The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Write Better: Be Kind

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

The five best ways to avoid scowling at your readers.

Like many ex-journalists, I pride myself in being skeptical. But I also have a Pollyanna streak. Perhaps that's why I enjoy reading the blog Saunders Says by Tim Saunders, author of Love is the Killer Ap and Saving the World At Work.

Tim likes to argue that simply being kind is one of the keys to success. "A 2002 study on customer service found that if you are likeable and competent," he writes, "you have a threefold increase in the likelihood of getting satisfactory service."

I may have to turn in my papers as a grumpy ex-journalist, but I agree. It's not just the whole catch-more-flies-with-honey-than-vinegar thing. It's also that kindness tends to beget more kindness.

So this got me thinking. . . How can you be kind in writing? Sounds funny, I know, but here are five literary ways to turn that frown upside down.

1) Write like you talk.
Don't use high falutin' language, complicated syntax or five-syllable words to show off your smarts. When I was in the newspaper business, we used to call this "smoking jacket language" -- the kind of pompous talk used by someone wearing a velvet jacket, holding a cigar and swirling some brandy in a snifter. You don't ever talk like that, you say? Let's consider the common phrase: "In my humble opinion..." Huh? How about saying "I think" or "I believe" instead?

2) Don't use jargon.
This is trickier than it sounds because one person's jargon is another person's normal language. But here's a question: Do you regularly use terms like "SEO," "RSS" or "Web 2.0" in your writing? My husband, who has seven years of post-secondary education, doesn't have a clue what they mean. If he's your reader, he'll consider that language a big fat scowl.

3) Don't waste your reader's time.
Be concise. When editing, try to remove at least 20% of your text. Use boldface and headlines to make it easy for your reader to skim or scan your text.

4) Tell stories and use metaphors.
We don't need more facts in this world. We're drowning in 'em! We need more understanding. The best way to achieve this is to tell stories and use metaphors. For example, I can suggest you spend an hour a month working on your income tax, or I can tell you a story about someone who did that and saved himself weeks of misery in April. Which do you think is more convincing -- the advice or the proof? Likewise, I can describe someone as a mouthy know-it-all or I can tell you he's the Donald Trump of the building. See what I mean?

5) Watch your order.
When I edit, I often discover that writers have presented information "out of order." That is, they tell me Point C when I really need to know Point A first. Think hard about your readers' "need to know" and be sure to define terms or explain processes at just the right time in the text.

"Being kind" in your writing isn't rocket science. It's just the literary equivalent of the golden rule: Treat your readers as you would like to be treated yourself.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

Set Measurable Goals and Hide the Potato Chips

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Three reasons why editing is like dieting.

I recently started and finished a tiresome editing project that had been hanging over my head for about two months. In my defense, I can say the delay was the result of some holidays and also some excruciating back pain. But, if I was honest, I'd also have to admit I was, well, procrastinating.

I finally got the job done with reasonable dispatch by working for a total of nine hours -- three hours per day over a weekend plus the Monday. As I diligently put in my time, I noticed that editing is a bit like trying to lose weight. So with apologies to Oprah, Bob Green, and Dr. Atkins, here are three dieting tips that also work for editing:

1) Have a clear goal that is both measurable and realistic.

Not very many people succeed when they vaguely set out to "lose some weight." You need a number -- is it 10 pounds or is it 50? -- and you need a plan. In the case of my project, I figured out the magic number by editing a sample page and then multiplying that by the total number of pages. The verdict? Nine hours.

Now, nine hours isn't insurmountable, but I knew myself well enough to recognize that I couldn't possibly do the job in one longish day. I have the ability to concentrate intensely, but only for bursts of several hours. Also, even though I'm terrible at math, I couldn't help but notice that nine divides rather nicely by three. When I saw a three-day space of time coming up I thought: "Bingo! There's my window." I also knew that three hours a day was quite doable and wouldn't make me feel like a martyr.

2) Minimize anything that will interfere with your goal.

If you want to lose weight, you get the cookies and potato chips out of the cupboard and you stock up with low-fat yogurt and lots of apples. If you want to edit, it helps to get other distractions out of the way. That means turning off email and forgetting about surfing the web.

In my case, I even went so far as to eliminate "worthy" distractions. For example, I typically do my own writing every morning, but for those three days, I took a break. I also turned a blind eye to the vacuuming (okay, nothing unusual there) and, even though I love to cook, gratefully accepted my brother-in-law's offer of preparing dinner Sunday night.

