Write Scribe

This post shares two writing tips that combined to show me how to make my writing clearer for the reader and easier for me to do. Clearer writing helps you by giving more value to your readers, and satisfied readers are what will make your success at writing.

It might be a hard thing for many writers to accept but readers are mostly not interested in our writing. No, readers are interested in what they can get out of the writing, so make this obvious with a clear message. The better you are at delivering messages clearly the more you will please readers.

This post is going to show three keys to delivering clear messages to your readers:

1. The importance of one single purpose.
2. It all starts with one clear sentence.
3. Tips on creating one clear sentence.

We’re talking about clarity and snappiness here today, so let’s get right to the point…

The Importance of One Single Purpose

The power of a clear purpose for a piece of writing is illustrated by a post from Remarkablogger Michael Martine entitled Seven Steps to More Coherent Blog Posts, More Readers, and More Subscribers. The first step is to “Figure out the one thing you want to accomplish with the post.” As Michael explains:

“The post should be about or should accomplish one thing, and one thing only. Have you ever read (or written) a post that seemed to be about several topics at once? It really ended up not being about much of anything.”

Well, I know I had both read and written pieces like that. At the time I had a few pieces that I was struggling to finish. I couldn’t decide what to leave in and what to take out and this idea of a single accomplishment helped me to clarify and finish them.

But it was another post I happened across the next day that really showed me how to ensure this laser-sharp focus of purpose in my writing going forward.

It All Starts With One Short Sentence

The “one thing” message was reinforced by a post that also showed me a great way to ensure it. The post Obstacles to Clear and Concise Writing described obstacle number two, not being clear about the message, like this:

“Many writers have a general idea of what they want to say, but they don’t crystallize it in one short, snappy sentence. Thus, they start out writing, touching on their topic from different angles, and including every bit of information they think is relevant.

The writing may end up readable and professional sounding, but the readers will come away thinking that, while they understood the gist of the author’s intent, they can’t precisely say what the take-home point was. This is usually because the writer never really knew what it was either.”

I immediately understood how powerful it would be to “crystallize it in one short, snappy sentence“.

I had been writing short paragraphs, three or four sentence, to describe the pieces I planned to write. This left room for too many ideas and angles, and this showed through in the writing I produced from them. So I resolved to edit down my paragraphs to only one short sentence.

Writing a Short, Focused Purpose

For each piece of writing I do now I start with one short, clear sentence stating its purpose. This format leaves no room for confused or multiple ideas, so is an excellent way to judge the clarity of your idea before you write.

But it is not always easy to write one short, clear sentence at the first attempt. This is why I start to edit my piece before I’ve even written it by editing the description.

I write down an initial description of the idea, this might be several sentences. Then I edit it down until only one short, snappy sentence remains.

Here are a few tips on how to do this:

1. Get very clear on one purpose, “learn how to make origami tigers and sign up for my new e-course” is two purposes, not one.

2. Get very specific about the reader and fit the idea to this audience. Here are some easy criteria to narrow your audience: age, experience, skill level, location, job, industry. I’m sure you can think of more in your topic.

3. Focus on only one problem, or one solution. You don’t have to give ten ways to solve a problem in one article.

In all cases you can save the other ideas for other pieces. It’s better to write ten focused articles than one confused one.

Let’s recap on what we’ve discussed.

1. The importance of one single purpose, without it you will lose the reader.
2. It all starts with one clear sentence, without this you might lose yourself.
3. Tips on creating one clear sentence, you don’t have to do it in one go.

Remember, your reader is interested in the message, not your writing. A single, crystal clear sentence describing each piece has helped me to write more clearly. As a bonus the clarity makes writing the piece easier, too.

If you’re serious about clear writing then here’s an exercise you can try now. Review five or ten pieces you wrote recently and write down one single, clear sentence that describes one thing accomplished. How easy is it to do? Can you fit the idea into just one sentence or is it hard? If you have trouble then maybe your message is not as clear as it could be.

Now write and edit down to one sentence the purpose of your next ten pieces before you write them. I’d love to hear about your results. Why not share them by leaving a comment below?

Blue sky bird in flight
Dark falls arrives the black night
Where does the bird go?

If you liked today’s haiku why not drop by next Friday for another one, or let the RSS feed bring it to you automatically.

Here’s how I connected to the 25 Words that Connect Us Project.

How are we connected? Surely not by wires and photons and beams. No, the things that unite us are ideas and feelings and beautiful dreams.

These words here are almost exactly the first I came up with. I rewrote, tweaked and tried other approaches but this one remains my favourite.

Today’s haiku echoes the themes of this week’s posts on simplicity and idea overload. If you enjoy it, or if you don’t, please let me know with a comment.

Purpose one thing now
Too many ideas obstruct
Confuse you like hell

If you liked today’s haiku why not drop by next Friday for another one? Keep your life simple, let the RSS feed remember it for you automatically.

Are ideas killing your projects? Many writers worry that they won’t have enough ideas, or have good ideas, or have the right ideas. I worried about this, too, until I realised that my projects were dying while I made up too many ideas. Here’s the story of my ideas, and why I’m trying to have less of them.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this post.

1. Why ideas can drown projects.
2. When is an idea valuable?
3. How ideas harm your writing.

Why ideas can drown projects

Surely good ideas are the life blood of a project, especially in creative activities like writing? I thought so, until I realised that my projects were dying from too many ideas, rather than not enough.

When you embark on a new project ideas are usually scrambling over each other for your attention. You might try to manage them by writing them down as a plan, an action list, a vision, whatever.

But in creative projects, or at least that’s what I thought, you must keep searching for and capturing new ideas all the time. They are the substance of your project, so you better make sure you’re noting lots of them down, right?

But the trouble is all these ideas fill your head and don’t leave you time to develop the ideas that inspired your project in the first place. I have since learned that only certain kinds of idea are valuable…

When is an idea valuable?

When is an idea valuable to your writing? The answer is when it is finished.

I created stock piles of post and article ideas, but as long as no one was seeing them what good were they? Sitting on my hard disk they don’t create any value. A finished idea posted to a web site, in a book, or sent to someone is worth hundreds of times more.

Only finished ideas that are out in the field can work for you. They sit there on your blog or web site and attract readers and search engines, they can float around the Internet as part of ezines and interest readers, and they can attract the eyes of the people you want to work with.

And the great thing is that even ideas you don’t find extraordinarily brilliant work for you. There will be plenty of people who find your idea, lots who even like it, or maybe even some who don’t. But whatever the reaction to the idea your name gets known to people and becomes associated with the activity of writing.

How ideas can harm your writing

Too many ideas harm your writing by confusing you and by confusing your readers.

If you are confused by too many ideas you find it hard to finish what you start. Your post or article wanders off in all directions trying to cover all the ideas claiming attention in your head.

I often thought my revision process was what prevented me getting pieces finishing. I researched editing ideas, I set time limits, I limited the number of edits, but I still wasn’t satisfied with the result. But the problem wasn’t my editing, the problem was at the other end of the writing process when I planned posts.

I learned that the most important thing is to get very, very, clear on XXX one thing the piece of writing is to accomplish. With a crystal clear idea of the desired outcome you can decide when you are finished. As long as you are unclear about the goal of the piece, you are unable to determine when you are done.

Now you know the dangers of ideas for your projects. You also know that ideas are most valuable to a writer when they are carried through to completion. You also know how to avoid the confusion ideas can create in your writing by getting clear on your message.

Do you feel like you have too many or too few ideas? Could they be drowning your projects? How do you manage them? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.