The Write Stuff
3 Writing Tricks I Didn’t Learn in School
When I first decided I wanted to become a writer I wasn’t particularly good at writing. I’d even go so far as to say I used to be a really crappy writer. I cringe when I look back at pieces I had published when I first began writing.
The introductions read like I was still writing research papers, and my conclusions were simply non-existent. They lacked coherent transitions. Even though I’d gotten A’s in all my English and journalism classes, when I started working at the magazine no one had taught me how to write astory. I was still writing reports when I should have been writing articles. Maybe you’ve been there—putting your all into a story but knowing it was missing that little bit of extra something.
Read MoreHow to Silence Negativity and Edit Your Work with Confidence
When I started copywriting, I had a fear of editing. Reading back over what I‘d written made me think of those chain smoking, red faced editors portrayed in TV and films who bark orders from behind a huge desk. I’d imagine this editor grabbing hold of my writing and massacring it with a thick red pen or screwing up the pages and tossing them into the wastebasket shouting, ‘It’s just not good enough!’ As I read over my writing, this fictitious internal editor was cruel and unforgiving and I became so scared that I could no longer tell if what I was writing was good or not.
Read MoreSecrets of a Trade Editor
I know you’ve heard it before, but editors are just people. How do I know this? Because until last month I was an editor. I worked for Pet Business Magazine, a trade magazine covering the pet industry for independent mom and pop pet storeowners.
Read MoreDon’t Fear the Red Pen
I have a confession to make: I’m long-winded. That’s right. Verbose. Fustian. Rambling. I’m in love with the sound of my own typing. And I’m an editor.
When it comes to editing others’ work, I can be a harsh mistress, dicing, slicing and re-jiggering text like the 8th grade English teacher of your middle-school nightmares. Seth Godin would be proud. Yet when it comes to my own beautiful words, I let them flow like the Ganges.
But as the lovely Marian Schembari noted in her recent blogging adventure, we all make mistakes. Typos, incorrect usage and errant apostrophes are the bane of us all. Unfortunately, if you’re a writer — or worse, an editor — your mistakes seem to shine like a lighthouse beacon for all to see. So how do I save face? Ladies and gentlemen, I self-edit like nobody’s business.
Photo Credit: Visentico / Sento via Flickr
How does self-editing become second nature for a writer who’s never met a dependent clause she didn’t like? This is how.
Simplistic, I know. Don’t agonize over how you’re going to write it, just write it. Stop stressing over le mot juste. You have your topic and a vague idea or opinion of what you want to communicate, so just get your thoughts on the screen (or paper, if you’re like to kick it old school from time to time). The point is: You can’t edit a blank page.
You type a paragraph, and by the time you reach the end, you realize your closer works better as your opener. A quick copy & paste and voila! Magic! Or your fingers linger restlessly over the keys as your focus deteriorates and you can’t seem to get unstuck. So you abandon that line of thought and move on to the next paragraph where the words fly from your keyboard with lightening speed. Embrace the process. This is your right brain telling your left brain to shut the hell up. You’re doing what I call an “organic dev edit.”
NB: Development editing is that horrible beast that exists to make mystery writers scream and technical writers cry.
So you’ve hit a wall. You can’t reach the finish line because your brain won’t play nice anymore. Pause. Breathe. Go back to the beginning. … Why are you hyperventilating? I said: “Breathe.” Pause to correct any typos, grammatical faux pas and verb tense shifts (an Achilles heel of yours truly). Sure, re-reading and correcting these errors helps you get a jump on editing your final piece, but it also helps tighten your writing and root out any stray thoughts that might have derailed your progress. This step may occur several times before you reach the end. Have no fear; it too is a part of the process. When in doubt, see #2.
You’ve finished writing. It’s not perfect, but you’re feeling a little proud right now. Guess what? It’s time to get mean. There’s 3 ways to go about this:
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- You’re an English Comp professor with a trusty red pen who just found out he’s not getting tenure
- You’re a loving parent who doesn’t want you to feel discouraged because you try oh so hard
- You’re a friend who doesn’t want to see you look foolish by clinging to clunky phrases and excessive rambling
Depending on the day of the week and the subject matter at hand, you’re going to become each of these personas. Sometimes, you’ll be all three in one day. Just remember: You’re not the writer anymore; you’re the editor. This is going to hurt.
For journalists penning articles, copywriters building campaigns, authors creating book proposals, this step usually involves leaving the piece alone for a night. When you awake in the morning, you have a semi-fresh perspective and you’re more likely to catch any mistakes that escaped you the day before. Once you’re happy, send the hallowed text on its merry way.
