But here is a tip to make it easier to proofread, to ensure that your document is squeaky clean before anyone else sees it.

One thing at a time

It is very difficult to catch every error in any document. Your mind can very quickly lose focus and trick you into thinking you’re proofing the text, when all you’re doing is scanning it, without really paying attention to the very details you’re trying to catch.

One solution to this is to proofread several times.

I know. This sounds like more work. But actually, when you break down your proofreading task into simpler components, each pass through the document becomes a breeze.

Choose an aspect of mechanics - spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc - or some writing problem your own work tends toward - wordiness, run-on sentences, excessive jargon, etc.

Pick the one you have the most trouble with, (Brian Tracey would call this the ‘ugliest frog’) and proofread just for that problem first.

Then move to your next most common problem, and so on.

You’ll be far more likely to catch all the problems in each category if that is all you are looking for.

Blue car syndrome

It’s the upside of the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon (also called the ‘blue car syndrome’ - you know … you buy a blue car, and suddenly you see them everywhere). When your mind is focused on something new,  you start seeing it everywhere.

More importantly, each time you proof the document, you have a sense of accomplishment, which gives you energy to keep going.

The biggest problem with proofreading is that people tend to skip it altogether. Make the process easier on yourself by breaking it into three or four highly-focused passes, and you’ll be far more likely to do it, and to do it well.

And it will show, in the increased quality of your finished work.

No sweat. You don’t need to know all the reasons to blog. Just one very good one. A blog makes you somebody.

A marketing aphorism says that people choose to work with you or buy from you for three reasons:

1. They know you
2. They like you
3. They trust you

A blog is an ideal way to develop these three aspects of a customer relationship.

Knowing you

Your blog, being written from your unique point of view, carries your personality. What you choose to say, the tone you take, your attitudes toward the subjects you cover all contribute to a sense of you as a person. Even if you outsource the writing or editing of your blog, you still have control over these factors of choice of subject, tone and attitude, so your personality will still come through.

Liking you

If your blog is honest, free of hype, and, above all, helpful, the people who read it will develop a positive attitude toward you. Of course, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, nor should you try (a little controversy is a good thing!) but honesty, clarity and helpful information will certainly boost your popularity.

Trusting you

This is the biggie. Building trust with existing customers is relatively easy - deliver more than you promise, better than expected, on time. Good service builds trust.

But how do you get potential customers to take the leap of faith and trust you? A blog can be a big help. By discussing the important aspects of your business openly, intelligently and clearly you can build an impression of yourself as a thought leader, an expert, a genuine authority in your business.

People will take you much more seriously if they see that you can write articulately and authoritatively about the things that matter most to them.

Why would you miss this opportunity? You’ve worked hard to become an expert in your field; you know your stuff. So start writing a blog, and strut it!

Don’t know how to get started? Nervous about what blogging entails? Relax. Contact me. I can help.

Actually, the big question most people ask me about blogging is ‘whether?’ That is, whether it’s a good idea to have a blog at all.

Reasons not to blog

Often this question is predicated on fear. Blogging is a commitment, can take a lot of time (or money), and requires pretty sound writing skills.

And, in fact, I sometimes counsel clients not to blog for any one of these reasons. The fear, it turns out, can sometimes be justified. Let’s look at each reason a little closer:

• Commitment. To be effective, blogs should be updated regularly. Even if the blog posts are not the core of your website, you should try to have a new post at least once a week. Besides the obvious SEO benefits, visitors need to know that your site is dynamic, and that there are reasons to return. If you can’t or won’t commit to posting regular blogs, then a blog is probably not for you.

• Time. Closely related is the expenditure of time. Blogging definitely takes time, especially if you want to provide truly useful content for your readers. (And if you don’t, what’s the point?) But for some people the extra time isn’t justified.

It is possible, of course, to outsource your blog (ehem … have a glance around my website, for instance) and that is a viable option for anyone seeking to provide high-quality content on a regular basis. Professional bloggers, for instance, regularly outsource posts, especially when they’re managing multiple blogs. To keep costs down, it is also possible to outsource the editing of a blog, allowing you to write quickly, with the confidence that the final product will be effective and flawless.

