How Not to Sound Stupid When You Write: Write Faster Series, #2

By Lynda McDaniel

* Do you dread writing?
* Are you unsure of grammar and writing rules?
* Are you ready to start writing confidently?

 

How Not to Sound Stupid When You Write can make that last one happen! I wrote this second book in my Write Faster Series as a companion to my award-winning Words at Work so I could share even more writing tips and tools. I've helped hundreds of executives and employees, authors and bloggers overcome their fear of writing and start writing with confidence. Whether you're working on reports and emails, books and blogs, or social media and resumes, you'll write them faster and stronger—with even better results.

 

Say goodbye to all those niggling and nagging problems with writing. Start faster and find more time to write; refresh your grasp of style, punctuation, and grammar; discover shortcuts to your writing success; and relax knowing you're on the right path.

 

"Business writing godsend! Everyone who writes should have this book. They'll soon be sailing through blogs, bios, proposals, books, and more!" —Jenny Capella, author of Your Dream Team

 

You'll learn dozens of practical tips and techniques on how to:
1. Overcome any lingering fear or dread of writing
2. Start your first draft—fast!
3. Hook your readers from your very first paragraph
4. End with impact and effective calls to action

 

The Write Faster Series also includes Words at Work and How to Write Stories that Sell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lynda McDaniel
• Release date: Oct 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781393419891

Book preview

PRAISE FOR THE WRITE FASTER SERIES

Winner of National Best Books Award in Writing & Publishing – Words at Work

"CATCH THE SPIRIT IN THIS BOOK and follow the suggestions. I guarantee your writing will improve, and you’ll be a happier communicator." —Thomas Moore, best-selling author of Care of the Soul

"PROVIDES A WEALTH OF ADVICE—including specific exercises—to prompt business writers to write well. Unlike most business-writing courses and books that are dry and dull, McDaniel’s work is a breezy, well-written how-to guide, nicely held together with stories of her experiences. The book’s readability is proof positive that the author’s counsel is sound. A timely manual that business people at any level will find useful." —Kirkus Discoveries Review

"GOOD WRITING SKILLS ARE A SOLID PREDICTOR OF CAREER SUCCESS and in this excellent and engaging reference McDaniel’s mantra is ‘You CAN improve your writing.’ If you want or need to become a better writer, you need this book. Words at Work will help you banish your fears of writing while providing you with all the tools you’ll need to confidently tackle any writing task you’re called on to handle." —Peter Bowerman, author of The Well-Fed Writer series

"WORDS AT WORK IS FABULOUS, FABULOUS, FABULOUS. I’m going to recommend it in my graduate-writing courses. It’s so readable, and the style is lively and thoughtful. —Dr. Irene Willis, educator, author, poet

"MCDANIEL, IN THE TRADITION OF STRUNK AND WHITE, has created a guide perfectly suited to the contemporary workplace. … this solid little book packs a punch—with powerful reminders for the pros while giving fearful writers a coach, cheerleader, and role model. McDaniel shares proven practices learned the hard way. This deceptively simple and engaging guide for workplace writers is highly recommended." —ForeWord Reviews

"WHAT’S WONDERFUL ABOUT WORDS AT WORK is how grounded in real-life experience it is. No hocus-pocus or hokum. It’s a valuable resource for those who want to improve their business and professional writing. And it was a nice refresher for me too! (I’m a professional writer/editor.)" —Anne Simpkinson, www.Guideposts.com

"RESEARCH TELLS US THAT THE NUMBER ONE SKILL to succeed in the work world is the ability to communicate. Lynda McDaniel shows us how to become a stronger business writer. Her book is one of the best resources I’ve found anywhere. Thank you, Lynda! —Randy Siegel, The Career Engineer" Build Your Influence.com

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Copyright © 2020 by Lynda McDaniel

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Lynda McDaniel Books

Eureka, CA 95501

www.LyndaMcDanielBooks.com

Dedicated to everyone who’s worked for someone who didn’t value creativity or fresh thinking.

Contents

Why You Need This Book

Getting Ready to Write

#1 Overcome Your Fear of Writing

#2 Stand Out from the Rest

#3 Quick Blueprints for All Your Writing

#4 Tap into Your Own Genius

#5 Garbage In, Great Ideas Out

#6 Inertia: Writers' Best Friend

#7 How to Write

#8 Get it all Together

#9 Welcome the Six Wise Men

#10 Write to Your Readers, Not at Them

#11 It's Not Brain Surgery—Just Start!

