BECOME A BETTER WRITER

Writing is not a goal, your words don't matter
& other unconventional advice

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When I was 22 I did something kind of crazy. I accepted a promotion, but turned down the salary increase that went with it.

Was I an idiot? Do I hate money?

Ha. Not quite.

Rather, I leveraged the offer of a raise to ask for something that I valued even more — mentorship.

Every week, I would get schooled for an hour by an executive. I took copious notes, challenged ideas and occasionally got my mind blown.

In one of those sessions my mentor, a fearsome Ivy League lawyer, cut me off mid-sentence, irritated, to share something I'll never forget:

Rebecca, never use a complicated word when a simple one will do.

I’m hard to embarrass, but I turned beet red. I had just been majorly called out for using one of my favorite words at the time — elucidate.

Now, I love words and precision is beautiful.

But, if I'm honest with myself, I wasn't using 'elucidate' because it was a better choice than clarify. I was trying to SOUND impressive.

That's a recipe for ineffective writing, online and at work.

And while I'm far from an amazing writer, over the last 10 15 years, I've been paid a lot of money for the skill. And countless people have asked me how they can become a better writer.

So here are my thoughts. You don't even have to turn down a raise for them.

1. WRITING IS NOT A GOAL

Writing is not a goal, it's a means to an end.

To write well, you need to be clear on your actual goal. You need to know why you're writing.

You can want to write for a lot of different reasons. You can want to move people emotionally. To persuade them to buy something. To make them laugh out loud. To change their minds. To make them agree with you. To teach them something. To explain your thinking. To cover you ass.

There are thousands of reasons you could be writing, but one thing is true across them all: if you don't know why you're writing, you're unlikely to be successful.

So, why are you writing?

2. SCREW FINDING YOUR VOICE

Many people have asked me how to 'find their voice'.

I say, screw that. Ditch the passive searching. Instead, take ownership and invent your voice.

You already know whose writing you look up to.

Maybe your manager communicates with shocking clarity and ease. Or perhaps there is an author whose books induce heart-wrenching jealousy you love.

Aspire to what you admire.

Start by getting clear on what you admire and why. Make a list of 2-4 writers and explain exactly what you find so compelling about their work. Hint - keep your goal in mind here.

Here's mine:

Then, combine the elements you admire to invent your own voice. A voice that's tailored to you and your goals.

Even though the writers I selected are widely known, I would bet that this combination is 100% unique to me. And, I now have a powerful tool to inspire and judge my writing.

I ask myself — how would Paul simplify this? What story would Morgan tell? How would Max communicate this? Where would Sherry lighten the mood?

What voice will you invent?

3. YOUR WORDS DON'T MATTER

In writing, words don't matter much.

That is backwards from what most people think about writing. They think it’s all about the words. You can see it in the way they edit — changing a word here and there, rarely looking at the big picture.

Great writing is 10% word choice... and 90% finding a compelling way to share a worthy idea.

In other words, you need a great idea and you need to share that idea in a way that makes the reader care.

If you have those two locked, your words barely matter at all.

But there's a reason that almost no one thinks about writing this way: toying with words and arcane grammar laws is much easier than finding something worth saying and making it interesting.

The idea & the structure are the hard work of writing.

So here's a few questions to help you think about what really matters:

  • What do I want to say? Why is it worth saying?

  • Why should they care? Does this make them care?

  • Why is this interesting and important to them?

4. EDITING IS THE REAL WORK

Shitty first drafts are real. It’s your job to tear it apart.

Less than 10% of this piece remains untouched from my first attempt to spew words on a page.

Just get it out. Even if it's not in complete sentences. Even if it has big, gaping holes. Even if its bullet points. Even if you hate it.

After its out, that's when the real writing starts.

When you edit, start BIG PICTURE.

Don't sweat the words yet. Go back and ask yourself the questions from the previous sections. Is my idea good enough? Is it worthy of attention? Does it live up to the voice I invented?

Tear it apart. Reframe the idea. Try a different story on for size. Ponder why anyone would care. Move sections. Remove sections. Mind map.

Ask yourself:

  • Does it pull them in and not let them go? How might it?

  • Does the audience know what I want them to know, at the right time?

  • How else could I structure it? Is that better?

  • Does it achieve my goal, my purpose for writing?

I’ll say it again, editing is the real work of writing.

Once the hard work is done, once you have the idea and the structure nailed, then you can think about the words.

But, even then, my advice is simple:

Write like you speak.

Oh, and don't forget that advice from my mentor:

Never use a complicated word when a simple one will do.