• Writing skills. Although blogging is a less formal form of communication than journalism, it is nevertheless more formal than emails. Still, many bloggers take no more care in their writing than they do in their emails, with the result that their posts are often riddled with errors. This has the effect of undermining your credibility, annoying readers and chasing away traffic. (See my post on ‘Why proofreading matters.’) So if you are serious about blogging, you do need to understand the basics of grammar, spelling, diction and syntax in order to be taken seriously. (One step toward building the skills necessary to become a competent blogger is to subscribe to this blog, by clicking one of the buttons above).

Notice something about this list of reasons not to blog? It’s pretty short!

Case studies have become one of the most indispensable tools of marketing in general and internet marketing in particular.

As a tool, they are more like a garden implement than, say, a hammer. Case studies are cultivators, helping you take what you have sown - a relationship with a satisfied customer - and help it grow into something more powerful - tangible evidence of your products’ benefits.

The horse’s mouth

Having a few case studies in your marketing materials and/or on your website can vastly increase your credibility as a company as well as providing vivid testimony as to the value of your product(s).

Case studies give detailed evidence direct from the horse’s mouth about how your product (or, in some cases, service) has made a real difference to the consumer.  More credible than corporate copywriting, and more vivid than testimonials, case studies are what consumers crave: solid, believable proof.

Writing a 300 - 1,000 word case study, though, can be daunting, so I’m offering tips to help make that task easier. As with all writing projects, case studies can be made much simpler by breaking them down into manageable components.

The process

Writing a case study is basic journalism. You gather information from your own company (clearly the easy part) and then interview the client, or a relevant representative of the client company.

If, for instance, you are selling accounting software, an interview with the financial controller would be most appropriate.

Bring an outline of your case study (see below) to the interview, with plenty of space after each heading to take notes.

I highly recommend recording the interview, so you can concentrate on listening. Nevertheless, do try to capture the best quotes on paper while they are fresh - it can be very time-consuming to scroll through an interview hunting for a juicy quote you only  vaguely remember.

Don’t be afraid to ask the interviewee to repeat a statement to give you time to write it accurately - they’ll often feel flattered that their words are so interesting to you.

Remember, your main goal is to get a clear sense of the benefits of your product in the client’s own words.

When writing the case study, try to strike an even balance between narrative and direct quotations. Quotes are powerful, but weaken when overused, so use them for emphasis. Ideally, try to have all the most salient (and flattering!) points stated in direct quotes from the client.

(Note: Case studies are different from most marketing writing in one sense - the audience is usually highly motivated. People tend to read case studies only when they have a general understanding of the product and are seriously considering it. This is where you offer persuasive detail and vivid testimonials).

Case study outline

What follows is essentially an outline for writing case studies. In some cases, you may skip a step as irrelevant, or you may add a step or two, but this general outline will get you through most case study projects.

The title

The title is more important than you may think. If it doesn’t capture attention, the study may never be read. Try to include a specific benefit in your title. Instead of ‘Acme Corporation Switches to OurSoftware,’ try to pinpoint how OurSoftware made a real difference … something like ‘OurSoftware Doubles Acme Corporation’s Efficiency in Just One Month’.

Background

This is background on your client company, not your own. Case studies carry much more credibility if you keep your company in the background until the end. This is no place for a hard sell. Just explain the client company’s core business and overall ethos.

The Challenge

Here you spell out as clearly as possible the pain points experienced by the client. Don’t try to list every challenge faced by the client, or include global factors such as economic downturn, etc. Just make it clear that the client was struggling with a problem, and seeking a solution.

The Solution

This is where your product (or service) comes in. What did the client buy? How was it implemented? What were the client’s expectations? Did your company meet or exceed these?

(Note: Don’t be afraid of unflattering or qualified responses. Not everyone will love everything about your product or your company. You don’t have to include everything the client says … just be true to their meaning, and focus on those points most beneficial to your company.)

