Look, I know… attorneys are the worst.

But you have to admit, trial attorneys are the best of the worst. Who hasn’t fantasized about emulating the protagonists of A Few Good Men or My Cousin Vinny?

I was a criminal trial lawyer for four years and loved every second of it, but competing priorities led me to a freelance writing career. Still, sometimes when my only audience is my computer screen instead of a jury hanging on my every word, I do miss the courtroom.

I may never have had a transcendent moment like Tom Cruise did when he got Jack Nicholson to admit to homicide, but I did learn a few lessons in court that you can apply to freelance blogging. 

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You might think writing fictional stories is just a hobby, a way for you to get creative.

And freelance blogging is a serious, entirely non-fictional business.

But the truth is, making up stories helps you craft better blog posts. They may be different in form, but fiction and blogging are the same in other ways.

Fiction entertains, educates and inspires. So does blogging.

The principles you use in writing fiction also apply to blogging. So do many of the writing techniques. 

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Have you ever been contracted by a client who wanted you to blog for them, but they were in a “boring” industry?

Maybe they only sell dental chairs or shoelaces.

How on Earth do you come up with a blog to make those products interesting?

I mean, it’s hard enough to constantly come up with interesting things to blog about for a company that doesn’t sell “boring” products.

But I’m here to tell you that you can blog like the blazes about a boring industry.

No matter how boring your industry is, I’m going to show you how you can create a blog that people actually want to read (even if you sell cardboard boxes). Let’s jump right in. 

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Confession time…

I was a pageant girl.

Yes, there was a time when I strutted around the stage in a bikini, narrowly avoiding death by killer heels.

Now, you know and I know that this is a blog about freelance blogging. By now, you can probably see where I’m going with this (if you don’t, I’m about to make a comparison between blogging and beauty pageants). And I can already feel you rolling your eyes.

Bear with me. As wacko as it may sound, there’s a lot bloggers can learn from Miss America. After all, we both want to be crowned. One with a tiara and the other with her reader’s attention.

And our ‘judges’ typically make their decision in the first 7 seconds.

If you want to be the last one standing when the curtains close, take a hint from the pageant world and brush up on these 5 elements of competition. 

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