Writers: Sometimes It’s Better to Stop Writing Before You Hurt Yourself

Photo by brainware3000

Continuing with the Writing Advice from the Greats Series, today’s author is one you may not have heard of, but he is a literary great and he’s got some great advice for writers.

Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909-1966) was a poet who is “mentioned among the greatest writers of post-WW2 Poland,” according to Wikipedia. Lec was anti-Communist and anti-Fascist. He was anti-Totalitarian, period. His writings caused him problems with the various “authorities” he dealt with. Being both Polish and Jewish, Lec was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, eventually escaping and returning to his writing career. Some of his works include Notatnik polowy, a book of poems, and Unkempt Thoughts (Myśli nieuczesane), a collection of aphorisms. His quote:

"Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin."

Lec’s advice may seem cryptic--how do you stop doing something that you haven’t even started? Well, I think his statement is an example of an aphorism, but the point I think he’s making is that sometimes you’re better off not writing anything at all. Unless you have to write something because you’re on deadline or you truly have something valuable to say, perhaps you shouldn’t write for awhile, even if you want to or think you should.

This advice goes for novice writers as well as extensively published authors. James Chartrand of Men with Pens goes on a “chart-rant” today against PLR (private label rights) articles, saying they’re part of the “constant churned-out content that fills up the Internet…making it hard for people to sort out the good and the accurate from the ugly.” I don’t want to get too technical here, but these are articles that are generally worthless filler, from what I understand. Why contribute to that?

That Means You Too, Bloggers

On a more personal note, I’ve begun blog posts that I thought would be great, but several paragraphs into them, I realized they weren’t unique or interesting, nor did I really have much to say about the subject--so I stopped writing. I ditched the post and left the blog alone until I had something more intriguing to say. It’s a good habit to develop--knowing when to keep writing and when to stop.

Maki at Dosh Dosh has an excellent related post up, entitled, What You Don’t Publish, Defines Your Site.

He writes, “I didn’t write any articles in the last few days on Dosh Dosh because I didn’t feel that I had anything interesting to say. It’s not entirely self-censorship: I just don’t like to write when there’s no way to inject a new perspective on any topic.”

Maki contrasts his approach with that of a lot of other bloggers:

“Many will publish content regularly because they feel a necessity to generate pageviews and maintain site freshness. Some fear that their subscribers will go away if they don’t update their site.

They don’t mind repeating the ideas of others and writing variations of the same topic again and again. Some will tirelessly create resource lists every week for links.”

Then he says something you really need to get:

“Know one thing for sure: what you put on your site allows visitors to form judgments about your personal and business brand….What you do not publish will define your site. The absence of specific content positions your site against another competitor and allows it to develop an identity among others.”

Just Take a Break

Sometimes, it’s a lot better to stop writing even before you begin.

If you won’t listen to me, then heed the collective wisdom of Lec, Chartrand, and Dosh Dosh, which you probably heard from your mother anyway:

If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.

You’ll save your reputation and do your part to contribute to an elevated approach in information creation and consumption.

I've Moved--Please Read

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Regular, Disciplined Reading Enhances Your Mind and Enriches Your Soul

Photo by Joi

My last post advocated developing a regular reading plan as a means of improving your writing skills--the more you read, the better you’ll write. It’s true. Try it out.

Some writers may object that reading takes time away from writing; others might say that through reading various authors, they begin to imitate those authors and lose their own voice--while reading one author, they start to write like him, and so on with each new author they read.

Too Much Reading?

There’s merit in those objections, but only a little. Certainly, if you’re spending two hours a day reading blogs instead of writing on your own--I agree that you’re wasting time. If your regular reading plan consists of reading parts of five books for three hours each morning before you accomplish anything else, then you’re being irresponsible.

Avoid both extremes here. The people who say they never read because they don’t have the time or need for it are wrong. They have time (30 minutes a day is easy to find if you really want it) and they need to read--it’s narcissistic to say you pretty much know everything you need to know and nobody can really tell you anything new or that you’ll just figure it out as you go (try taking a trip across the country without ever reading a map and planning your route). You have the time and you have the need--even if you don’t realize it.

Again, those with their heads in the clouds, always reading but never learning, always researching but never applying--they’re not narcissistic, but they are afraid--afraid to actually work and perhaps fail. I absolutely advocate regular reading, but I also absolutely advocate disciplined reading, reading that takes a certain amount of time each day but not too much--I think 30 minutes of focused reading a day is enough. Read and be done with it. Get your information and then get out there and make things happen. Reading is vital to gaining knowledge, but it’s worthless if you never put that knowledge to work. Reading is extremely helpful, but too much reading can prevent you from accomplishing anything.

