8 powerful tips

Have you ever listened to yourself on an answering machine message or cell phone voice recorder? Pretty cringeworthy, right? Well, that’s what it’s like when you don’t read back your written work to yourself before posting it lor publishing it. Sure, those words on the screen are yours, but it doesn’t really sound like you. It’s kind of like taking a shower with your raincoat on.

I’ve found there’s no better way to edit yourself than to read back aloud the final draft of a blog post, article, case study, presentation or white paper, before making it live for the world to see. If you know of writing software or a grammar app that can filter your words better than the voice inside your head can, I’d love to hear from you and check it out.

Just as no two people have the exact same speech patterns, no two people have the same way of expressing themselves through the written word. Whether you enjoy the writing process or put it in the same category as a root canal or colonoscopy, here are eight powerful tips for finding and refining your inner voice:

1. Create space in your life and schedule. When time is flying by during the workday, your brain can be on overdrive, too. Unfortunately, when you’re just racing from task to task, you’re not allowing yourself time to get to a higher level of thinking that good writing requires. To avoid being a 24/7 task rabbit, you’ve got to give yourself time to slow down. The best way to tap into your inner voice is to create more space between your thoughts, so your intuition can literally get a word in edgewise.
2. Practice deep listening. This involves releasing judgment (and the impulse to respond, criticize or edit) when someone else is speaking. Can you go more than 15 seconds without interrupting or making a snarky remark on the side? Fully tuning in to what the other person is saying improves your capacity to listen to yourself.

3. Journaling. For a week, try to write two or three pages (longhand form) every single morning (or evening) when you have a quit moment in your day. Write anything that comes to mind to get going, and usually, by the end of the third page, your inner voice will reveal clear and concrete direction. Don’t worry about spelling, typos or syntax. Just write. Don’t worry, your first draft is supposed to suck and nobody is passing judgement.

6. Take a break from tech. Allow yourself to be in silence with few distractions, particularly without any phones, computers, or TVs. Don’t try to force your inner voice to speak to you. Just create the right conditions for deep inner listening — quiet alone time. If that’s too much of a shock to your system try this experiment: Next time you go to the gym or on a long hike, bike ride or run by yourself, try doing it without headphones on. Just listen to your breathing and the sound of your own footsteps. You’ll be amazed by what your brain comes up with when you’re truly alone with your thoughts and not competing with other devices for your attention.
7. Practice being in a flow state. Find a project or projects that get you into a flow state—a state of being in which you’re so immersed in your work or the task at hand, that you lose track of time. Being in a flow state is empowering and can give you the mental space needed for your inner voice to come through.
8. Read as much as you can as often as you can. Put down the remote and your devices and just read. It could be the newspaper, a novel, a magazine, a cookbook. It doesn’t have to be anything career related or good for your mental health. Just find something you enjoy reading and pay attention to how the author introduces an idea, sets the scene, strings together the plot or argument, and then wraps it up before you move on to the next chapter or article.
9. Emulate writers you admire. Whether it’s a journalist, novelist, blogger, or even a cartoonist that you admire, read everything you can by that author and pay attention to the style elements that help define his or her writing voice. What is the author’s cadence? Short crisp sentences or long descriptive ones? Is the pacing consistent, or do they alternative between short sentences and long ones? Do they have an esoteric vocabulary are do they intentionally use short, simple words and phrase to make the most complex concepts sound simple? There is no single best formula. Just get a feel for what you like and consider how that style will reflect on your personal brand.
10. Set a timer. Before your next writing project, take out an alarm clock or the countdown timer on your phone. Give yourself X amount of time to get your thoughts down and then Y amount of time for editing. After that, it’s pencils down and time to post. I give myself 45 minutes for weekly blog: 30 minutes of free form writing + 10 minutes of editing time. Then I step away for at least two hours before setting the timer for five more minutes reading back myself aloud and making final tweaks before posting.

Not every post is going to be a winner, but “timeboxing” yourself makes your writing muscles stronger and more supple. It prevents you from procrastinating or worse, from getting into the endless self-editing loop which can cause you to second-guess yourself, usually for the worse.

As Steve Jobs once said at a Stanford University commencement speech: “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Conclusion

Whatever helps you get in touch with your inner voice, do it, and do it often. It may seem easier to look for answers outside of yourself, but with a little patience, trust, and good listening skills, you’ll be able to tune into your inner voice for guidance when you need it most.

What’s your take? I’d love to hear from you.

# persuasivewriting, #innervoice, #contentcreation

Many of you consider yourselves left-brained “numbers people.” But that doesn’t mean you can’t be a more confident writer or content shaper. The two skills are not mutual exclusive. In fact, you didn’t get to where you are today without having solid right-brained communication skills.

What’s amazing to me is that many of you think nothing of standing at the podium before hundreds of people – bright lights and cameras blazing — yet freeze up at the keyboard when it’s just you alone with your thoughts.

