Sunday, March 15, 2020

Sharknado Will Teach You All About Blogging

Sharknado Will Teach You All About Blogging Sharknado. It spawned 5,032 tweets per minute at its peak (about 84 tweets each second)for a movie about a hurricane that spawns tornadoes filled with sharks that bring down people, helicopters, and houses. What can you possibly learn from this movie about writing, beyond the fact that people will watch anything scripted for the SyFy channel? At first glance at the amazing poster, it seems pretty clear that there is little about blogging and content marketing in the movie. **SPOILER ALERT** The sharks dont win. Sure, they get in a few good bites, but in the end, the hero prevails and its messy.  In the interest of learning something meaningful from all of lifes experiences, even the ridiculous ones, can writers find anything of value from Sharknado and its messy heroic win? #Sharknado is a treasure trove of great writing advice. #NoReallyMost certainly. After watching Sharknado, you will realize that, as a writer, you need to: 1. Think on your feet. A change in the blogging schedule meant I had 40 minutes to write and publish a post. Those werent ideal conditions, but  I did it.  I cranked out the blog post, and sent it on to my team to peer review. Hayden responded back, after reviewing the post. I literally thought as I read: heres what 10+ years of blogging and disciplined writing gets you, he said, and it was the first time I realized that constant long-term blogging gives you the skills to think on your feet when you have to. Long-term practice makes it possible for you to think on your feet. It will happen. Youll have about 30 minutes to write a blog post. Can you do it?  Youd better have a process, the confidence, and the ability to write out of nowhere. Which leads to the next point 2. Maintain situational awareness. In Sharknado, the sharks were coming from every direction–air, land, water, living room–and the hero had to be aware of his surroundings to stay alive. In those moments when you have to think on your feet, youll need situational awareness. To pull off that last-minute blog post, I referred to a list of running ideas I am constantly tracking. Im always making note of blog ideas because in those intense moments,  youd better have something in the bank. And to get those things, youll have to be aware of how just about anything could be a blog post and bank those ideas.