#12 Taming Big Docs

#13 Write First Drafts—Fast

Time to Write!

#14 Seven Essentials of Structure

#15 The Inverted Pyramid

#16 Hook Your Readers

#17 Take a Break

#18 Memorable Middles

#19 End with Impact

#20 Attention-grabbing Headlines

#21 Subheads & Sidekicks that Attract Readers

#22 Pick Up Hitchhikers

#23 Take a Break

Nuts & Bolts

#24 Nine No-Nos

#25 Ten Embarrassing Errors

#26 Ten More Embarrassing Errors

#27 Punctuation Pointers

#28 The Most Embarrassing Grammar Goof

#29 Prepositions—End With?

Add Polish & Pizzazz

#30 Good Writing Is Really Good Editing

#31 Write the Way You Talk

#32 Clarity is Next to Godliness

#33 Get Specific

#34 Cut the Flab

#35 Get Creative (Yes, You Are Creative)

#36 Be Constructive

#37 Negative Nixes, Positive Persuades

#38 Get it All Together

#39 Final Edits

#40 Isolate for Emphasis

#41 Smooth Transitions

#42 How to Proof

Putting It All to Work

#43 How to Write Effective Email

#44 More Email Tips

#45 Writing that Sells

#46 Persasive Proposals

#47 Start a Pain Inventory

#48 Write a Bang-up Bio

#49 How to Write Articles & Blogs

#50 How to Tell Good Stories

#51 Create Space to Write

#52 My Writing Gifts to You

Dear Readers ...

Excerpts from ...

Lynda McDaniel Books

Why You Need This Book

For those of you familiar with my coaching style, this book’s title may have you thinking I’ve been taken over by an evil twin. Not so. I still offer the same encouragement and inspiration to help people write with ease and build their business writing skills.

But I felt an urgent need to get people’s attention. There’s no nice way of saying this: Our business writing today stinks, which means our results aren’t what they should be. Even our ability to innovate has suffered.

Well, someone needed to say it. Someone who knows. I’ve been editing lousy writing for years, and it’s getting worse. I don’t care how much technology we throw at the problem, our fingers (and brains) still need to know how to type good stuff into those contraptions.

How Not to Sound Stupid When You Write continues what I started with Words at Work. In that book, I share personal stories about building confidence and learning how to write effectively. Now in this book, I go more deeply into the writing process. I take you step-by-step through the planning and organizing steps and on through the beginning, middle, and end of everything you want to write. I then show you the most important steps: editing and proofing.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed the cost of poor writing in the workplace. It drives some organizations to collectively spend millions of dollars annually on grammar-review classes. But just sending folks to a quick class in the nuts and bolts of writing doesn’t solve the problem. Consider Sam, a dogcatcher who thinks nothing of wrestling with Rottweilers but cowers like a cornered Chihuahua when writing about them. Sam’s employer sent him to my writing course because his reports couldn’t stand up in court.

Sam’s problem, like so many others, wasn’t really missing commas and misplaced modifiers. The real culprit is a lack of confidence, or put another way, fear of writing and fear of failure.

As Sam talks about his business writing, his voice quivers and a tear snakes down his wide, weary face. His boss loves to use her red pen, he tells me, but won’t explain what’s wrong. After several of these experiences, Sam is frozen, barely able to write.

Like many clients, Sam literally begs me to never share our work together with his boss (something I’d never do anyway). Other clients whisper during our telephone sessions, afraid and ashamed that they will be found out. For what? Being smart and capable and willing to personally pay to become even better? Some clients even hang up in the middle of sessions, apparently caught in the act of self-improvement!

I can’t do much about the bully bosses, but I can listen and share support and information. Like the fact that most of us never learned the writing process. We learn grammar and punctuation, but not what it takes to write something people want to read.

Early on, I naively tried to teach business writers how to use writing techniques that are scientifically proven to yield better results than just the facts ma’am. But, they cry, my boss wants me to write ‘Just the facts, ma’am!’

Others lament, Why bother? The suits will just take all the creative stuff out. (That one really made me sad.) And the most common complaint: I don’t have room to make it interesting—I’m allowed only 300 words.

These suits are kidding themselves if they believe their staff can get results from dry, Spartan information. Some of my students dispelled that notion on my first day of teaching, more than a decade ago: If we don’t like the looks of something or it seems too dense, we just delete it, they shared, laughing among themselves. After all, something more interesting is just a mouse click away. And those suits are kidding themselves if they believe this constant dampening of creativity will yield the kind of fresh thinking their businesses—and our county—need.