Disclaimer: I don't advise clearing your schedule for writing, a task that can be done in 10- or 30-minute chunks of time. But editing is another matter.

3) Make yourself answerable to someone else.

Exercise gurus are united in their belief that the best motivation for getting to the gym is going with a friend. Similarly, they'll often suggest announcing your weight-loss plans to someone else. It's called accountability.

I went public with my editing goal quite by accident. A few days before my work-a-thon, I was at a business meeting with an acquaintance. "What are you doing for the weekend?" she asked. So I told her. And in voicing the plan, I suddenly realized that I had to do it. She was a person I liked and respected, and also someone quite likely to ask, "How did it go?" But she wasn't a close enough friend to have been mindlessly supportive if I failed. In short, I would have lost face if I hadn't done it. And there was no way I was going to allow that to happen.

Now about those 10 pounds I could stand to lose...

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

Write Faster, Write Better

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Five reasons why you should write like a speed demon.

"Why should I want to write quickly?" That gauntlet, thrown down by a colleague recently, caused me to sit back -- rather like an astronaut pressed into the chair by G-forces. But for me, the only force was astonishment.

I'd assumed everyone wanted to write faster -- in fact, I've worked with many people who were desperate to -- and I thought the reasons and benefits self-evident. But it’s a valid question and I'd like to address it today.

First, let me say that if you're happy with your writing speed -- that is, if you're one of those few lucky people who writes fluently without high drama or crises of conscience -- then pat yourself on the back and stop reading now. You probably don't need to change a thing.

But if you find writing in any way frustrating or too time consuming, then I urge you to push yourself to write faster, using a kitchen timer to prod yourself if necessary.

Here are five reasons why:

1) Your first instinct is often the best.

Have you ever anguished over a decision? You know what it's like -- you run the pros and cons through your mind and the more you think, the harder it is to decide. But when you go with an instant or "gut" call, you often make a terrific decision -- perhaps without fully understanding why.

Writing can be like that too. When you write slowly and carefully, you enlist the linear, rule-bound, hyper-critical part of your brain. You consider every nuance; you hesitate over grammar and haggle over word choice. But this sort of fretting simply gets in the way of putting your ideas on paper.

Writing quickly, on the other hand, allows you to engage the creative, fast-working, instinctual part of your brain. Ideas and little flashes of brilliance occur to you -- and you capture them on paper immediately. By writing quickly you let your amazing creative brain do its job and you become the recording secretary.

2) You will waste less time.

You know what happens when you get ready to go on vacation... You get your bills paid. You get caught up on your correspondence. You get nagging reports finished up. In short, you're highly productive -- not in spite of the time limit but because of it. Suddenly, you have focus.

Apply this same kind of focus to your writing and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve. (University students inadvertently do this by neglecting their essays until the night before they're due!)

3) You can out-run the negative self-chatter.

I've written about self-chatter before, so I'll make this point brief. Most of us are outrageously self-critical. "My writing is crummy, boring, no good," we like to tell ourselves. But if we write quickly, we can often out-run this negative voice.

4) You'll want to write more often.

We all avoid tasks that make us uncomfortable -- instead, we like to do what seems fast and easy. If we write quickly, without making a major big deal about it, then writing loses its negative mystique. Instead, it becomes just another thing we do, like brushing our teeth or returning phone calls. And this is a self-perpetuating cycle. The more we write, the better we get at it, making it seem even easier.

5) You'll have more time to edit.

This is by far the most important reason to write quickly. Let's say you have three hours to write something. If you can write the first draft in 30 minutes, well, that leaves 2.5 hours for the really important work, editing. But if it takes you 2.75 hours to write the draft, that leaves you only 15 minutes for editing.

So if the phrase "fast writing" doesn't motivate you, think how your writing will benefit from more editing time. Or, as I always like to say, write as quickly as you possibly can and edit as slowly as you can bear.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

What Is the View from Your Helicopter?

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

What Is the View From Your Helicopter?
Before you change altitude, give your readers some warning.

Let's go for a little helicopter ride, shall we?

We start by walking toward the roaring, stinking, whirling beast... Whappa, whappa, whappa. Our hair is whipped 'round our faces and we instinctively duck as if to protect our precious necks as we walk under the madly spinning blades. We scramble inside the door, stow our briefcases under the seats and pop on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Phew!

As soon as the pilot takes off, we look out the window to see houses and cars and treetops. At first, they're life-sized. But as the helicopter starts to rise, they become smaller and smaller. Soon the cars are the size of Tinker Toys and the houses look like something from a doll's village.

