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6+1, 2, 3: Save Me from Beginners and Experts NOW!

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Folks Who Are Learning and Folks Who Know

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Most bloggers find their audience is a lot like you are — an audience of folks who learning and folks who know a whole lot. That can throw a new writer. It can seem a problem of huge proportions. It’s not hard to think that what you have is two different audiences in one. How do you know how much to say and how much to leave out? It’s easy to get twisted trying to write for an audience of people who are both beginning and experienced.

Get twisted, heck! Somebody save me NOW!. From where I sit, some days the beginners need to learn so much, and the experts already seem to know all of it. How do I possibly talk to both of them at once, without risking insulting or boring either one of them?

That writer’s problem can seem impossible to solve, but it’s not. In fact, it’s not even a problem at all. [Read more…]

9 + 1 — The Sequel — When Big Words Go Bad

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Big Words Are Wonderful

Thank you, to everyone who read and took time to comment on 9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer. The post and the discussion became much of what I personally think is the appeal and the addiction of blogging — learning by an interactive, rolling dialogue.

One point in particular seemed to get several comments. It was this one.

Set aside your expensive vocabulary. Don’t use big words, when perfectly good little words communicate easily. I don’t read with an online dictionary, and I don’t want to.

It seems folks were worried that I don’t like big words at all. I love them. I like the way they sound and the way that you can find one that will precisely pinpoint the idea that you’re going for. The point up above that I didn’t make clearly — yeah I’m unclear too, go figure — is that I was writing the 9 + 1 post in the voice of average readers, who don’t have time to go looking up words that might get between them and your message.

El Hakeem pointed out that some folks DO like big words and enjoy learning them. Starbucker is one in particular. He reads William Safire for that very reason. They’re right, you know. If your audience shares your love of vocabulary and finds new words delicious, I’d never ask you to take that away from them. I don’t expect that you would, even if I did.

I was talking about folks who use big words to make themselves or their writing sound smarter. Using vocabulary that way isn’t authentic and readers can tell.

Tony Lawrence left a story in a comment this morning that is a perfect example of how a guy can get caught doing just that.

Many years ago I had a partner who sometimes liked to brag about his education. I think he liked it all the more because I am mostly self educated – I dropped out of high school the moment I was legally able.

Anyway, Don (we’ll call him Don because that was his name) had prepared a new company brochure and was presenting it to me and another partner. As I was reading it, I came across an interesting sentence:

‘We provide simple pneumonic phrases to help you remember the commands.’

“Don, what the hell is a ‘pneumonic phrase’, I asked (not all that pleasantly).

Don nearly preened himself. “Well, if you had the benefit of a college education, you’d know that a pneumonic is a memory aid.”

I shook my head. “I am an autodidact, you fatuous ass, but I know how to spell and I know that the word you were thinking of is ‘mnemonic’ and that YOUR word is more usually found in conjunction with plagues”. I wrote ‘MNEMONIC’ out in large letters as I said that.

‘Benefits of a college education’ indeed.

Thanks, Tony, for letting me share your anecdote. (That qualifies as a big word.) You did what I couldn’t do and you did it artfully. I probably would have had readers screaming, “Liz, the darn horse is dead.”

By the way, my favorite word is despicable. It sounds like it should have punctuation inside it. What’s yours?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz’s help with your writing, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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See the Customer Think and Writing Power for Everyone series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE.

9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer

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Where to Start

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It can seem complicated to write for a readership that includes beginners to experts. I’ve done it for over two decades. It can seem like there’s too much to consider to meet them all at their own level.

My experience is that beginners and experts are not that different when they read. They might choose to read different things, but we all do. Beyond that difference of content, beginners, experts, and those of us in the middle — all readers — want the same things from a writer. [Read more…]

Writing for Readers — What’s My Promise as the Writer?

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Readers One and Many

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Most people think of writing as an individual activity. Many folks say, I write only for me! That could be so, but even then what a writer writes comes from experience, observation, and interaction with other people or of the writer as a person. Writing is intimately individual but also dynamically social. Even when people don’t read what I write, they have inspired it in some way or another.

Writing for an audience can seem overwhelming. It’s easy to get caught in a loop — thinking of each person who might drop by as someone you specifically have to write to. I find what works best for me is to define the group and to define my promise to them as a writer. [Read more…]

AT&T & ME w/o DSL — Why AT&T Won’t Fix Problems

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The Problem

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5:30a.m. Up and to the kitchen. Turn on the coffee. To the office. Turn on the computer. Take a shower.

5:45a.m. Get coffee. Get to work. OR NOT!

Wait a minute. What’s wrong here? Walk to the router. I have no DSL. I have things to do. It’s still DARK OUT.

6:00a.m. Consider options. Start to execute. Then envision images of screwed system. Recall pact that I will die first, because I’ll never be able to figure out how this home network is configured.

6;30a.m Wake up IT husband. Tell him we have no DSL.
He gets coffee, looks at router, see light off, and confirms it.

6:45a.m. Call AT&T. Listen to recording. Punch in numbers. Answer questions. Find out that we need to call another number.

7:00a.m. Call AT&T Number 2. Listen to recording. Punch in same numbers. Answer same questions. Finally get a person on the line. Start by saying the following.

ME: Hi, before we begin, could I just say that we have a sophisticated system here, that it was working at midnight, that everything is correctly connected, and that I’ve turned things off and on again.

AT&T SHE: Can I call you by your first name? [Read more…]

Always Choose for Your Readers, Right?

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It Just Happened Again

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I got a link to a fresh, vibrant article on how to make my business more fun. I wanted to leave a word, start a conversation, be a part of the discussion. Then I saw those words.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Why put a barrier to making a connection?

What I heard was I could talk, but only on the writer’s terms. I guess that’s okay. It’s his blog. but it didn’t feel very inviting. It didn’t seem like he cared much that I had anything to say.

I wondered what was going on. There was an About page, but there was no way to contact him. Maybe he’s new and left the login thing on by mistake. . . .

I left without him ever knowing.

I’ll tell the guy who had the link, maybe he knows.

I’m Still Hoping

I’m still hoping it’s accidental. I don’t want to think this fresh, vibrant writer has a secret club. That would blow my whole image of what he has going — friendly blog, fresh ideas, energy. He’s gotta know that you always choose for your readers . . . . always. Right?

Brand You and Me. Isn’t that how it goes?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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