Business benefits

Be as accurate and specific as possible in asking your client about the benefits to her company. Benefits are usually in one or more of these three categories:

1. Return on investment - Did (or will) your product pay for itself over time? How? If not specifically measurable, can the client estimate the product’s value versus cost?
2. Savings - Does your product cut costs for the client? Try to get the client to put real costs on any savings. Draw comparisons between how things used to be to how they are now.
3. Efficiency - If your product improves efficiency, ask the client the value of that improvement. Again, try to use specific figures. If the product saves 10 hours per week in staff time, ask the client the monetary value of those hours.

Your company

You finally get to talk about yourself! But briefly!

Try to elicit from the client how they came to choose your company in the first place. Ask about the sales process, implementation, and any after-sales follow-up. Try to get the client to paint the picture of a positive business relationship, with potential for future development.

The future

Which brings us to the final point. Is the client planning to buy more or different products from you? Are they planning to expand? What will be the nature of your relationship in the future. Try to conclude with a sense that you have built a lasting friendship with your client - exactly as you intend to do with future clients.

Warning! This is a rant. But it’s a rant directed at banks, and let’s face it, they have it coming.

One word can make a hell of a difference. Now that they’ve helped (see? I’m not blaming them completely) immerse us in a financial mire, banks and other ‘financial institutions’ are getting a lot of airplay, talking about ‘products’ that will help us cope with the present and prepare for the future.

Products?!

A ‘product,’ is something real, something you can touch. An apple is the product of an apple tree. A car is the product of a Toyota factory.

When banks use the word ‘product’ they are attempting to position themselves as providing something tangible, when what they are offering is almost always purely conceptual - like love … or ‘the willies.’

Banks refer to things like whole life insurance, variable annuities, even retail credit cards as ‘products.’ But these things are not products in any legitimate sense of the word. They are ‘arrangements,’ perhaps,  or ‘agreements.’

(And please don’t tell me that a credit card is a real product. Yes, you get a piece of plastic that can be useful for jimmying open a hotel room door, but the credit card is merely a loan agreement, no more tangible than any other fiscal arrangement.)

Of course, a ‘product’ can also be a ‘result,’ the way your suntan (or your hangover) is a product of your holiday in Ibiza. In that sense, we could apply the word to sub-prime mortgages, but not directly.

The sentence would read something like this:

The product of sub-prime mortgages is a disastrous international financial collapse.

But, see? You can’t actually call the mortgages themselves ‘products’ unless you completely misunderstand how the word is used in the English language. Or unless you are a banker.

Financial institutions are notorious for not producing anything. They are about moving money around in clever ways to make small numbers of people rich. Maybe this is why they are so desperate to pretend that this process of cleverly moving money around is actually creating something of value to people: a ‘product.’

While it’s true that ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ the corollary of that axiom is that calling a skunk ‘Flower’ won’t make it smell any better. (Sorry, Bambi, your buddy reeks).

I have a much more appropriate word to suggest: scheme. What financial institutions call ‘products’ are, in fact, schemes.

They are schemes in the quotidian sense of ‘a systematic plan for achieving a particular aim’ (according to the Oxford Dictionary). But the second definition (and the common American connotation of the term) is far more appropriate: ‘A secret or underhand plan; a plot.’

]]> http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/14/banking-products-2/feed/ http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/08/manners/ http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/08/manners/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:32:56 +0000 admin http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/?p=216 Why Proofreading Matters

A lot of people look at proofreading the way men look at dusting. It’s something they suppose some people care about, but, really, what’s the big deal? Who’s even gonna notice?

They dash off business letters, emails, blog posts, reports, web content, etc, with no serious concern for correctness. Often, it’s only when something is going to be printed - at significant cost - that they pay much attention to spelling, punctuation and grammar. That’s when they hire someone (like me!) to ‘make sure the spelling and stuff is okay.’

That’s if we’re lucky. Often - far more often than you may realise - glaring errors make it into glossy brochures, annual reports, even expensive signage designed to illustrate a company’s professionalism!

Call me pernickety. Call me pedantic. Call me a picker of nits. Call me, as many people do, a stickler. Fine. I am. And for good reason.

Because I want to impress upon you the simple truth that the ‘little things’ like spelling, punctuation and basic grammar actually matter.

