writing 4 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜: WRITING ADVICE TO MAKE YOU A BETTER WRITER

How to Improve Any Piece of Writing in the Next Thirty Seconds

How a copywriter's trick from sixty years ago can help your writing today.

by August Birch

We could all use a little more help with our writing. When we're in our heads everything sounds great. The mental movie rolls. We become little more than the stenographer, and the writing pours on the page like magic.

For some (probably not you, but for me, for sure) the writing in our head doesn't always translate well, once it reaches the page.

Before we embarrass ourselves by sharing our work with a friend, this might be a good time to give your writing a simple test.

Now, I'm sure the copywriters of the fifties and sixties didn't invent this technique, but they're the ones who brought it to my attention. When you've got millions of dollars in direct mail expenses on the line, you've got to get your letter right. The first time.

What's this magic method?

Before we get to that, let's uncover one thing that makes great writing, well, great — readability.

The words need to connect and flow together. We don't want the reader to notice the writing. Our writing shouldn't feel like writing at all. The story should pop. The mental movie should roll.

The last thing we want to do is pull the reader from the story with a rickety sentence.

"I really enjoyed the sentence structure of that novel," said (almost) no one, ever.

So, how do we avoid these thorns and splinters in our writing? What can we possibly do in the next thirty seconds to increase the readability of our writing tenfold?

Simple.

Easy.

...and free.

We read our writing aloud.

Not just flapping our lips as we read in silence. Oh no. That's cheating and it doesn't work. You've got to stand with your shoulders back and your back straight. Read your piece with purpose. Have real sound come from your actual mouth.

When we read our writing aloud, our mouths will catch all the hooks our brain skipped when we wrote the piece.

Our eyes give our brains a series of still images we eventually translate to mental movies. There are all kinds of mental cheats that happen during this process. We see words that aren't there. We add punctuation that isn't there. We mentally correct the page and skip these little roadblocks.

But the voice can't cheat (as much).

When you slow your reading speed for reading aloud, many of those brain-skips go away.

You'll get stuck on certain passages that don't read well.

You'll pause where you need an additional period.

Your dialogue will improve.

You'll get tired of holding your breath during long paragraphs and uncover where you should split them.

You'll get bored with long bits of exposition.

You'll get bored with entire paragraphs.

I've found this reading aloud method helps more with removal of what's there, than addition to what's not.

Great writing has much to do with what isn't said, maybe more than what is.

Reading aloud can fix a lot of the mechanical and structural issues. Before you embarrass yourself with beta readers. Before you hold your writing to the fire.

Avoid overwhelm and read aloud often.

Not only will this help you become a better reader for presentations, but reading your work aloud, often, will help you avoid overwhelm. Don't wait until the manuscript is done before you read word one.

That's crazy.

Tomorrow, read today's writing before you begin your next session. Highlight the text where you stopped. Make the required edits. Start today's session.

Once you reach the end of your manuscript, you'll have read the entire piece aloud once.

It's not as if reading aloud is fun. You won't want to sit through 100,000 words of out-loud reading as you finally type 'the end.'

...but you will benefit from reading your work aloud a second time. And you can do that as you record the audio version of your book, simultaneously.

This is a method I plan to employ for upcoming books. If you're willing to record your own audiobook, don't waste your final read. Record the audio as you read the final manuscript.

You'll catch on to new issues.

Stop the recording.

Edit the manuscript on the fly.

Edit the recording on the fly.

Continue recording.

Yes, this is tedious, but you'll get your audiobook done for simultaneous release with the print versions. Not only will this open you up to a totally different audience, but you'll have the second read under your wing.

...just a thought.