Entries Tagged 'Writing' ↓

A while back I reviewed some of the alternatives to the mainstream word processing tools. I’ve always held that word processors are not designed for writers: they are office administration tools first and foremost.

Now I’ve come across a very promising new writing software package, called Ulysses. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you’re looking to break up with your word processor, and you also use a mac, then this one might be worth a look.

Ulysses was developed mainly for writers who work creatively with text and want or need to realize large amounts of text. All currently available word processing systems on the market do not or just merely grasp the specific needs of this group.

If I find the time (and that might be tricky) I’ll give it a trial and write a review. If you’ve tried Ulysses, please let us know how it went in the comments.

Do you want your writing to stand out, to have power and persuasiveness, to have life and zest and energy? Then here are four ways to take your writing to another level:

1: Have something to say
No matter how well you write, it’s really what you have to say that counts. If you have something to say, the writing will probably come easily. If you don’t know what you want to say yet, you’ll struggle all the way.
The greatest writers there have ever been (Shakespeare, Sophocles, long list goes here…) were not only good with words. They had something important to say about the human condition. They had stories to tell.

2: Use metaphor
A metaphor is a double-edged sword: it adds life, colour, vision and texture to your writing. But use too much metaphor and your writing can become like a crazy fairground ghost-train ride crossed with an out-of-control roller-coaster, with images flying past your readers mind faster than they can take them in, as their stomach starts to churn and they have to close their eyes before they vomit the whole lot up. You get the idea. Use metaphor sparingly and with discretion, but make sure there’s enough in your writing to give it life and sparkle.

3: Find your voice
How do you make your writing distinctive, even unique? By writing with your own voice. You are unique, we all are. So while you will need to learn and improve your writing by picking up techniques from other writers. your goal should be to find your own voice. That way people will recognise your style

Here’s some suggestions for ways to find your voice:

• Go easy on the grammar rules for a while - don’t let them strangle your writing.
• Think about the things you enjoy most in your own writing. What mood were you in when you write that? Can you get back to that place?
• Just write it - don’t try to edit as you go along.
• Write from your own experiences.
• Write what you want - without thought for what others expect. Do it your way for once.
• Picture your reader - but only one person. Don’t try to write for the world at large. Write for just one person.
• Learn to recognise when you are writing with your own voice.

4: Get into the ‘zone’
It’s not only sports men and women who reach peak performance when they are ‘in the zone.’ Being in the zone, or in flow, is a state of heightened concentration and focus. It’s nothing mystical or unachievable. It comes down to letting your unconscious mind take control for a while. In this state, when you are relaxed and focused, the words should start to flow, almost as if they were writing themselves.

Click here for a previous article on writing in the ‘zone.’

And go here for an hypnosis download recording that can help you to beat writer’s block and get into the zone. (Affiliate link)

Hey, today is the birthday of one William Shakespeare, which gives me a chance to test out my new subscription to Britannica.

The link above gives you access to all their information on Shakespeare, even if you don’t have a subscription yourself.

You can never have too much Shakespeare. Trust me, it’s good for the soul and your writing.

There are three crucial things you must know before you start to write:

What are writing about?

Why are you writing?

Only when you know these can you really organise your thoughts and your writing effectively.

I thought I would share this. Great piece in The New Yorker. It’s all about six word stories. There’s a book out at present. The article is a book review. It’s written in six word sentences:

Six words can tell a story. That’s a new book’s premise, anyway. “Not Quite What I Was Planning.” A compilation of teeny tiny memoirs. The forebear, it’s assumed, is Hemingway. (Legend: he wrote a miniature masterpiece. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Slightly sappy, but a decent sixer.)

It is well worth checking out. Please feel free to comment here. But stick to the style please. Six words only in comments too.

Experienced professional writers won’t need to read this post. All the advice here will be second nature to them.

However, if you’re new to publishing your writing, these simple tips could help you look less like an amateur and more like a pro.

Especially number one. And five. And six. But seven is the most important.

1. Never use exclamation marks
Don’t use them. Just never use them. Using an exclamation mark makes you look like an amateur (unless you can get away with doing it ‘ironically,’ which is mighty tricky). Using more than one exclamation mark at time makes you look like a complete and utter idiot. Don’t do it!!!!