As the helicopter continues its ascent, the cars become tiny specks -- like little black bugs -- and the houses, mere dots. But suddenly, as if by way of compensation, we start to see patterns. The landscape stretches out below us like a quilt. There are big patches of green -- forest -- and wide swaths of yellow -- fields of grain. Look! Over there, there's a lake.

"Okay, okay, but what's this got to do with writing?" you ask.

Forgive the long analogy and let me get to my point. When you write, you are like that helicopter pilot. And what you see from that metaphorical window is what you need to describe to your readers.

Remember: You're in the pilot's seat, so you have to decide. Are you going to hover low, focusing on details like individual trees and houses, or are you going to hover high, looking at the patterns in the landscape (or, in that dreadful '80s phrase, "the big picture")?

When I have a hard time understanding a piece of writing, I often discover the author is dipsy-doodling in "height." He or she is going from big ideas to small without giving me enough warning.

Now I don't want to suggest that a pilot or a writer has to pick one spot and spend the entire trip hovering there! As you know, pilots change altitude all the time. But, except in emergencies, they don't do it so quickly that you get a heaving stomach.

Similarly, when you're writing, you should think like a skilled pilot and always be conscious of your altitude. Is your plan to discuss large concepts or little details? Be aware of what you're doing! And when you want to change altitude, give your readers some warning.

This article, for example, is mainly a conceptual one (i.e., my helicopter is hovering high). But let me dip for a moment to give you some examples of transitional or warning phrases you can use to drop in height smoothly. You might say, "for example" (as I just did at the beginning of this paragraph), "specifically," "for instance," "here," "there," or "to illustrate."

Using phrases like these will help ensure that all your writing-induced helicopter rides are trouble-free.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

William Shakespeare's 5 Best Writing Tips

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

 

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

Almost 400 years after the death of William Shakespeare, theatres still regularly perform his plays, children study his work in school, and we are still moved by the complexity of his stories and the beauty of his language.

But what's less well known is that Shakespeare also provided superb advice for public relations writers. Here are five of his best tips:

1) On brevity

Since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.
--Hamlet, Act 2, Scene ii

You cram these words into mine ears against the stomach of my sense.
--The Tempest, Act II, Scene i

As a poet, Will understood the value of being succinct. And if this quality was important in 1595, just imagine how crucial it is today. Elizabethans didn't have to deal with the telephone, television or the Internet. Servants did the cooking and household maintenance and there were no traffic jams when you commuted by horseback.

In 2009, however, our society produces hundreds of thousands of words every day and yet we have less time to read than ever before. Will had to face the plague, but we have to deal with the Blackberry. Take pity on your readers. Be brief.

2) On how difficult it is to find just the right word or phrase

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.
--Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene i

In corporate- and copy-writing, it's all too easy to slip into cliches and jargon. When everyone around you says things like "walk the talk" and uses words such as "right-sizing" you'll start writing like that too. Fact is, we swim in a cesspool of boring, unimaginative language. It takes work -- and commitment -- to find the best words and turns of phrase. (Note: The best words are often the shortest, most concrete ones.)

3) On the importance of reading

My library was dukedom large enough.
--The Tempest, Act I, Scene ii

Like all great scribes, Will understood that to write well, you have to read well. This means reading more than your professional journal and daily newspaper. Read fiction; it will inspire you. Read outside your field of employment to gain breadth. Read essays and other forms of persuasive writing. While Will kept up with Christopher Marlowe, you may prefer Christopher Buckley. But read. It is a lifelong apprenticeship in the craft of writing.

4) On interviewing clients or co-workers for ads, brochures or employee publications

Have more than thou showest; speak less than thou knowest.
--King Lear, Act I, Scene iv

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
--Hamlet, Act I, Scene iii

Much writing depends on interviewing. Through interviews you collect the stories, anecdotes, and metaphors that help your writing come to life. But too often writers try to put words in their subject's mouths. They go into the interview with preconceived notions and ask boring, ho-hum questions.

Savvy writers, on the other hand, ask pithy questions -- designed to extract anecdotes and feelings from their subjects -- and then keep quiet. As a student of human nature, Will knew what our mothers are always telling us: We have two ears and one mouth to remind us that we should listen twice as much as we talk.

