Manage Your Writing

This week: Take a 24-hour break

According to famed sports agent Mark H. McCormack, "whenever President Harry Truman wrote an angry letter, he would put it away in his desk for 24 hours to see if he felt the same way the next day."

Even with nonangry messages, a 24-hour break can be hugely valuable, giving you the objectivity to see new ways to make the message more effective.

This week, take a 24-hour break between drafting and revising at least one writing job. You may find that it's the best 24 hours you spend all week.

This week: Take a break

This week, take a break from trying to "manage your writing." Relax, and have a happy holiday season!

This week: Take a break

In my "This Week" post three weeks ago, I encouraged you to move from "one-stage" writing to "five-stage" writing. The first of those stage is Managing: managing your time so that you're not planning or revising while you draft. The second stage is Planning, when you define your reader(s), your purpose, your general content, and your overall organization.

Last Monday we looked at the Drafting stage, the time for getting your words down on paper or a computer screen. The most effective drafts are "quick and dirty," taking into account the decisions you made at the Planning stage but revising as little as possible.

All that managing, planning, and drafting has been exhausting! So this week, take a break. For everything you write this week, give yourself a Break stage to get away from your draft, even if for only five minutes. (Make the break longer, even overnight, if you can.) You'll come back to the your draft with more of the objectivity you need to revise more effectively.

(I've said all this before. Check out my past posts on the Break stage.)

 

To revise, switch fonts

Gretchen Rubin, at the Happiness Project, has posted a great tip for looking at your writing objectively enough to revise it effectively:

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Susan Bell’s new book, The Artful Edit, about how writers can do a better job of editing themselves.

It has a lot of good advice, but there was one technique – reassuringly simple to do – that I tried today with great success.

I printed out my draft in a different font.

Yes, it was as easy as that. When I printed out my draft for editing, I switched the text from Times New Roman, which feels like my own handwriting, to Georgia.

It sounds insignificant, but in fact, the changed look of the page made it easier to spot awkward spots.

(Yet another thank-you to Joanna Young, at Confident Writing, for the link.)

This week: Don't throw good money after bad

Some poker players say that it's important not to think of any the money in the pot as your money. If, in draw poker, you put $10 into the pot before the draw, you just have to forget that fact. If you keep thinking of that $10, you'll bet to protect your investment. And you'll make bad decisions.

That's how the writing process works. If you keep thinking of the time and effort you've invested in a piece of writing, you may be unconsciously reluctant to change anything.

This week, after you draft each piece of writing, walk away from it for at least five minutes. When you come back, pretend you're reading it for the first time. That trick will help you get the objectivity to change what you need to change.

This week: Take a break

This week, take a break from trying to "manage your writing." Relax, and have a happy holiday season!

This week: Take a break

This week, before you begin each piece of writing, ask yourself, "Can I divide this job into two sessions, with a break between them?"

If so, take a break, even if for only a minute, after you draft. You may be able to come back to your writing with new eyes, and improve it.