All day long I hear excuses for why people’s writing is worse than it ought to be. “But my company insists we write it this way.” “But I don’t have time.” “But I learned to write this way.” Don’t be a “but-head.” Leave your excuses behind. Here’s a handy guide on how to get past the…
My survey of 547 business writers found one big pain point: managing editorial feedback. Only half of business writers get the feedback they need, and only one in three feels that their process for managing feedback works well. Business writers have little love for feedback processes In this table, the first data column summarizes all the responses; the other columns…
I hate bad prose. (Maybe you’ve noticed.) This affects the way I edit: with inspiration, with passion, instinctively, and relentlessly. All prose has flaws — I find them and critique them mercilessly. I can’t help it. And weirdly, people seem to like it. When a writer sends me something inadequate, I tear it apart. I delete…
When I struck out on my own, I vowed to do only work that I found rewarding. If I could do that, I would have an enviable and satisfying work life. So far, I have succeeded. The most rewarding work for me involves spreading the gospel of writing without bullshit. I’ve found two ways to do that. I…
I am now a writer and a writing coach. I wanted to reflect on the relationship between those two activities. Is writing unconscious? Does deconstructing it for coaching purposes make you self-conscious? Or does coaching help, not just the person coached, but the person doing the coaching? When people are good at something — standup comedy, tennis,…
I love copyeditors. I just wish they could go further. Over the years, the many copyeditors I’ve worked with have flagged my embarrassing misspellings, taught me obscure grammar rules, and saved me from looking stupid. We bond over our Oxford commas. And I pride myself on creating “clean” prose — drafts that are ready for copyedit…
You’ve completed a draft and you’d like a review. This is your chance to tell the editor clearly what you need. Or, you could start with excuses. It’s your choice. When you turn over a draft for editing, there’s always stuff that you worry is weak or wrong. Resist the urge to hide your weaknesses. This is…
When you’re planning to write, but before you’re actually writing, you create an outline. Unfortunately, most outlines are worthless. You need a better outline: a fat outline. Outlines are helpful for mapping out the structure of a long piece of writing — anything more than 1,000 words (a couple of pages). An outline ought to help the…
You asked for feedback. You got their edits. Now what? Should you do what they say? When it comes to edits (and, for that matter, advice on anything), the key principles is this: [tweetthis]Editors exist to reveal what you cannot see, not to tell you what to do.[/tweetthis] This is a crucial distinction. If…