Creativity isn’t just for wunderkinds and artists. It’s like oxygen, vital to our daily lives. It’s what leads to written reports that stand up in court and proposals that engage readers (so we get those new accounts or earn a promotion). Creativity is about coming up with better ways to lead, manufacture, or market. It’s about developing environments in which people feel confident to explore, question, and grow.

So this book isn’t so much about grammar or punctuation (though I do review some of the more common goofs and gaffes). It’s more about the writing process, something most of us never learned in school. Once I share it with you, you won’t believe how much more relaxed you’ll feel about writing. No more beating yourself up for not getting it right the first time. No more agonizing over how to start.

Before we get started, I want to remind you of all the docs that fall under the category of writing (and I bet you can think of some others):

Announcements Apologies Articles Bios Blogs Books Brochures Business plans Complaints Cover letters Direct mail E-books Email Facebook posts Fundraising letters Handbooks Letters Manuals Meeting minutes Memos Newsletters One sheets Press releases Profiles Proposals Questionnaires Reports Résumés Sales follow-up Sales pitches Speeches Thank you notes Training handouts Tweets Web content White papers

What a list! No wonder so much is riding on your ability to write. So, what are we waiting on? Let’s get started …

Getting Ready to Write

That blank screen or page sure looks daunting, doesn’t it? If it’s any comfort, even bestselling authors feel the same way. The following chapters explore ways you can overcome any lingering doubts or lagging enthusiasm so you can start writing confidently.

#1 Overcome Your Fear of Writing

We all have them—fears that we’ll sound stupid when we write something at work. And to make matters worse, these fears stop us cold. They’re the culprit behind procrastination, writer’s block, and eleventh-hour writing. Fear makes us stare at an empty computer screen or draw a blank about what to say in a letter, report, blog, or proposal.

I know this all too well. Early on, I had plenty of fears of writing. It took a while, but I eventually tackled all those saboteurs hanging out in my head. Do you have them too? Well, please don’t listen to them!

Start by saying no to them. Self-talk is important, so turn it around and tell yourself that you can write well. Next, figure out once and for all what’s behind your writing fears. Ask yourself if they stem from one of these:

1. Perfectionism. Nothing you write is ever good enough. You beat yourself up because you don’t write as well (yet!) as someone you admire. There’s a big difference between excellence and perfectionism. Think about it—excellence is the natural striving for the best you can deliver, perfectionism is an obsessive quest that can lead only to overwork and disappointing results.

2. Projections. These are old stories from our past that are reenacted by new people. They often reflect a fear of criticism. Many of us got a heavy dose of censure early on, and those messages are still in our heads scolding us—only now we are projecting them on to a new cast of characters. Just know that we all have had critics—and we can all say goodbye to them. We are in control of our minds if we consciously choose to be.

3. Not good enough. Even worse than perfectionism. At least perfectionists think they could write something good—if they only worked harder. But not good enough implies we’ll never be able to. This also shows up as fear of not being creative—and that’s something we’ll debunk throughout this book. For now, take my word for it—everyone is creative. It’s more a matter of accessing your creativity.

4. Fear of failure. A symptom of any/all of the above. When you address 1, 2, and 3 above, you’ll loosen the grip of this fear.

5. Fear of success. A puzzling yet common fear that’s beyond my scope of expertise. But I can share that I know lots of people (myself included) who have lessened its power just by facing its existence head on.

OK, now let’s do something about these fears. Try these methods for overcoming your fear of writing:

1. Believe in yourself. What good comes from not believing in yourself? If you need some classes or coaching, OK, get them. But keep moving forward. Learn from mistakes and keep writing.

2. Fill that screen/page. Write fast and furiously. You can make it better later.

3. Remember that most first drafts stink. Virtually no one writes a good first draft. Again, you can make it better later.

4. Practice. I’m definitely a better writer than I was 10 years ago. One year ago. Even yesterday.

5. Trust that you can write well. You can. No ifs, ands, or buts. Need more validation? Reread #1.

Start today to give fear of writing the heave-ho. Treat your inner writer with respect and tell your inner critic to get lost—at least until you need it later on. (Good writing is really good editing. That critic comes in handy when you’re editing.) Get rid of old bad habits and start practicing with new confidence. We’ll delve into many of these steps in more detail in upcoming chapters, but this is a good place to start—today!

#2 Stand Out from the Rest

Once you’ve addressed your fear of writing,