One of the reasons many people don’t agree that these things are important is that they’ve been getting away with sloppiness for so long. They go around saying things like:

• ‘I never proofread, and no one’s ever complained.’
• ‘I’m a lousy speller, but everyone understands what I’m saying.’
• ‘I hated English in school, all that stuff about predicates and subjunctives. Who actually cares about that stuff?’

Okay. Maybe they don’t actually go around saying these things, but they’re thinking them. This is partly a defence mechanism - they think they’re bad at proofing, so they make excuses not to do it. But it is also an attitude that is rapidly spreading because of the proliferation of rapid communication modes such as texting and email.

As writing becomes increasingly fast and informal, we expect to be forgiven for the ‘little errors’ that may creep into our writing.

And, sadly, we are. Most of the time. Most of the time, people either don’t notice or don’t care if we confuse they’re with their, or if we offer ‘used car’s’ for sale.

But some of the time - again, more often than you may realise - readers do notice, do care. But you’ll almost never hear about it. Even I am not persnickety enough to run around pointing out every error I see to the offending party. (I do, far too often for my wife’s taste, point them out to her, though. Just to blow off steam).

Good Manners

Proofreading carefully to remove as many errors as possible is akin to good manners. When you have guests over to dinner who talk with their mouths full and eat with their elbows on the table, you certainly never call them on it. They never know that you think they’re kind of slobby. But you do think it. And it has an effect on your relationship, however subtle.

Similarly, when someone visits a website full of ‘typos’ and misspellings, they rarely point the errors out to the webmaster. But they go away thinking a little less of the company or individual who has the site.

When your emails tend to have silly mistakes in them (’form’ instead of ‘from,’ ‘teh’ for ‘the,’ ‘ect’ for ‘etc,’ etc.) you slowly build a reputation for imprecision, sloppiness, ignorance.

And you probably never know about it. It’s like having bad breath. Ugh.

The Solution

And it’s so easy to fix. Proofreading simply means taking a few extra moments to look over your work, checking for the kinds of dumb mistakes that make you seem dumb. If you’re not sure how to spell a word, take the time to look it up.

(In proofing this post I had to double-check the word ’defence.’ As an American - we spell it with an ’s’ - living in Europe, I sometimes have to remind myself which spelling of a word is right for which audience. So I check! It took about four seconds.)

You don’t have to be a grammatical wizard to vastly improve your work. If you don’t know the difference between ‘continual’ and ‘continuous,’ or can’t tell a relative clause from Santa Claus, no one is going to think you’re a fool. Anyone but a true pedant will forgive an error like ‘I wish I was’ (vs ‘I wish I were’ - it’s the subjunctive mood, in case you care).

The majority of errors are simple, and easy to catch - and these are the errors that people will judge you for making, specifically because they are so simple. They judge you because you didn’t make the effort. You seem lazy, careless.

So. Before you fire off your next email or blog post, take a few moments to scan it for errors. It’s only good manners.

]]> http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/08/manners/feed/ http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/02/audience1/ http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/2009/07/02/audience1/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:57:53 +0000 admin http://www.goldsmithcreativecopywriting.com/?p=208 The reader who is illuminated is, in a very real sense, the poem.

- HM Tomlinson, Between the Lines

Writing is about making decisions. As I mentioned in my first post about the writing process, writing can be hard work, primarily because there are so many decisions to be made:

• Is this the right word?
• Should I make this sentence shorter?
• Is this clear?
• Am I being interesting?
• Will this sound too flippant?
• Does my bum look big in this?

Well, maybe not that last one. But still. Lots of decisions. And far too many answers to every question, because, let’s face it, there are lots of ways to convey the same basic information - as many ways, in fact, as there are writers.

It can wear a person down.

But there’s one way to answer virtually every question you face. Really. It’s this: The Reader.

The Reader

The reader - your reader - is the only reason to write. Writing is about communicating, and communication is always with someone. Your reader. (Or readers, because you are often writing for more than one person. For that reason, I’ll use the terms ‘reader’ and ‘audience’ interchangeably).

Every difficult question you face as a writer can best be answered by asking yourself who your audience is.

