Manage Your Writing

This week: Write without thinking

Don Marquis, American journalist and creator of the characters Archy and Mehitabel, said, "I never think when I write; nobody can do two things at the same time and do them well."

That's a good practice to follow. Do your thinking at the planning stage of your writing process, then again at the revising stage. In between, try to draft without "thinking." That is, try to turn off your inner critic (I call him or her the Internal Editor), give yourself permission to be "wrong," and draft as thoughtlessly as you can. Then, and only then, go back and think!

Build a verb collection

Norm Leigh, at Biz Writer Blog, encourages each of us to "become a vigorous verb collector." He writes:

In last week's post, I emphasized the value of jamming as many lively, punchy verbs into your bean as possible because verbs are the heart of effective writing. But how do you become well-versed in verbs? You need to collect them with all the zeal of an antiques fancier.

Perhaps the best place to do your verb mining is within the work of good writers. Keep pen and pencil handy the next time you're reading, and when you encounter a forceful verb, jot it down. Before long, you'll have compiled a sizable list. Then it's a matter of making them part of your writing vocabulary. The act of writing them down helps fix them in your mind and may be all that's needed to make them yours.

This week: Organize before you do something (says Winnie the Pooh)

It's sometimes possible to reorganize a piece of writing at the revising stage of the process. But that's a little like changing the floor plan of a house after you've built it.

Yes, you could conceivably cut the garage off a completed house and move it to the other end of the building, but that's certainly not the best time to do it. Organizing your information, like laying out the rooms of a house, is best done at the planning stage.

As the great twentieth-century English philosopher Winnie the Pooh said, "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it's not all mixed up."

The headline is the e-mail

At Bad Language, Matthew Stibbe has posted Ten Laws for Better Email. I could devote a whole posting to each one, but here's a taste:

3. The headline is the email. The subject line should be clear, factual and specific. It should also encourage the reader to open and read the email. Think about the subject lines used by chain emails . . . . Don’t be afraid to change the title of a long-running discussion thread if the subject matter has moved on. Put the old subject in brackets afterwards for continuity.

It's a great list, worth the couple of minutes it will take you to read it.

And thanks again!

Diane Murley, writing for Arizona State University's Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog, has listed three ways to "Become a Better Writer":

1. Read “How to Write: A Memorandum from a Curmudgeon,” chapter 1 of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law, by Mark Herrmann.
2. Check out CALI lessons on legal writing.
3. Get writing tips from the (new) legal writer and Manage Your Writing.

Again, I'm honored by the company, especially since this blog is the only listed resource that's not specifically legal in its focus (not that we're  illegal in our focus). Thanks, Ross-Blakley Law Library!

Enough self-congratulation. I promise I'll return to helping you manage your writing.

Thanks!

Daphne Gray-Grant, in her top-notch e-mail newsletter, Power Writing, has named my book The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication as one of "Five Books You Must Read."

I'm honored to be listed in the company of

• Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think
• Julia Cameron's The Right to Write
• Arthur Plotnik's Spunk and Bite
• Sam Horn's POP

Thanks, Daphne!

This week: Don't sedate your verbs

Ruth Walker, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, said:

Look what's happening to verbs--the "muscles" of language. They're being crowded out by more sedate linking-verb constructions. . . . "He lost his job" often loses out to "He became unemployed." Instead of "Ace Insurance Agency serves the maritime industry," we often get "Ace is a provider of insurance services to the maritime industry."

This week, as you revise, look for sedated verbs, verbs that have been changed to adjectives or nouns (often with suffixes like -tion or -ship or -ment), leaving only a to-be verb in their place. Wake those sedated verbs up.

This week: E-mail yourself

At LifeClever, Chanpory Rith has posted a great trick for getting around writer's block.

"If writing stirs a panic attack in you," Chanpory writes, "try this: start with an email."

Why? For five reasons:

1. It's convenient.
2. You feel less pressure.
3. You're more conversational.
4. You're more concise.
5. You can get feedback quickly.

Chanpory has more to say about each of these reasons.

So this week, whenever you're stuck, just open your mail program, click "New Message," and write a message to yourself. I've tried it. It works.

(Thanks to Lifehacker for the link.)

This week: Kick the props away

In their book You Send Me, Patricia T. O'Connor and Stewart Kellerman note that

Some puffed-up writers use long words, techie talk, trendy terms, and convoluted sentences to cover up or deceive or sound important or go along with the crowd. Most people who inflate their writing, though, are simply insecure, often for no good reason. They don't feel their ideas are strong enough, and they prop them up with elaborate language."

They continue:

If your ideas are any good, they can stand on their own. So kick away those unnecessary props. All they do is turn a strong writer into a wuss.

It's resolution day!

If you're reading this blog, you probably would like to become a more effective business writer in 2008.

So be specific. What would you like to improve most about your business writing this year?

Jot down your answer, and make it a resolution.

If  you'll send that resolution to me, I'll make sure this blog helps you keep it. And I'll send you an e-mail next December to check how you've done.

Happy New Year!

If you're reading this blog, you probably would like to become a more effective business writer in 2008.

So be specific. What would you like to improve most about your business writing this year?

Jot down your answer, and make it a resolution.

If  you'll send that resolution to me, I'll make sure this blog helps you keep it. And I'll send you an e-mail next December to check how you've done.

Happy New Year!