Most of us know we'll lose readers with a single big block of undifferentiated text: one of the many reasons legalese is so hard to sift through. Fewer of us know that we're just as likely to lose readers with rapid-fire single sentences featuring repeated double line breaks and strategic emoji: think those obnoxious marketing … Continue reading Ding Ding
Category: Writing Principles
Finding the Right Language
At last month's workshop on writing anxiety and the small steps we can take to get started on breaking through our blocks, an attendee right up front expressed long-held frustrations about the seemingly arbitrary rules that had been sometimes stringently enforced in school. The specific example sparking our tangent conversation was the compulsion to turn … Continue reading Finding the Right Language
Break it Up Already
This morning, I attended a presentation by a verified expert. He'd crammed so much useful information onto each slide that I was squinting from the second row (and I know my contacts are up to date). As I struggled to make out the small words on the wall-sized screen and pay attention to the additional … Continue reading Break it Up Already
A New You is a Process
If you've used writing as a tool in setting your aspirational goals for this year, then the start of this second month is a great chance to check in on how your processes are developing. Ideally, you're writing at least a little something every day: a shopping or to-do list, maybe a few lines of … Continue reading A New You is a Process
Writing a New Year, Making a New You
There's something psychologically powerful about a clear demarcation: a hard line between what was and what is or what you hope will be. The New Year is an invented day (in high dispute around the world), but it gives us a shared indicator of time passing, of a line between the old and new--and a … Continue reading Writing a New Year, Making a New You
Comfort Words
Much like a comfort blanket, we all carry around a set of go-to words that fill the gaps in our speech and text. Mine are so, okay, and right? I taught for so long that I can't help but pause to check for understanding--but all of us need to pause sometimes to make sure of … Continue reading Comfort Words
Truly scary stuff
We're well into the winter holiday season, which to my mind kicked off with Halloween--this is a typical time for first snow in my region, after all. Since I spend a lot of my time reading and thinking about good writing, my social media feeds fill up with ads for the latest novels and novel-writing … Continue reading Truly scary stuff
How to Stew your Mess
It's a truth universally acknowledged that first drafts are too long. Even in conversation, working through an idea for the first time usually requires a meandering recipe of spontaneous seasoning and invented methodology--you respond to your listener, divert into interesting tangents, and hem and haw until you risk losing their interest entirely. In the process … Continue reading How to Stew your Mess
How to Start Turning Mess Into Magic
It's really common to hear marination as a metaphor for the thinking work of writing: most of us need some amount of time to consider what we're going to say and how we're going to say it. I prefer stewing. Thinking is hot and exhausting work; pulling the last bits of substance out of your … Continue reading How to Start Turning Mess Into Magic
How to Mess en Place
While the initial writing is necessary, and accepting its imperfection is the first step, this is not the best-writer face that we want to share with the world. The next part of the process is arranging that mess into prepared parts, ready for assembly and development into what will eventually become the final piece. Most … Continue reading How to Mess en Place
Something Polished 