2. Don’t publish or send straight away
Always try to review or edit what you’ve written at a different time, when you are in a different mood. How does it sound now?

3. Break out of formal structure
At school and college people learn to structure essays with introductions and conclusions. There’s nothing wrong with this but there are lots of other ways to structure a piece of writing (including the inverted triangle used in journalism). However, even if you do stick to the introduction-argument-conclusion structure, you don’t have to be so lame as to highlight it in your subheads. Honestly, I have received articles for inclusion in a business magazine where the author had included ‘introduction’ and ‘conclusion’ as sub-headlines. What’s wrong with that? It’s boring and unimaginative, that’s what.

4. Use short words
Don’t try to sound clever by using long words for the sake of it. It actually has the opposite effect.

5. Edit
Cut out as much as possible, eliminating redundant words. Always edit your work as thoroughly as time allows.

6. Be clear
Remember that it is your job, as the writer, to communicate effectively. If the reader doesn’t get it, it’s your fault.

7. Say something interesting
Presenting a balanced point of view is all well and good - but it gets dull after a while. Be passionate about your subject. Be audacious. Project your personality.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider helping me promote it through whatever social media you use (Digg, StumbleUpon etc). Or link to it from your own blog. Or make a comment. Or tell people about it, in person or by email. Thanks for your help.

Results of the poll running for the past few months were fairly conclusive with the favourite writing style being ‘tell it like it is, me to you’ with 46% of the vote. (That’s 118 votes out of a total of 256).

In second place was ‘carefully constructed sentences, delivered with ‘gravitas’, with 78 votes (30%).Personally I was surprised that option proved so popular.

In third place was ’short and pithy’ with a surprisingly poor 38 votes (15%). I had thought that was a potential winner.

Staccato was the out-and-out loser with only 7 votes, or 3%. Hmmm, intersting. You actually see a fair bit of what I would call a staccato style around, especially in corporate company brochures and the like.

Staccato lost because it was beaten into fourth place by: ‘I use as many words as possible because that way I feel more self-important.’ This received a worthy 15 votes, or 6%. Presumably, these were people who felt like thumbing their noses at my obvious attempts to skew the results of the poll.

Good for them.

(You can see the polls archive here).

Brian Clark at Copyblogger has issued another of his headline challenges and I’m taking the bait. (I need the links…)

Last time I came up with “Ten things readers crave in bed” as part of the Cosmo headline challenge. This time Brian’s gone for metrosexual men’s magazines, a format I’m even less familiar with than Cosmo.

Undaunted, however, I’ve decided to modify the “It’s time to break up with your boss” headline, and turn our attention to software for writers. So, with no further ado…

It’s time to break up with your word processor

Do you use a normal word processor for writing? Do you even (gulp) … use Microsoft Word?

Now, I have Word on my Mac. I use it all the time, because my copywriting clients all have Word too, and they like to use functions such as track changes. They tend to work in corporations and have little choice over the software they use. So, Word it is.

But I wouldn’t use Word, or any other standard word processor, for blogging or creative writing, script writing or even jotting down notes and thoughts.

(I don’t actually think it would be physically possible to write poetry in Word. Somehow I think it would be like matter and anti-matter colliding and the universe would implode. Please don’t try it).

There are, however, lots of great alternatives out there. Unfortunately for you, my knowledge of them is limited to what’s available for the Mac. There are some PC offerings in here too though, just to keep you all reading… Continue reading →

As a copywriter, I usually ask a client to give me as much information as possible. If I have to write something for them about a product or service, I want to know everything.

Of course, that usually brings an information dump. It’s not just what they tell you. In this day and age, they don’t sift the information, they just email you every document they can find. PDFs, Word files, PowerPoint presentations, even spreadsheets. And they refer you to websites, with comments such as: “You’ll find more information here.”

Yes, but where, exactly? Continue reading →

Yesterday I looked at how the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition might apply to copywriting.