The better you know and understand your audience, the better your writing will be. Because it will be more useful to your reader(s).

This is the first question I ask my clients when embarking on a project: Who is the audience?

Very often, they don’t have a clear answer. ‘The general public,’ they might say, or, ‘you know … people who want to buy cars.’ With such a vague sense of audience, your writing can’t hope to be anything but vague and, therefore, ineffective.

Sussing Your Audience

So one of your very first tasks as a writer is to figure out who will be reading your work.

• Whom do you want to influence?
• Who will want to hear what you have to say?
• Who is most likely to buy your product or service?

Then you need to try to make the image of your reader as specific in your mind as possible.

Sometimes it’s easy. If it’s an email to someone you know, there you go. Keep that person in the front of your mind as you write, and you will easily answer all your questions about tone, diction, persuasive techniques, etc.

Usually, it’s much more complicated. Either you don’t personally know the reader, or there are multiple readers, with multiple points of view, agendas, interests, etc.

Still, hiding behind the excuse that you are writing ‘for a general audience’ is no help.  Ask yourself as many specific questions as you can about who you are writing for, and try to generate concrete answers.

You may not be able to clarify your audience perfectly, but strive for specificity, and you’ll be surprised how much you usually know about your readers.

• Age: are they teenagers? Do they include pensioners?
• Sex: your audience may not be only male or female, but I’ll bet three euros they’re mostly one or the other.
• Socio-economic background: Are they two-car professionals? self-employed and struggling? job-seekers? Retirees?
• Interests: are they a ‘captive’ audience, already predisposed to believe or enjoy your messages? Or are they likely to disbelieve you, distrust you?
• Knowledge base: do they already know a little about your subject? A lot? Or are they neophytes, needing clear explanations of the basics?

And so on. The point is, the more you get to know your potential reader, the easier it will be to answer the myriad questions that arise in any writing project.

Sometimes, even when you have a large potential audience, it is best to imagine a single, composite reader, and address your writing to her. Give her a name, hair colour, personality. Then hold her image clearly in your mind, and write to her with clarity, concision and the confidence that you know how to truly ‘illuminate’ her.

Or him. See? It helps to know.

You know, when you think about writing a book, you think it is overwhelming. But, actually, you break it down into little steps any moron could do.

- Annie Dillard

 It’s probably become clear to you by now that my tips to make writing easier are essentially an outline of the writing process that all writers go through.

The process comprises six steps:

1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
3. Feedback
4. Rewriting
5. Editing
6. Proofreading

 Most people jam these first four together, trying to do them all at once or, worse, ignoring a vital step such as prewriting. No wonder writing seems so difficult!

This is why I’ve presented these first four steps as tips to make writing easier. It’s a way of breaking any writing project down into ‘little steps that any[body] can do’ (to politely paraphrase Ms Dillard).

The last two steps could be called ‘tips to make your writing flawless,’ or something like that. I’ll be dealing with them in future posts, because they are not so much about making writing easier as about making it more professional.

And that brings me to The Rewrite.

Once you’ve received some helpful feedback - whether from yourself or from others - you are ready to incorporate your new perception into a rewrite.

Now I’m going to make a recommendation that will seem to contradict the theme of this series:

You should rewrite completely, from the beginning, retyping every word as you go.

That’s supposed to make writing easier?! Let me explain.

If, after receiving feedback, you only make changes specific to that advice, you aren’t rewriting. You’re editing. And by skipping the essential rewriting step in the process you are missing countless opportunities to improve your work.

By rewriting from the beginning you can ask the big questions:

• Did I start in the right place?
• Is this piece organised clearly?
• Is the ending strong?
• Is it interesting?
• Does each paragraph contribute to the argument?

And much more. The very act of rewriting puts you in a more creative, flexible frame of mind. You aren’t so tempted to keep something that isn’t working just because you’ve already written it. You’re going to rewrite it anyway, so why not make it better?

Similarly, you’re freer to add new information, evidence, etc, that may occur to you as you rewrite because you’re in a creative mindset, not an editing one.

There’s a common, if somewhat disturbing, saying among writers: ‘Kill Your Babies.’

