Marketing is about stories, and most stories start with an event, situation, or circumstances recorded in narrative form.
Being a marketer, I write frequently. Some of my musings are published on the StrategyAudit blog and often elsewhere. I also keep extensive files on ideas, snippets, URL’s of interest, anecdotes, and potentially useful metaphors. Usually it feeds my own interests, ‘ideas bank’ for this blog, and serves my clients.
Writing provides clarity, it helps give ideas substance, and form, and reveals holes. It also makes them stick in memory. Writing well will become even more critical as we spend more time prompting machines to give us answers. Machines are literal, failing to interpret the nuances of language we usually do not see.
When a piece is evolving towards publication, there are 4 basic rules of editing gleaned from experts I set out to follow.
- As short as possible, no shorter
Short, simple words make writing clearer and provide a better base for the reader’s imagination. I keep in mind Ernest Hemingway’s challenge to write a complete story in 6 words. His famous contribution was: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.”
Remove words that do not add meaning. Words such as just, very, and so.
- Strong and simple words only
Using a weak verb with an adverb is both weak and adds unnecessary words. Find strong verbs to replace weak verbs and adverbs.
E.g. “Susan sprinted to the gate” instead of “Susan ran quickly to the gate.”
Similarly, use strong nouns.
E.g. Use “mansion” instead of “grand house,” or “athlete” instead of “outstanding runner.”
Ditch the thesaurus, those long, flowery words impress only you, not the reader.
- Replace passive voice with active
Passive voice is an engagement killer. It removes room for the reader’s imagination.
E.g. “The bully stole the boy’s bike” instead of “The boy’s bike was stolen by the bully.”
E.g. “The storm destroyed the garden” instead of “The garden was destroyed by the storm.”
Along with adding unnecessary flowery words, using passive voice is my most common error.
- Edit and edit again
No first draft is ever perfect. Ensure the basic stuff like spelling, grammar, capitalization, and comma placement are correct. Make sure each sentence is as short as possible and contains only one thought. Then read the copy aloud, or have a tool read it to you. I use the read function in Word to avoid the trap of reading aloud what should be there rather than what is there. It is amazing how many simple mistakes are revealed by having copy read back aloud.
Application of these four rules does improve the understanding and readability of your copy. This post has been edited, and re-edited numerous times with these 4 rules applied.
How did I do?