And now, the conclusion… Today, let’s look at how they might apply to blogging: Continue reading →

Today’s sermon on writing in a modern, conversational style comes from William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830):

“It is not easy to write a familiar style. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random. On the contrary, there is nothing that requires more precision, and if I may so so, purity of expression, than the style I am speaking of. It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low, cant phrases, and loose unconnected, slipshod allusions. It is not to take the first word that offers, but the best word in common use; it is not to throw words together in any combinations we please, but to follow and avail ourselves of the true idiom of the language.

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style, is to write as any one would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.”

(From the essay ‘On Familiar Style‘, published 1821).

English is a mongrel language, one that has evolved over a long period of time, and continues to change. It’s also a language that has no standardised version. There is no single ‘correct’ version of English.

The obvious comparison is between US and UK English. We spell and use words differently. Often the same word can have a completely different meaning in one country to the other.

The French language, on the other hand, is strictly controlled by L’Académie Francaise, an institution that ‘protects’ the language by fixing an accepted standard of pronunciation, syntax and sentence construction.

But the sheer variety of English, the speed at which it changes and the way it gets changed by different people to suit their purposes, all go to make it a more vital and dynamic language. Continue reading →

Fewer or less? This is a grammatical mistake that really gets my goat. The problem is, it’s only my dad and I that seem to care.

When I was younger, my father always reprimanded me if I used ‘less’ when I really meant ‘fewer’. Every time I hear someone make this mistake, I hear my dad’s voice in my head, offering the correction.

Some would say he’s a stickler for old fashioned grammar because the word ‘fewer’ seems to be dying out completely. No one seems to use it any more. When I watch BBBC News 24, their highly paid and very professional journalists seem to have no idea that the word ‘fewer’ even exists.

Yet to my ears, they always sound a little bit ignorant. They lose authority, because they are making what to me is a basic and glaring grammatical mistake. Continue reading →

When writing isn’t clear, it becomes a double waste of time.

It wastes the time of your reader, who has to puzzle out what you mean.

And it wastes the time of the writer, who will either not be read (so what was the point); or he will have to write it again, to explain what he means.

Writing properly means communicating clearly. It doesn’t necessarily mean obeying the rules correctly. It means getting your point across so the reader clearly understands you.

To get your meaning across clearly, you need to choose the right words and set them in the right order. After that, style will take care of itself. As Matthew Arnold (An English Victorian poet) said:

Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Choosing the right words to use is not always easy, however. Often it requires a little work and a fair bit of thought.

Clear writing, like clear thinking, is hard work. But it is work that is worth doing, because without it, you waste not only your own time but also that of your reader. And that is a rudeness which is inexcusable.

Photo by ponanwi (CC on Flickr)

When you blog and people link to your site your blogging software lets you know. So you can go and check out what people are saying. You might not always like what you find of course….

A while back on this site I fired off a quick little piece about writing how you talk. It got picked up by StumbleUpon and brought in thousands of visitors. It is far-and-away the most popular article that’s appeared on this site.

However, from the start it has generated a lot of misunderstanding. (It must be the way I wrote it. The fault is all mine.)

One of the latest links to the site is from someone who appears to be rethinking their education based on what I wrote. This has alarmed me, to say the list.

I was going to link to the page but have decided not to, to respect their privacy. (Yes, I know that sounds daft when they published something on the web, but it’s not really on a blog. It seems to be more of a ‘keep track of your thoughts’ kind of site).But this is what the person says:

So, I’ve decided not to pursue a minor in English. I guess somewhere along the line, I lost my interest and I feel that it really isn’t my thing. I mean, I can speak it just fine, so people tell me, but I figure once I have the minor, I’ll not have a use for it. Well, I’m decided in not pursuing, so I won’t be taking advanced composition next semester or any other English class for that matter. Anyway, here’s a nice little article I found on the web. It’s really one of those ‘what you were taught in grade school was all wrong’ kinds of pieces, but I found it interesting. (Here they link back to my original article).

Let’s get something straight here. I’m not saying that you don’t need a formal education in order to be a good writer. I’m not saying that everything you learnt in school about writing is wrong. (It’s also not the English classes that are to blame. It’s the history essays, the French essays, the science reports). Continue reading →