The written word comes naturally to some of you, but for others, starting a grocery list from scratch is daunting, let alone a blog post, an article or heaven forbid a book chapter. At the same time, once someone else has put down their words on a page, you slow-starters become eagle-eyed editors with red pen (or track changes) flying with revisions. Meanwhile those of you whose prose flows easily get the cold sweats when it comes time to condensing your words into the narrow confines of a blog post, short article or presentation. Oh, it’s so painful leaving your brilliant prose on the cutting-room floor, right?

Editor vs. writer

To get to the next level of content proficiency, I’ve found it helpful to know whether you’re more of a writer or an editor. Most people have elements of both skills in their DNA, but it’s good to know where you fall on the spectrum. See helpful quiz below.

A writer is typically charged with the creative task of putting words on a blank page, whether for the purpose of informing, persuading or entertaining. An editor may be slightly more analytical, as he or she must review, manage and guide a particular work or series of works to successful publication. Writers create, using the right side of the brain. Editors analyze, utilizing the left side of the brain. But again, most of you have developed both sides of the brain in your work with clients. Why not in your writing?

Editor as coach

Writer-editor relationships are deeply personal and the editor must walk a fine line between mentoring, coaching and psychoanalyzing. To work well, the writer-editor relationship must be built on mutual respect. The writer must trust the editor’s fresh eyes and insight. The editor must trust the writer’s voice on a deadline and acknowledge the writer, not the editor, is the true subject matter expert.

Many of you played competitive sports growing up. I’ve found the writer-editor relationship similar to the athlete-coach relationship. I’m sure you had a special coach who made a big impact on your life. An editor/coach’s job is to help the writer/athlete get the very best out of themselves with burning them out or constantly berating them. At the same time, writers can get better if they have a thin skin or simply aren’t coachable.

Whether it’s a blog post on a website or a novel, most of the published written products that people encounter in their daily lives have been polished by an editor. The editor is the last line of defense in determining that the writer’s words are ready to be published or made public. Just what makes the words publish-ready depends in part on the format — for instance, a blog post might rely on short sentences and to-the-point language while a novel might use longer sentences and more descriptive, flowery speech. Deciding what is appropriate based on the media format, its audience, and its purpose is also part of the editor’s job. These experts don’t just proofread for errors in spelling or grammar but also make decisions on content (what to include and what to cut) and style.

Are you more of a writer or an editor?
Here’s a helpful quiz adapted from Gray Grant communications:

WRITER TENDENCIES

1. Do you tend to leave your work-in-progress in the bottom of your desk drawer for weeks at a time, hoping the editing fairies will work on it while you’re living the rest of your life?
2. Even if you have a hard time getting started writing, do you find that time always slips away while you write?
3. If given the choice between editing something you’ve written OR reading an incredibly boring book, would you always choose the reading?
4. When writing, do you naturally focus on telling stories? Stories make writing more interesting – not just for the reader but for the writer as well.
5. Do you never worry about what your readers are going to think of your writing ability? While others fret about the quality of their prose, you’re still able to write as though it’s no more difficult than typing.
6. Do you naturally use similes and metaphors? Persuasive writers understand that writing becomes more interesting if they can work in lots of intriguing comparisons.
7. When Microsoft Word puts a red squiggly line underneath a spelling error you’ve made, are you able to ignore it until you’ve finished writing the piece?
8. Does it take you 10 times longer to edit that you had anticipated? Perfectionists are terrible at gauging the time a job will take.

SCORE: How many of these traits above sound like you? If you scored 6 or above, you’re most likely a natural editor more than a writer.

EDITOR TENDENCIES

1. Do you have a reflexive urge to edit just about every sentence as soon as you’ve written it? This is called editing while you write.
2. Do you procrastinate when it comes time to writing? Would you rather vacuum behind the refrigerator, have a colonoscopy or work on your income taxes than write a first draft?
3. Do you spend time doing so much research you feel you could produce an encyclopedia on the topic…but hate to start summarizing?
4. Do you usually read your own writing out loud when you edit it? Good editors naturally read their writing out loud. This is one of the best possible ways to learn what you need to fix.
5. Does it take you 10 times longer to write than you had anticipate? Perfectionists are terrible at gauging the time a job will take.
6. Do you obsess on structure, certain that if you could only divine the right organization, your work-in-progress would more or less write itself? Ah, the promise of a magic bullet.

SCORE: How many of these traits above sound like you? If you scored 5 or above, you’re most likely a natural editor more than a writer.

Conclusion

Whether you’re more of an editor or a writer, don’t ever tell me you cannot write or you didn’t have time to write. You didn’t get to your current level of success without being able to communicate effectively. So, like it or note you need to be a writer. Here are 8 keys to finding your inner voice.

What’s your take? I’d love to hear from you.

#writervseditor, #contentcreation, #persuasivewriting