective and observe it from a few different angles, we would be able to think more broadly about the context of the whole thing.
For example, do you know what sports are most commonly played by Taiwanese people? She found that the first one is walking, which everyone must think of, the second is running, and the third is mountain climbing. In fact, these three types of exercise are all aerobic exercises. However, there are so many different types of exercise around the world, such as yoga, Pilates, etc. Why are some of the most common exercises we Taiwanese do are aerobic? Therefore, when Chief Editor Huang later wrote the article, he gave this article a small label called “Exercise Partial Eclipse”.
Editor-in-Chief Huang recalled that when writing content about health care before, he always thought about the current situation of the patients. So where are we now and why did we get to this point? And what will happen after this point? So where can we go? Basically, if you use this thinking structure to think about it, you will find that it is easier to start planning the content.
The writer can act as the reader’s tour guide
When you want to write an article, how do you write a story? Editor-in-Chief Huang advises all writers that it is best to think of yourself as a tour guide who is visiting tourist attractions, just like the kind of tour guide who shouts to tourists: “Come on, come on, come on, follow me!”
Taking reports dealing with diabetes as an example, it is necessary to clearly point out the severity of diabetes at the outset, from the proportion of Chinese people suffering from the disease to the increase in the number of deaths every year… Editor-in-chief Huang pointed out that the writer should not only be like a tour guide, explaining the seriousness of this matter to tourists in detail, but also carefully explain why it leads to such serious consequences?
Therefore, in addition to being like a tour guide and constantly explaining the causes and consequences to readers, the writer also needs to use summary sentences to help readers understand the key points in seconds. We have all learned the gist of Chinese writing since childhood, which is the so-called “starting, carrying, turning and combining”, but Western writing is “joining, starting, carrying and turning”, which means that the conclusion should be written first so that readers can quickly grasp the key points.
Editor-in-Chief Huang also reminded everyone that you can quote some cases and data to support your argument, and you can also add more scenes and actions to the article instead of just a simple description. In this way, readers can feel more of the sense of scene and the layout of actions and pictures from between the lines.
In addition, she also suggested that when writing, you can use a little more metaphors and also need a little change of situation. If you can add some humanistic stories and use a few more short sentences to describe it, the whole article will be more powerful!
Improving writing starts with reading and thinking
Editor-in-Chief Huang encouraged everyone to find ways to polish their writing and to read more good works. Instead of spending time scrolling on your phone, she suggested that everyone should really give themselves a fixed period of time every day to look at some better works. Then, every time before you read it, you have to think about it. If this case or this topic were given to you, how would you write about it? Think about it first, and then look at what others have written. Then you will think: “Wow, why is it so awesome!”
Chief Editor Huang has written six books before and is now entering the creative process of his seventh. Overall, the length of a book is about 70,000 words, and at least 55,000 words. Therefore, she adheres to the daily routine of “writing at sunrise and resting at sunset”. She believes that if she can give herself more similar training, she will definitely be able to improve her writing skills.
Editor-in-Chief Huang said with a smile: “I am actually like an athlete, I have to maintain an extremely focused state. Therefore, I will definitely go for a morning run in the morning and bask in the sun… I must get some sun in the morning, and then I will start writing when I come back. After writing a paragraph, when I feel a little hungry, I will go to have breakfast, and then come back to write…”
She found that in fact, the time for extreme concentration at the end of the day is often less than two hours. This means that you have very little time to create! The rest of the time, I can only look for information at most. Having said that, because in a state of extreme concentration, the time available for creation may really be less than two hours, so we must cherish it! To create your own state of extreme concentration, that is, the time when you can enter flow.
Editor-in-chief Huang said that she uses a very regular lifestyle to devote herself to her writing career. Of course, everyone can have their own writing ritual or lifestyle. Therefore, you might as well think about it, what methods can you use to help yourself achieve the state of efficient writing?
There may be less than two hours of serious creative time every day, so we must cherish it and try to create precious time that can enter the flow state. —— Huang Huiru
Further reading
- Huang Huiru talks about writing methods: raise a pond and have concise short articles at your fingertips
- Media Person Zhu Shujuan: From writing to management, how to become a professional journalist
- Media Person Zhu Shujuan: From writing to business, how to become an independent journalist