This is about rewriting. Your ‘babies’ are those apparent pearls of wisdom you’ve carefully crafted in the rough draft. You love them. You want everyone to see their simple beauty. And they’re probably hurting your work.

The marketing expression for the same phenomenon is ‘falling in love with your stock.’ It’s a failure to be objective.

Of course, sometimes your ‘babies’ are truly lovely. Sometimes you can leave them alone. But to do a truly effective rewrite you have to be willing to draw a filthy red line through something you really, really like.

Now, a last bit of bad news: You don’t necessarily get it right with your first rewrite. Depending on the scope of the project you may need to repeat one or more steps in the writing process - rewriting (again), getting new feedback, doing another rough draft, or even returning to prewriting to conjure new ideas.

It all depends on how complex the project is, and how important it is to you to get it right.

But here’s the good news: Writing may involve a lot of steps, but they’re little steps, and none of them is difficult. Any moron can do them! By understanding writing as a process you won’t be overwhelmed by the task ahead of you. You’ll always know where you are in the process, and you’ll know just what you need to do to reach that wonderful moment: The Final Draft.

After putting in the last period (full-stop) in your piece of writing, the temptation is huge to just be done with it. You’ve made it through to the end! Congratulations. But to write well, and with real confidence in your work, you need to take another (probably painful) step.

If you want your work to really shine - you aren’t quite done. You need to be prepared to subject yourself to ridicule, humiliation or, at the very least, constructive criticism. You need feedback.

How much feedback, and what form it should take, depends on the nature of your writing project. But every writing project, from a simple email to a screenplay for a feature film needs some form of feedback.

Sorry. It’s just part of the process.

It is virtually impossible to sit alone, pecking at your keyboard for a substantial time and retain complete objectivity about your work. After all, all writing is about communicating with an audience. And the best way to suss your audience’s likely reaction is to get some feedback.

Okay. I promised that I would make writing easier, and now I’m telling you to do something hard. But what I’m really offering is a process that will make writing well easier, and writing well demands the extra effort of getting feedback on your early drafts.

Feedback from Yourself

With very simple projects - emails, brief letters, etc - you can get feedback from yourself. All you need to do is give yourself some time away from the project - a little emotional distance - and then look at it from a fresh perspective.

With an email, for instance, I recommend writing a draft, then doing something else for a moment - maybe make a phone call, look something up on the internet or just run to the loo. Anything other than writing that gives you a minute or two to get away from what you’ve written. Then, look at it again. You’ll be surprised how often you find little things to tweak to make it that much better.

If the project is a bit more complicated - a difficult letter, a brief but important report - more time away will give you greater perspective. If you have the time, sleep on it, and look at it again fresh in the morning. Or maybe just put it aside for a while. Go grab some lunch. Get out of the office. Take a walk. Time away from the project will help you look at it more critically and make important changes to improve it.

Feedback from Others

Who gives you feedback is very important. Everyone has an agenda, and you should know their point of view before asking someone to read your work. What you need is an honest audience reaction - as free as possible from specific suggestions or unconstructive criticism. It’s not the reviewer’s job to fix what’s broke, just to point out where it isn’t working.

Spouses can be great, but they usually love you, the poor things, so it may be hard for them to honestly assess your work. I happen to have a wife with an eagle-sharp critical eye and no worries whatsoever about hurting my feelings, so she’s a dynamite editor. If you’re not so lucky, try showing your work to a trusted colleague (not one who’s got her eye on your job), or the friend who wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that, yes, those jeans make your ass look big.

The more important, and the larger, the project the more useful it will be to get feedback from more than one person. If, for instance, you are writing a presentation or a speech, it would be enormously helpful to rehearse it in front of an audience of sympathetic friends. If you have a vital proposal to send out, let several colleagues read through your draft and point out the highs and lows.

Assessing Feedback

Whoever takes the time to give you feedback, it is still up to you to judge its usefulness. As I said, people often have their own agendas, so you need to take all criticism with the proverbial grain of salt. (With some people, you may need a whole salt lick!) My rule of thumb for assessing criticism is if it rings true, it probably is.

