By Alex Clarke

First thing to say is that blogs are not scary literary mountains to climb; they are in fact possibly the easiest of writing as they are so personal and as yet so open. In my other life the moment I bring up writing I bring up planning…and it is the same with writing a blog, it is divided into roughly 4 sections:

Introduction – scene setting, this is usually depending on your topic either a quick sentence, or might end up being rather longer. If you are running a speaker event, its where you describe their career and background of the topic they are talking upon. If you are holding a fundraising event, the introduction is where you tell everyone what it is in aid of….with most CFs it might well be yourselves…which is fine.

Description – if you are running a campaign it is important to explain it, coherently – think about what you are going to say, then write it, check it and if you are anything like me write it again. If its event this is where you describe such as what things were on offer? Did you have crazy snooker: where a variety of obstacles are put on the table to make the game more interesting…you win if you manage to pot within a certain number of shots. Perhaps you went for the more traditional choice of apple bobbing…how successful was your MP if they came.

Conclusion/Summary – did you succeed with your campaign? Or did you achieve the goal for that part of the campaign, if you are writing about an event did the audience enjoy the speaker or did everyone decide the apple bobbing was more fun than crazy snooker?

Continuation – what will you be doing next? Always end looking to the future as it provides imputes and interest for people reading it to maybe come and join in – my own CF has done very well thanks to people reading the blog entries on the CF website and then coming down to see what we are up to.

The most important thing though for a blog is writing style…it must be approachable, it must be interesting, a blog is your advertisement for your CF and what it does. A well written blog which draws in the reader is your aim; or in the case this blog entry…one in which the reader is still awake and interested at the end.

The next most important thing is language chosen; you may have a degree in Medieval English literature; but writing your blog on ‘ye olde english’ is not going to be good for its readability! The same with text language, I would take LOL – as Laugh Out Loud my best friend swears its Lots Of Love; in the end it is better to just write everyone was laughing heartily – there is no word limit in a blog so my advice is let your language be complete and straight forward.

The benefits of regularly updating the CF website are not only the increased ‘e-presence’ of your own CF and the spreading of good ideas around to other CFs; but also the creating of a richer tapestry of CF activities nationwide.

To submit all you need to do is send it to Richard Jackson at the National Executive.

Good luck and if you have any other problems…I recommend you reading other peoples blogs and other entries on Conservative Future site.

For info and help on blogging email richard.jackson@conservativefuture.com

Related posts:

1. Epsom & Ewell CF hosts Allan Sykes from the UKNDA