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Writing is hard, even for writers. These five techniques will make your writing
chores easier, and your writing livelier.
It's time to write something important, and your palms sweat. You force yourself
to write, while gritting your teeth and hating every moment of the process.
Your palms sweat some more. And your head aches, because you realize that your
words have all the life of roadkill. Why is it that the more important the writing
task, the more lifeless your words? Maybe it's performance anxiety. You tense
up, instead of letting the words flow.
Try these five easy ways to add punch to your words:
1. Get conversational, and write fast
When you're writing, imagine you're talking to someone. Just having a quiet
chat. You want to tell them about whatever it is you're writing about.
To make this easier, write in the form of a letter: "Dear Joanne Let me
tell you about..."
Write quickly, exactly as you'd speak. Don't worry about grammar, spelling
and typos. Just blurt out whatever you have to say.
Force yourself to do this by setting a time limit. Set a timer for five minutes.
Tap out (or write, if you're using pen and paper) any kind of gibberish at all
for five minutes. Turning off your monitor helps, because it stops you seeing
the words and going back to correct typos.
2. Get specific
Want to write waffle? Generalize. Like in this sentence from a real estate
agent's ad for a house:
"You are certain to be impressed by the space in this three bedroom family
home."
I looked at the photo of the house, and wrote:
"Shaded by palms and eucalypts and surrounded by a well- maintained garden,
this three bedroom, honey-gold brick mini- mansion offers your family space
to play and grow. "
Not Shakespeare, but the words describe this house specifically.
3. Get sensuous
Be a reporter. Use your senses. What can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste?
When you report what's happening, your reader is right there with you.
Let's say you're writing a letter to your bank, whining about the latest foul-up
with your account.
"Unfortunately I was climbing my front steps when I opened my card statement,
and I was so surprised I tripped. The bruise on my shin's blossomed from red
to blue to dark-blue, and I'm gulping painkillers every four hours. You need
to put warning labels on your envelopes."
Not hard to write, and not boring either. You're just telling what happened.
4. Get enthusiastic
What you're feeling comes through in your words, always. So, to liven up your
words, you have to be interested in what you're writing about.
This can be hard, but luckily enthusiasm is transferable. For example, let's
say that you're writing a presentation for your latest product. You don't like
the product, you can't imagine that anyone will ever like it, much less pay
money for it. In that frame of mind, guess how the presentation will sound?
OK, close your eyes and imagine your favourite pastime, let's say it's swimming.
You're doing lazy laps in the pool, the sun is shining, you've got the whole
day to yourself, maybe a movie later...
Hold that feeling! Keep the feeling, and dive into writing the presentation.
(Try this, I swear it works.)
5. Tell the reader what to do
Always tell the reader what you want him to do.
If you're writing an ad, don't forget to give the address of the store, or
give a phone number. You'd be amazed at how much advertising is happily inserted
into everything from newspapers and Web sites to the Yellow Pages without giving
basic contact information.
If you're writing a letter, or an e-mail message, do the same thing. You may
think that what you want the reader to do is obvious, and it may be, but give
the instruction anyway.
Try these five techniques, and please send me a message (sun818_98@yahoo.com)
to tell me about your results. If you've got other techniques that work for
you, tell me about those too. I'm always looking for ways to make writing easier.
If I use your technique in a future article, I'll happily give you credit.
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**END**
About the Author:
Australian author, journalist and copywriter Angela Booth has been writing professionally
for over twenty years. She writes business books and copy for businesses. |