When you’ve been concerned that your tone may be a bit harsh, and someone says you ’sound bitchy,’ then they’ve probably hit the nail on the head.

On the other hand, if someone says you should cut out the very sentence you feel carries greatest weight in your argument, you should probably grin and ignore the suggestion.

The main purpose of feedback is not to have others fix your work for you, but to help you gain perspective on what is working well and what isn’t. A little feedback can go a long way in helping you revise a piece of writing that is just ‘okay,’ into something that ‘makes a splash!’

Okay. You’ve had a go at one or more prewriting techniques, and you’ve finally reached that itchy and inspired state … you’re ready to write!

Then you sit in front of a blank screen and it starts staring back at you. Maybe you type a few words … see immediately how absolutely idiotic they are … delete them … try again. It seems hopeless. Nothing you write seems as good as what you imagined. Certainly nothing seems as good as what you’ve read.

You consider the possiblity that you may be the stupidest person on earth.

You’re not stupid; you have BPS (Blank Page Syndrome). It’s the most common disease among writers and would-be writers … and it can lead to the more serious form ‘Writer’s Block,’ where you simply can’t bring yourself to write at all.

But there’s a cure! It’s called The Rough Draft.

You’ve heard the expression before. You may have even written something once or twice and shown it to someone saying, as you cast your eyes shyly downward, ‘It’s just a rough draft.’

But you didn’t mean it, did you? You were insulating yourself from criticism by doing the ‘Aw, shucks, it’s just rough,’ routine. But what you really wanted was praise.

Let’s face it: writers, like everyone else, want to be loved. Writing is hard, and we want praise for the effort we’ve expended, for the gems of creativity we managed to conjure forth. Showing our work to someone else is risky, frightening. After all, writing is nothing more than a series of choices, and what if some (or all!) of our choices were naïve, trite, ignorant or, worst of all, boring!

That fear can be stifling. As I said, writing is making choices, and if we second-guess each choice (Should I start here? Is this the right word? Should this be a colon or a semi-colon?) we’ll never be able to make any progress.

The Clay Sculpture Metaphor

The most beautiful sculpture ever modelled from clay began exactly like the ugliest: as a formless lump. A sculptor doesn’t immediately touch a pile of clay and magically create, say, a perfect human eye, moving on to a perfect nose, and eventually sculpting a perfect bust suitable for a museum.

She begins with small tentative moves, adding clay here, removing some there, smoothing lumps, making impressions. Slowly the lump of clay begins to have a general shape of her subject. When something doesn’t seem right, it is easily changed, and she just continues to model until that ugly lump is transformed into something beautiful.

Writers have a hard time learning this simple lesson. You have to allow yourself to write badly in order, eventually, to write well. Even the most experienced writer doesn’t just sit down and compose deathless prose.

Faith

It all comes down to faith. If you have faith that your final draft will eventually be the gem you want it to be, you can have the confidence to allow yourself a few rough drafts that, well, stink up the place. In fact, I’d venture that the only significant difference between my first draft and those of beginning writers is that I have faith that mine will get better with revision.

The trick is to allow your first draft to be absolute, smell-up-the-house, rubbish. In my next post I’ll talk about the revision process which is where the rubbish slowly gets transformed into the good stuff.

That is not the job of the rough draft. The job of the rough draft is to get the ideas that you captured through the prewriting process into some kind of shape that you can begin to manipulate. Think of prewriting as the decision to sculpt a bust, and drafting as the process of setting the lump of clay on the table and giving it the general shape of a head. Ears and noses and eyes with charming little laugh lines around them can all wait for revision.

The great news is that writing a rough draft … when you really allow the draft to be rough … is easy! It’s easy because when you let go of judgement, when you accept that it will be as smelly as a wet dog at first, you can relax and just get the words on the page. That’s the job of the rough draft. And that’s your job when you first sit down to write.

So, have a seat and knock out a crappy rough draft. Then take a little break. When you look it over, it probably won’t be as god-awful as you feared. There’s probably some stuff worth keeping here. Good. The draft has done its job. Now, take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves, and … you guessed it: write another one.

Trust me. This one will be even better. You just gotta have a little faith.