For bloggers racing against the clock, this step involves hitting publish, walking away, then coming back to read through your work after its had time to embarrass the hell out of you. Sadly, due to time constraints, there’s no real way around this end game. But returning to your blog post a day or two after you’ve hit publish often helps you discover missing words, hackneyed cliches and funky formatting that mars your otherwise benevolent masterpiece. Make the necessary changes, once you’re happy, hit “Update.”
Now I can’t promise that my self-editing style will work well for you, because as I mentioned, I’m a long-winded writer. In the end, I believe in hacking away the excess, but never at the expense of conveying the author’s complete thought or destroying the author’s voice. The truth is editing someone else’s words is a lot easier than editing your own, but we can’t be slaves to our own egos if we want to stay relevant in the world of freelancing. Writing riddled with typos, poor usage and repetitious language hurts your image and job prospects. Self editing will only help you improve as a communicator for your product, your brand and your business.
Read MoreSeparating Freelance from Fiction
Woah, okay, don’t panic—pick up your coffee cup from the floor, sit back down and listen to me for just a minute.
Like you, I am a Very. Serious. Writer. As such, I take my writing Very. Seriously. But I don’t just write fiction of the paranormal romance variety—I also write articles, press releases, web content and more for clients who might not get a real kick out of a writer trying to make her name from vampire romance novels.
Now not everyone needs to have a separate name for their fiction work and their freelance work, but some of us do. Here’s how to tell which camp you fall into.
2. If you must attempt completely different marketing efforts to attract fiction readers than freelance clients, you might want to separate your personas. For instance, if you need to joke around in an adult manner about cowboys, sex, and fetishes in order to attract readers for your fiction—but you attract freelance clients by talking about world politics, economics or education, then you might want a fiction pen name.
3. If you have clients who want you to use your name on your work because your professional experience and reputation in the industry lends credibility to their site, you might want to consider a pen name.
The Art of Disappearing: Finding Your Voice for a Client
Voice Is Important
You see it in blogger Penelope Trunk as she dispenses sage advice about work and life with a touch of no-holds-barred honesty. You can tell that she cares more about sharing the intimate details of her life as an entrepreneur, a woman, and a mom through unfiltered lenses than she does about checking for every little typo or grammatical error.
Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman sticks out in her own way. Whimsically, she regales her readers with her life on the ranch as a city girl turned country wife, a homeschool mom educating her children, or as a cook dishing out another scrumptious recipe. Whatever the topic, she colors her words with a mixture of fun, mischief, and wit.
Both are successful writers who give their massive followings an inside look at their lives. And both express themselves in ways that are as distinct as the drawl of a Southern belle or the accent of a Boston native. They have found their voices as writers.
As a freelance writer though, there is a difference between finding your voice as a writer and finding your voice for a client. Writing for your clients is not about writing in your voice. Sure, it’s okay when you’re writing for your blog or a publication that will carry your byline, but the moment you start to write on behalf of a client, you become a ghost who needs to learn to find your voice for the client.
Freelancers have to learn the art of disappearing. You are being paid to write for their sake, not for yours. Whatever their message, whatever their goals, it’s your job as a freelancer to convey that message well and to help them meet their goals.
Know Your Client
You have to know your client in order for you to do your job well. That takes time and effort. Research their website and other places that will tell you more about them. Try to find out what others are saying about them. You have to talk to them, in person or on the phone. When you do, ask good questions: basic ones, thoughtful ones, and hard ones. Here are a few angles to come at as you try to learn more about your client.
- Know their industry. What do they do? Who are their competitors? What sets them apart from other businesses? What are they great at? What aren’t they great at? You can’t help your client if you don’t understand what they do and the niche they fill in their particular field.
- Know their story. How long have they been in business? How did they get their start? What are their current struggles? Where have they failed? What are their success stories? Knowing how they started and their journey as a company will help you to craft meaningful content for them.
- Know their goals. Where are they headed as a company? How do they plan to achieve their goals? What have they attempted so far? You have to know where they are going so that you can help get them there.
- Know their personality. What do they value as a company? How do they communicate to their customers? What is their language/style? If you know who they are and how they portray themselves to their customers, then you can take on the persona of your client in your work.
You don’t have to know everything about a client. But you should know enough that you can convincingly write for them. There’s a caveat though. Knowing your client isn’t enough. There are plenty of bad websites, brochures, and other written content that can testify to that. You have to also know your audience. I’ll talk about that more in my next post.
