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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…]

6+1 Traits: Sentence Fluency — I Got Rhythm

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I Got Rhythm I Got Music

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We talk about being fluent in a foreign language, but it’s almost foreign to talk about being fluent in our own.

Wow! That’s a fluent sentence. It’s got rhythm and cadence. It’s well-built and interesting. It stands well on its own and it almost dares you to read it out loud.

If I were to guess why so many people tell me I’m a great writer, I would guess that sentence fluency has a something to do with what they are thinking about.

Sentence fluency is the romance of how words come together to pass on meaning. To me it’s the seduction of writing. It’s what writers mean when they use the word compose.

As a reader, I want the words to carry me and do what great music does — take me along with them — slow down when I need to listen hard and go fast, fast, fast, when the writer is telling something that’s exciting and fun.

As with all of the traits of effective writing, writers have ways to make writing dance to the tune that you want. [Read more…]

6+1 Traits: Word Choice — A Writing & Business Power Tool

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Word Choice Reveals Things About Us

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Hugh Prather says, We cannot talk without talking about ourselves. Word choice is where our bias shows.

Difficult, arrogant, clever, brilliant, resistant, creative, out-of-the box, genius, spoiled brat, misunderstood, having a bad day, playing with you, smartass, ambitious, valuable, disruptive.

I heard all of these words said by different people to describe the same exact behavior by a single individual.

Each person chose a different word. The word for them described the behavior, but even more it described their mindset, the filter through which they see the world.

Words reveal the mindset of a company culture too.

Does your company choose nice words to talk about inanimate objects and violent ones to talk about people? Does it seed catalogues and grow the business, but target customers and kill competition?

Word choice is a powerful thing. It communicates our unconscious thinking. At first we think it’s just a habit, but imagine for a second. What if we said “seed and grow customers”? How would that change the way we think and what we do?

What if Google called us customers? Would Blogspot bloggers have more service? What if Technorati called us partners?

Word choice is a power tool — both in writing and in business. [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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6+1 Traits of Effective Blog Writing
FIOTB–Tool 1: Content Development Tool
See the Customer Think and Writing Power for Everyone series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE.

6+1: Writing Voice the Sound of Your Brand

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Yeah, I Hear You

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Ever notice when you read some writers’ work, that you can almost hear them? I don’t just mean that they write conversationally. I mean that, well, you can almost hear the pitch of a voice, a twinkle in an eye.

How do some writers do that? How do they become real in your mind while you read? [Read more…]

6+1: The Ferrari Analogy for Organized Writing

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I Don’t Have to Read Your Desk

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A messy desk is like a garage — it’s where you keep your tools. It helps if it’s organized, but your car will run fine even if it is not. But messy writing is a sign of messy thinking. It’s proof that our ideas are not under control. No one wants to be behind the wheel with someone who can’t keep the car on the road.

Organization is the second trait of good writing. Great writing needs a plan, like a road trip needs road. Ideas need to be organized before we set off.

Organizing a Writing Road Trip

Mountain Road

I’m sure you’ve read a blog post, or maybe twenty, that left you wondering where it was going and why it kept stopping and starting. Reading was like riding in a half-dead jalopy. (Jalopy don’t you love that word? It sounds like a food.)

Reading should be like a fabulous road trip — the blog equivalent of riding in a fast machine stuck to the road, handled by an experienced driver.

It’s true.

I’m Italian. I’ll take the Ferrari. [Read more…]