“That’s funny. I can’t remember what the 7th one is either.”
1. Strip down to your BVDs. To everybody but your mother, your organization is just another unknown guitar player on the Venice Beach boardwalk, a Robert John Burck if you will.
Who? Exactly.
Burck was a “piss-poor, no-good” guitar-playing model who couldn’t busk enough change on a good day to buy a venti Frappuccino–until he got naked. Now, Burck—aka The Naked Cowboy—is a fixture in Times Square who has made a fortune with his trademarked Naked Cowboy franchise. Lesson: Find that one feature that separates your organization from the pack, and ride it till you shred the tires.
2. Hunt down and kill clichés. The cliché is a cunning quarry. It blends in with your creative content, waiting silently for your reader to stumble upon it and then BAM! It bores them to tears. So be …
Dear Lord! Nobody move. There’s a cliché right above us. Don’t panic. Just reach deep into your brain and pull out some creativity. No, the right side, you fool! Got it? OK, now carefully rewrite that sentence and pray that we’re not too late.
… waiting silently for your reader to stumble upon it and then BAM! It leaps into her brain and starts chipping away at any interest she may have had in your story. So be vigilant.
3. Help people feel big numbers. Employing the “to-the-moon-and-back” gimmick to explain a big number is like using Ken and Barbie dolls to demonstrate a passionate kiss. If you must drop a big number into your copy, drop it on the audience’s feet. Need to show them a trillion? Start with something they can grasp, like a second. If one million seconds equals 11-and-a-half days, how long is a billion seconds? 32 years. Which means a trillion seconds is 32,000 years. Brain cramp, right? That’s how you leave a mark with a number.
4. Sing your story. A well written story is a song. Whether it flows lyrically or marches forward with a staccato beat, a good story has a tempo that augments the message and enhances the reader’s experience. And the melody is surprisingly easy to compose. As you edit, read your copy out loud. If you don’t notice a natural cadence to the narration, try culling a few syllables—through word choice or word chopping—to make your copy more melodic.
5. Don’t forget to floss your copy. Even the best copy can get gummed up with jargon, acronyms, and legalese. To prevent unsightly corporate-speak buildup, scour your copy vigorously. And be extra vigilant with the phrase “wide variety.” If you ever find it in your copy, hit “ctrl A” then “ctrl x.” That should clear up the problem right away.
6. Hit on one member of your audience. You wouldn’t try to hook up with every person at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, would you? Of course not. You want to focus all that charisma into a single charm-laser so you have a better chance of connecting with your audience, so to speak. The same applies to writing. Picture who you are writing for—in detail—then hit that person with all the Cyrano you got.
7. Imagine that your new friend has to go to the bathroom. Really bad. Nobody ever complained about a speech being too short. The same goes for just about everything else you write. If you spend as much energy compressing your word count as you do finding fun phrases, you will have a more appreciative—and less squirmy—audience.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: 7 (Unusual) Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Writing
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