Manage Your Writing

This week: Try managing your writing

This week, take a big-picture look at managing your writing.

Start with the very next writing job you have to do. Instead of diving right in and working on the first sentence, stop for a couple of minutes and do some writing management.

Remind yourself that you're a writer, that writing can be managed, and that it's largely a matter of managing time. Then set up blocks of time for planning, drafting, and revising--with more time allotted for planning and revising than for drafting. Give yourself at least one break, between the drafting and revising stages.

When you've finished the writing job, take a few minutes to evaluate how the process worked for you. If writing this way seems awkward or unproductive at first, don't give up; we all have a lot of old habits to replace. With practice and time, you'll become a much more effective and efficient writer.

Fifty resources

At Job Profiles, Christina Laun has published "50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers." They're worth a long look.

This week: Take as much time as you want others to take

Bill Jensen, in his book Simplicity, writes:

When people are in need of communication, they want others to take the time to listen, and then to take the time to create meaning, clarity, and connections between ideas. But when they have to do the communicating, saving time becomes a priority . . . .

When it comes to communication, business is facing major discipline and accountability problems. It's like the line about change: Taking the time to create clarity is important--as long as it's the other guy who has to do it.

Don't fall into this trap. This week, look at the writing you receive, and ask "What do I wish this writer had spent more time on?" Then, when you write, be sure to take the time you need to communicate effectively.

This week: Check your organizational culture

My late friend Kitty Locker, in her book, Business and Administrative Communication, wrote:

If you think your boss doesn't want you to write simply, ask him or her. A few bosses do prize flowery language. Most don't.

You may think you work in an organization that favors fancy, pretentious language. But it's worth checking.

This week, look at the e-mail and other writing you get from your boss, and from people at higher levels. If it's concise and clear, look for ways to learn from it. If it's not, look for ways to change your organizational culture--and advance yourself--by becoming the model of a clear, effective writer.

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!

Software for the mind

Roy Jacobsen, at Writing, Clear and Simple, has posted a lovely meditation on David McNally's comment that "Language is software for the mind."

The whole posting is well worth reading; I'll quote only its last two paragraphs:

The words you use, either written or spoken, can have powerful effects on your audience—if you use them carefully and skillfully. Whether your goal is to inform, to persuade, to call for action, or to entertain, your words and your stories can be powerful. They can be powerful, because language is software for the mind.

Learning how to write that software well is well worth the effort.

Put writing on your calendar

Dave Navarro, at Freelance Folder, has published a list of ways bloggers can break through writer's block. At least one of them is a good tip for all writers:

Schedule regular time and show up, even if you think you can’t write. Sometimes your brain will freeze, your motivation will leave you, and your car won’t start. Showing up at your keyboard will solve two of those problems. If you’ve scheduled 8am to 9am to write, and you sit there for an hour and nothing comes out, you’ve still followed through on your appointment. When you sit down tomorrow your chances of breaking writer’s block skyrocket. I’ve never met anyone who followed through on showing up and had long term writer’s block. When you show up, you’re subconsciously telling yourself that you’re serious about writing … and that sets you up for a win.

(Thanks to Lifehacker for sending me to this.)

This week: Pay attention to Subject lines

A participant in a writing workshop I once led taught me something. (That almost always happens.) The hardest thing about writing messages, she said, is "filling in the subject."

"So you just throw something in there," she continued. "When the reader gets it, it's the part he or she reads first. And the subject line may not be what you want them to get out of it."

She was right.

This week, pay attention to Subject lines in the e-mail messages you write. If you've really thought about what you're going to say, and to whom, and for what purpose, go ahead and write the Subject first. It will focus your work on the message itself.

But if you're not sure exactly what you'll be saying in the message, save the Subject line for last. (Actually, save it for next-to-last; don't fill in the To line untl your message is absolutely ready to send. You'll avoid those terrible premature dispatches.)

Grab that cocktail napkin

At last, someone has invented a word processor that captures the reality of on-the-run writing.

Check out Word Perhect. Wait patiently while you read the first two screens. Then knock yourself out!

(A scribbled thanks to Ray at The (New) Legal Writer for the link.)

Letters: what a concept!

Upwrite Press has just posted a helpful list of five reasons to write a letter rather than send an e-mail message. (For those of you who need clarification, a "letter" is an e-mail message that is printed or handwritten onto a sheet of paper, placed in an envelope, and sent by means of a country's postal system--you know, that system that brings you paper magazines and paper copies of spam.)

My favorite from the list:

If your information is private or of a sensitive nature, a letter is the best way to ensure confidentiality—electronic messages may end up in the wrong computer.

(I chose this one because our family has received several medical test results this past year, all sent by postal mail, presumably for that exact reason--to help ensure confidentiality.)