Pay attention to what you pay attention to today.
I bet a great deal of it involves reading.
Social media, that article your friend sent, the forwarded email from your boss.
The written word carries a great deal of weight.
So when it’s your turn with the blinking cursor, here are 10 ways to improve.
1. Be You. Inject personality into your words, we want to know you. Not a robot.
2. Imagine Your Reader. What are they afraid of? Who do they want to be?
3. Be Concise. Get to the damn point. Ruthlessly cut filler words (really hard for me).
4. Give Us a Path. We want to go somewhere, but we might not know how to get there. Show us.
5. Write Like a 5th Grader. Even if you’re a doctor.
6. Give us Hope. Don’t ignore darkness, but don’t keep us there. How do your words take away my pain?
7. Give us Heart. The buzz word is vulnerability, for good reason. Tell us something that might embarrass you. It’s ok, we likely feel the same thing.
8. Story > Facts. Facts tell, stories sell. Tell more stories.
9. Write It Like We Read It. Say your sentences out-loud, if it sounds too formal, it probably is.
10. It’s Not About You. It’s about us, the ones reading the words. Write for us.
Happy writing.
What would you add to the list?
