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Better
Writing: What Works and What Doesn't
Article by
Susan Dunn, MA
There’s
no better way to promote your business for free than to write articles
on the
Internet. It is particularly good for promoting services, where
advertising
doesn’t work as well, even if you can afford it.
All business is
about relationship. You can’t meet face-to-face with
each
person, or even reach them on the telephone every time. Often your
contact will
have to be in writing. How good is your writing?
I’D RATHER HAVE A
ROOT CANAL?
Writing is right
up there with public speaking for many of us. It’s so
public,
and, in the case of writing, so permanent.
My mother used to
say, “Never put anything in black and white you
wouldn’t want
the whole wide world to see.” It’s a wonder I could write at all! Scary
thought, isn’t it. Since I coach Emotional Intelligence (EQ), let’s
turn that
around and say, “Put things in black and white you want the whole world
to
see.” That’s the power of the pen, mightier, after all, than the sword.
I went on to major
in English and then to earn my living writing.
However, you
don’t have to be a professional writer to write something someone else
can
enjoy or benefit from, or to write for your own enjoyment or wellness
YOU AREN’T WRITING
FOR MISS CRUMPLESTINE ANY MORE
The first point
you should know is that writing for the Internet should
be at
the 6th to 9th grade level.
Not everyone on
the Internet has a college education, or even a high
school
education. We are all in hurry, and we want out information fast.
Short,
uncomplicated sentences work well. So do lists. No need for big words.
Just
clarity.
WHY WRITING IS SO
HARD
Here is a scenario
that happened to me repeatedly when I was in public
relations. The boss would call me in and say, “I don’t know how to say
this.”
I’d say, “What is it you want to say?” and I would have my pad and
pencil
handy. He or she would start talking, and I would start writing And
what I wrote
down was exactly what the person was saying!
I would then go
back to my office, dot a few Is and cross a few Ts,
return the
article to them, and they would say, “How marvelous. How do you do it?”
Yes, of course I
cleaned up the grammar and added or subtracted some
adjectives
or adverbs, and maybe changed the order, but the point I want to make
is that
if the person had just written down what he or she was thinking, he or
she
wouldn’t have been far from having a good enough article or letter.
Yes, I polished
it, but the diamond in the rough was still there to be polished!
It happened just
the other day, which is what prompted me to write this
article. Someone had written me an email with something profound in it,
and I
asked if I could quote her in an article. When I finished the article,
I sent
it back to her, with her rather lengthy quote, and here is her reply:
“GAD!
Seeing my words in print, I am surprised at my own clarity. Goes to
show that
spontaneous reactions are often the truest.”
Then yesterday, I
asked someone else if I could quote them, and she
wrote back:
“Reading that you want to quote me I am awash with emotions – pride,
astonishment, surprise, delight, a little scared, somewhat
uncomfortable.”
IT’S AN EMOTIONAL
THING
Do you see the
emotion in what they’ve written back? We know from
Emotional
Intelligence how emotions can fog the brain; the analytical part of the
brain.
How so? Many
emotions go through your brain if you aren’t used to
writing a lot
because of the thoughts you’re thinking, because of your self-talk.
Here are
some:
·I don’t
know how to write.
·I’ll say
something stupid.
·My 6th
grade teacher said I was a terrible writer.
·Someone
will misunderstand what I write and I’ll get cards and
letters.
·I can’t do
this.
·I hate to
write.
·I flunked
writing sophomore year in high school.
·My last
English course was freshman year in college.
·I never
finished high school.
WHAT WORKS
There are two
major ways to learn how to write: read and write.
The best writers
are those who have read the most. Why? Because your
brain is a
marvelous thing, and picks up what you’re reading, and you don’t have
to learn
any rules. Just as a child learns how to speak. We all learn how to
speak
around the house. Later on in school we learn grammar rules, but we’ve
been
speaking for years.
You have to read
the GOOD writers, of course. Read the hard stuff.
Dostoevsky,
Faulkner, Shakespeare, Dante. This sort of reading will benefit you in
many
ways.
Then write. A
writer writes! Like any other skill, you have to do it to
learn
it. You can read about it, and memorize rules, and attend seminars, and
go to
workshops (and by all means read Strunk and White’s “Elements of
Style”(
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/020530902X/susandunnmome-20 ), a
classic
that’s now in its fourth edition) but you must not stop there. You must
start
writing.
One of the best
ways to direct the actual writing process is to work
with a
writing coach. You won’t be able to judge your own writing
appropriately at
first.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK
What will NOT work
is learning some skills you are not able to use
because your
emotions are interfering, or you don’t use because you never sit down
and apply
them.
You must actually
start writing. Like learning a language, it’s
practicing it
that makes you fluent.
META
A meta way to
improve your writing is to develop your Emotional
Intelligence.
It teaches you how to manage the emotions which are throwing obstacles
in your
path to learning writing. It has the added value of helping you to
learn in
general, not just writing.
It’s about getting
the emotions out of the way that are hampering you
from
learning. We all suffer from this to one degree or another. We all had
a
teacher at some point who was harsh or punitive, or a circumstance
where we
weren’t able to learn it fast enough. Maybe we were rushed, and fell
flat on
our face in public, or were embarrassed. Maybe we had a parent who
said,
“Marsha will never be an artist,” or “Freddie can’t do this or that.”
Getting rid
of the memory of these experiences is managing your emotions, and part
of
Emotional Intelligence as well.
WRITE ON!
One of the
wonderful things to me about the Internet is the opportunity
it
gives all of us to “tell our story.”
Get in there and
write, whether you do it for publication, for money,
for fun,
or to promote your products and services. You have things to say that
others
need to hear!
Writing things out
also brings clarity to your thinking process.
Studies show
that writing things down improves your efficiency, and even is good for
your
mental health.
Write on!
About the Author
©Susan Dunn,
marketing coach, http://www.webstrategies.cc . Ebook
writing and
launch, web strategies, marketing and promotion, press releases, web
design,
article-writing and submission. Full-service, consultation and
implementation,
advice and resources. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for free ezine, put
“checklist”
for subject line. Emotional Intelligence coaching,
http://www.susandunn.cc .
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