Comedy writer Larry Gelbart, best known for his work on the TV series M*A*S*H, wrote,
You have to allow yourself the liberty of writing poorly. You have to get the bulk of it done, and then you start to refine it. You have to put down less than marvelous material just to keep going to whatever you think the end is going to be--which may be something else altogether by the time you get there.
This week, take Gelbart's advice. Don't try to "get it right the first time." Give yourself "the liberty of writing poorly," knowing that you'll have a chance to revise.
In a cartoon I saw once, a Hollywood producer summons his secretary. “I want to send a memo to the parking-lot attendant,” he bellows. “Get me a couple of writers.”
I sympathize. Writing is not often easy or fun, and those of us in business are usually too busy to give it the time it seems to demand. We’d all like to have staff writers on call, to handle those difficult letters and memos that seem to pile up.
Most of us, however—even in large organizations—have to be our own “writing department.” We have to take personal responsibility for the stream of writing tasks that cross our desks.
That’s probably as it should be. As designer and entrepreneur Richard Saul Wurman, president of Access Press, says, “You shortchange yourself if you think that writing is ‘someone else’s problem.’ . . . Even if your job description says nothing about writing, by regarding yourself as a writer, even privately, you can take advantage of the discipline of the craft.”
This week, think of yourself as a writing department. Take responsibility for your writing.
Brian Clark at Copyblogger asks, "Do you know when to stop writing?"
He tells the story of a director pitching the concept of the film Finding Nemo to John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar. After an hour, the director finally stopped to ask his listener what he thought.
Lasseter replied, “You had me at ‘fish’.”
This week, as you revise, ask yourself, "Is there a 'fish' where I 'have them'?" If so, consider stopping there.
Once we've drafted a piece of writing, we've invested quite a bit of time and effort in it. Thus, as Rabbi Israel Salanter has said, "Writing is one of the easiest things; erasing is one of the hardest." We're reluctant to admit, even to ourselves, that something we've drafted might benefit from being changed.
This week, erase (on paper or on computer screen) at least three words from everything you write. When you see the improvement, I bet you'll erase more.
Some writing is like rowing a boat downstream, with the current of your reader's attitude. Some is like rowing upstream, against the current.
This week, before you draft each piece of writing, ask yourself, "How is my reader going to feel about getting this message?" Having an answer to that question will almost guarantee more effective writing.
Famed sports agent Mark H. McCormack, who has been credited for inspiring the film Jerry McGuire, once wrote, "A lot of memos would be more persuasive if their first and last paragraphs were switched."
This week, when you've finished drafting each piece of writing, ask yourself whether you could make it more effective by taking McCormack's advice. Even if you decide not to literally switch the beginning and ending paragraphs, just asking the question may alert you to ways to improve how your message ends and begins.
The Online Colleges site has published a terrific list of "100 Little Ways You Can Dramatically Improve Your Writing."
This week, scan the list, pick one, follow its link, and try it.
The point: in a complex system, tiny causes can have huge effects.
Remember that as you revise your drafts. A small difference in how your readers respond to your first sentence can make a somewhat bigger difference in how they respond to your second sentence. And so on. So make sure your first sentence is absolutely clear, economical, and compelling.
Outlining can be much easier than that. When you're planning a piece of writing, just jot down--in any order--the ideas you want to include. Then take a minute, or less, to put them in the best order for your reader.
If your ideas are on a computer screen, just drag them around. If they're on scratch paper, just number them:
"Let's see, I'll put this in paragraph 2, this in paragraph 4, this I'll leave out, this in paragraph 1, this also in paragraph 2, and this and this I'll also leave out."
Bingo. You have an outline. And you'll have a more effective message.