Manage Your Writing

(I hope you won't) Mind the Gap

I hope you'll accept my apologies for the gaps in postings the last three weeks.. Those weeks have been occupied by  a cross-country move. My wife, Bette, and I are now getting settled in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, region. I look forward to developing clients here, but I will also be making frequent trips back to central Indiana, and throughout the world.

If you live in northern New Mexico, please let me know; perhaps we'll be able to get together. You can still reach me at  ken [at sign] ManageYourWriting.com. And Bette and I have begun a personal and professional site at www.casa1800.com.

Meanwhile, I expect to resume posting next week.

Thanks for your patience!

This week: Respect your customer

Every reader is a customer: an actual external customer, an actual internal customer, or at least a customer of your writing.

This week, as you plan and revise each message, think about treating your reader/customer with the same respect you want when you are a customer. Make reading your message as easy and as stress-free as possible.

My friend Oliver E. Nelson, Jr., account exec at Energy Systems Group, taught me what I've begun to think of as "Nelson's Golden Rule": "Write unto others as you would have them write unto you."

This week: Start a "steal" file

This week, watch for a piece of writing that appeals to you, something that does its job especially well.

Then,

• make a copy of it
• highlight, or note in the margin, what makes it especially effective
• put it in a file folder labeled "steal"

The next time you're stuck planning or revising a piece of your own writing, grab your "steal" file—and be inspired!