Writing for our businesses can be overwhelming, whether or not we think of ourselves as writers in any other context. Sometimes it's even the last thing I find energy for because I'm more focused on writing for my clients--and I won't find energy for it at all if I don't have a clear motivating goal. … Continue reading Finding Your Type
Tag: process
AI Still Isn’t Your Friend
AI can be a useful timesaver, or lose you readers--make sure that you're keeping the people in your process.
Bot Bloviation
I have a friend: I may have once called him a robot bootlicker, but here let's call him Bob. It's not uncommon for other friends to mention AI near Bob and I...and then bust out popcorn. I want to tell you a story about Bob's failure to produce an AI story. Bob is a member … Continue reading Bot Bloviation
CTrl-F, Then What?
Ok, you've identified some comfort words and developed a habit of searching for them as part of your revision and cleanup process. So you can find them. Now what? Like most strong writing habits, shifting the reliance on the same old thought placeholders depends on your understanding your own contexts a bit more fully. But … Continue reading CTrl-F, Then What?
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
Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
We're coming out of the comfortable holiday season to get a little uncomfortable with our new year's goals and and shifting into the pace of a more active business season. Seems like a good time to revisit those comfort words and learn how to even find them. The first step, as we already noted, is … Continue reading Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
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
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
Something Polished 