5) On writing about what matters

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.
--Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene iii

No effective communications plan in the history of humankind ever hinged on finding "just the right phrase." True, a good plan or product may be helped by good words. Maybe even helped a lot. But words alone will not save a bad one. Your company or your client needs to be committed to what it is you're writing about -- otherwise you are doomed to be a hack.

If you're trying to communicate a company's belief in safety, for example, exhorting employees to act safely is not enough. Instead, you need policies and procedures in place that constantly demonstrate the company's commitment. Without this, you have what we today call a "disconnect." But I think Will said it better: "I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart: but the saying is true "The empty vessel makes the greatest sound."

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

 

How Many Drafts Should You Write?

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Five keys to help you decide.
(Hint: Once is not enough.)

I've never been a big fan of the mystery or crime thriller genre, apart from when I was pregnant with triplets. When I was free again (a relative term, as I then had three babes in arms), I had devoured the entire oeuvre of mystery-meisters Jonathan and Faye Kellerman. I attribute it to the hormones and haven't read a mystery since.

Perhaps this is why I'd never heard of James Patterson. Judging by his ranking on Amazon -- generally somewhere between three and a half and four stars -- the author of The Women's Murder Club series is a competent writer who knows how to produce a page-turner.

He's even received the ultimate compliment from prime-time TV and been featured on The Simpsons. (The episode reportedly showed Marge reading one of his books on the beach. "Ooooo, I love James Patterson," she exclaimed. "It's amazing how he always manages to solve the crime just as you're getting to the end of the book.")

My Saturday newspaper recently featured an interview with Patterson in which he discussed his writing methods. He begins his writing day at 5 a.m. and works for several hours. "I write every day, weekends too, first early in the morning, and then in the afternoon, maybe 2 to 6," he told the interviewer. But for me his most interesting comments related to rewriting. After the first draft, he said, he rewrites a minimum of two to seven more times.

Five Rewriting Questions to Ask Yourself

People frequently ask me how many times they should rewrite. I try to dodge this question because, in truth, there is no easy answer. Pieces of writing are like snowflakes; each is unique. There are, however, some questions you can ask yourself for guidance:

1) Have you allowed a minimum of a day to pass before you assess your piece of writing?
Self-editing requires tincture of time. If you want to judge how much rewriting your work requires, you need some distance from it. Take a break.

2) Can you describe your audience and your purpose in a single sentence?
To determine if your piece has "worked" you need to know who you are writing for and why. In this piece, for example, my audience is PR and business writers. My main purpose is to convince you that rewriting, more than once, is necessary. And my secondary purpose is to promote my book: 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better.

3) Does your piece include real-life examples?
No one wants to read just theory. People want to read about people -- or about stuff that's really happened. This rule applies to every type of writing, except, perhaps (sigh) academic work.

4) Have you read your piece out loud?
Yes, you may look goofy. And, yes, whispering is permitted. But you may not skip this step. It's crucial for determining whether your piece really "hangs together" -- and for spotting and fixing the rough bits.

5) Have you run your piece through a readability check?
There is a readability feature built into MS Word (Tools/Options/Spelling & grammar/Show readability statistics) that will help you identify ways to make your writing easier to read. If you’re not familiar with it, consult your Help menu to find out how it works.

Yes, rewriting can be boring and tiresome. But if James Patterson is willing to rewrite each of his (estimated) 90,000-word novels two to seven times, surely your short article or report deserves a little more attention, too.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

Five Ways to Salvage Writing Disasters

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Back in 4000 BC, writers had to carve their words into clay tablets. They could be forgiven for not wanting to do much editing.

But in 2009, what happens to you when you've written an article, chapter or report and it feels wrong or off? Are you prepared to ditch the whole thing and start over? Do you need to?

I find that many writers are reluctant to undertake large, earth-moving edits of their work. Instead, they poke at it, removing an adjective here, changing a verb tense there -- hoping that by alchemy these minor changes will somehow lead to a major improvement. When that fails to work, they panic.

If this describes you, don't hit the eject button just yet. If you're heading towards a writing disaster, here are five questions you can ask to reframe the project and likely rescue a good part of your draft.

1. In what "order" have you presented your information?
Is it chronological? This works well for anecdotes, but for other kinds of material it can be dull. Instead, try order of importance. At the same time, evaluate your logic -- if you've used inductive reasoning (going from the particular to the general) try deductive (going from the general to the specific.) Mix things up.

