Are You a Sex and the City Writer or a Dragnet Blogger?

Your style of writing is important. It is what will make people follow your blogs and search for your guest posts. When you're deciding what your brand's voice will be, there is one thing you need to be clear on: Are you a Sex and the City writer or a Dragnet writer? Confused? Let me explain.

carrie bradshaw with joe friday

The Sex and the City Writer

Lovers of the iconic HBO series Sex and the City swooned at the thought of being Carrie, the main character. Carrie Bradshaw would sit at her laptop in her fantastic rent-controlled New York apartment, sip coffee or Cosmopolitans and type out juicy stories about sex and the Big Apple.  Eventually, Carrie's fantastic stories earned her a spot at Vogue writing 500-word articles for $4 per word.

All of this is swoon-worthy, until you actually think about Carrie as a writer. She puts not only the most personal information about herself into her column, but she also writes about her friend's sex lives, her boyfriend's hang-ups and, once, about a politician's kinks. All of this is put out there every week for all of New York to read. She has no secrets, her friends have no secrets and everyone she runs into's secrets are often revealed, too.

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Sex and the City

This may seem far fetched. No writer actually does that, right?

Actually, writers write like Carrie every single day. Some get paid like they are writing for Vogue and some get paid very little. They take some personal story or a story about someone they know and turn it into an article that gets right to the heartstrings of a reader.

Once upon a time, these types of writers called confession writers. Today, they are called bloggers or personal narrative writers.

Do you have the cajones to be a writer that delves into your personal life? Though I've dreamed of being Carrie more times than I care to admit, I just could never coax myself into the Carrie way of life. When sitting down to write a personal experience I would always wonder, "Will my mom read this? Or my kids?" Those thoughts put a stop to my more personal narratives. Maybe you don't have the same inhibitions, though. If not, you could create some amazing prose that others will love to read. And if they love to read your stories, they will keep coming back, gaining you site traffic and conversions.

Dragnet Writers

Just the facts, ma'am.

If you have problems putting yourself in the spotlight you may be a Dragnet writer. For those that don't remember Dragnet from a time before CSI or never got a chance to watch some reruns, I'll give you the gist. The star of the show was Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Friday was a laced up, no-nonsense type of guy who only concerned himself with the facts and how they pertained to his case. No funny business, you see.

While writing straightforward posts and articles may not be as flashy as steamy tell-alls, it allows you to get in there and present the facts to the reader in a quick one-two punch that gets the job done. The writer doesn't need to get sentimental or provocative or provide any personal information. If you like to present "Just the facts, ma'am," then writing the Dragnet way may be the path you take with your brand writing.

Straddling the Fence

Why not mix the two? Dragnet in the City, anyone?

Of course, both of these types of writers are very drastic examples. There is a happy medium for those who don't want to lean too far in either direction. These writers pepper their fact-filled articles and blog posts with a personal story to add a little personality to their writing. This type of writing walks the fine line between confessional writing and news writing. You'll often see these types of articles on DIY sites, in home and style magazines and on sites like Huffington Post.

Don't know what type of writer you would like to be? Then you need to start writing to find out what writing style you are more comfortable with! It will probably take some time, but sooner or later your inner Carrie or Friday will emerge.

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