2. Are your examples, anecdotes and stories strong enough to carry the "weight" of what you've written?
In the first magazine piece I wrote -- some 30 years ago-- I started off with a weak anecdote and then tried to hang my whole story on it. Disaster! Anecdotes need to pass a three-point test -- they should be memorable, interesting and on the right topic. It's a tall order. Just as you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince or princess, you need to discard a lot of anecdotes before you find the ones worth using.

3. Does the "size" of your subject match the length you are allowed?
I've seen many writers drive themselves nuts by trying to write about World War II in 1,000 words. Guess what? It won't work! Your subject matter needs to be appropriate to the length you have. Pick "small" ideas for short articles. If your idea is too big (World War II, Shakespeare, Customer Service), narrow in on one small part of it. If you have trouble narrowing, then produce a series of articles on the same topic.

4. Do you have an idea or "force" that will help pull your reader through your piece of writing?
There's a wonderful poem by Dylan Thomas called The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower. I love that image of a "force" and think it's an apt metaphor for writing. You want your readers to be impelled through your work. One of the best ways to achieve this is to be very clear with yourself about the point you are trying to make. Can you express it in a short sentence? Does every paragraph in your writing somehow echo this sentence?

5. Is the most interesting, important material at the beginning?
More people will read the beginning of your piece of writing than the end. Start with a bang.

If your piece of writing isn't working, don't accept it as The Way It Must Be. But don’t throw it out, either. Instead, reframe it. Make bold changes. That, after all, is why your computer comes equipped with copy, paste and delete keys.

Use them.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.

Three Writing Resolutions for 2009

Rapid Writing

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Improve your writing immediately with these simple techniques.

It may be chilly January, but my mind is drawn to a warm June evening about eight years ago when my daughter brightly announced she had a goal. She wanted to be able to ride her two-wheeler up our rather hilly back lane without being pushed by an adult. In addition, she aspired to turn a graceful loop at the top, without having to climb off her bike.

Not exactly a wild and crazy plan for a six-year old, true. But unlike her pedal-pushing peers, my daughter possessed a plan. She marched to the calendar and counted how many days she had left. Her goal was to perform this manoeuvre for a neighborhood bike parade set for July 1st. To succeed, she determined she would need to practice every night after dinner. Then she did -- rain, shine, or other more attractive play-dates notwithstanding.

I'm an organized and determined person, but I must say, I've learned a lot from watching my frighteningly resolute daughter. Goals matter. And as writers, it's a good idea for us to embrace some writing goals. They needn't be difficult! Here are three suggestions for simple, diligent, repetitive actions that will help you improve your writing in 2009.

1. Run all your writing through readability statistics.
As I've mentioned before, you can find powerful, no-cost readability software hidden in every version of Word. (If you've forgotten how this works, see my "PS" at the end of the newsletter.) I've been writing 30 years and I still run all my writing through the software. (The only problem is that there's a bug in the Mac 2008 version of Word. They hope to have this fixed shortly.)

2. Write more in "stolen moments" and don't wait for 60-minute blocks of time.
Too many people procrastinate by refusing to write unless they have a big chunk of free time staring them in the face. This is a mistake! Instead, embrace the power of writing in dribs and drabs. Ask yourself, at least three times a day, "Could I write for 10 minutes right now?" And, if you can, do it! Your productivity will soar.

3. Do a better job of keeping writing and editing separate.
This can be a challenge for many people. Some of us are just hard-wired to prefer editing to writing. Tinkering with what you have written seems so much more enjoyable that squeezing out the first draft. The trouble is, writing and editing at the same time will inevitably make you a slow writer. To solve this problem, try two strategies:

1) Write more often in the early morning (before your editing brain fully wakes up), and

2) Cover or turn off your computer screen while writing, so you can't see what you've written.

P.S. To activate the readability statistics in Word, go to the "tools" menu, click on "options," then select the "spelling & grammar" tab. Then, under the "grammar" heading, place a tick mark in the box that says "show readability statistics." Thereafter, every time you run a spell check on your story or article, you will also get a readership check. Aim for a Grade 9 level or less (yes, I know this sounds counter-intuitive but simple writing is easier for your audience) and a Flesch Reading Ease score of 60% or more.

Alternatively (and, necessarily, if you're using Word 2008 for Mac), here's a free online service you can use instead: http://www.it.rit.edu/~jxs/services/TestReadability.html Just copy and past your text into the box and the software will evaluate your readability, lickety-split.

A former daily newspaper editor, Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of 8 1⁄2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a weekly newsletter on her website Publication Coach. It’s brief. It’s smart. And it’s free.