Example--you just created a blog and want to know how to make it look really good, develop quality content, build lots of traffic, and make money from it. You could spend all day, every day, for the next three months researching it online--there’s over 1.8 million Google hits for the query “blog ‘make money’” and more get added constantly. You could do that, and three months later, you’d have a wealth of knowledge, but no accomplishments. You wouldn’t have much of a blog, much content, much traffic, or any money because all you did was read and never actually work on the blog.

The irony here is that both groups of people--those who never or rarely read but just “do” and those who are always reading but never “doing”--are both lazy and irresponsible. You’ve got to read to learn how to improve whatever it is you’re trying to do, but you’ve also got to realize that once you’ve gotten the necessary information, it’s time to quit reading and start hustling and accomplishing your mission.

Keep Your Focus

The other objection--that through reading, you lose your own writing voice because you begin to imitate each author you’re reading--is valid on some level, but I think it’s also kind of vapid. Just don’t imitate them. If that’s difficult for you, then do this:

Take a moment to figure out exactly what you want to say. Then say it as clearly and simply as you can.

Forget about your voice and style and focus on clearly getting your message across and the voice and style will eventually take care of themselves. As you focus on simply making your point, the enhanced vocabulary and ways of writing that you’ve gained from reading will coalesce naturally into your own writing style.

Don’t use the fear of losing your own writing voice as an excuse not to read; don’t use the fear of failing as an excuse to keep on reading and never working.

Going Deeper

Besides gaining how-to knowledge and improving your writing skills, there are other, perhaps deeper reasons for reading regularly.

C.S. Lewis says,

"Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors. We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented….

[I]n reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

Reading enhances our minds and enriches our souls by taking us out of ourselves and our limited knowledge and experiences and giving us the knowledge and experiences that so many people before us have gained. Just don’t become so wrapped up in it that you don’t go out and have your own enriching experiences.

John Piper reminds us that it isn’t the quantity of books that we read, but rather the quality:

"Nor, in conclusion, do I want to leave the impression that reading many books is important. Reading great books and reading them well is what is important. Meditative reading, reading which stops and ponders, reading which sees deep into reality - that is the kind of reading which profits. That kind of reading should never end for you. Growth and stimulation and transformation will never end for you. You will be in the company of the greatest minds and hearts for the rest of your life, and you will become their peers if you read for understanding and for life."

The Vitals

Reading is vital. We need to read so we can find out what to do--how to set up a new computer system or map the route for our road trip. We need to read to improve our writing skills by familiarizing ourselves with other styles and expanding our vocabulary. We need to read so that we can step back from our limited understanding of life and gain a richer, deeper knowledge handed to us from greater minds who have lived centuries before us.

Just don’t read so much that that’s all you do. Read enough to gain the benefits that reading offers, but live life. Create your own experiences.

I suggest a disciplined, regular reading plan of no more than 30 minutes a day, devoted to one book that you’re currently interested in. That’s what I try to do, and I derive the knowledge and discipline that comes from sticking to a regular commitment without letting it take up too much time and interfere with accomplishing my goals. As with almost anything else, it’s sensible balance that rules the day here.

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Start a Reading Plan to Improve Your Writing Skills

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Read!

One of my first blog entries was on how reading can improve your writing.

I wrote:

"Here's the best tip I can give you for becoming a better writer: read. Read widely, and read often. If you take the next month off from writing--don't write anything--and just spend it reading as much as you can, I assure you, when you resume writing, your prose will improve. You may not pick up any specific writing tips during your hiatus, but through regular reading, you will naturally begin to really get a feel for what smooth and effective writing is, provided of course, that you read quality material."

True writers are committed readers. Reading regularly from a young age has been the most critical factor in enabling me to write well enough to get published and paid on a regular basis.

Writing at romandock dot com, Nick says, "One of the biggest benefits of reading is that it can help improve your ability to write. It does this by helping you become more familiar with a larger variety of words (and thus increasing your vocabulary so you are not constantly repeating the same words) and also making you more accustomed to proper sentence structure. Another benefit of reading is that if you read a variety of material from a variety of authors, it will be easier for you to develop your own writing style and help you recognize different writing styles."

It Takes Effort

Knowing that a regular, disciplined reading plan (primarily good books) can significantly improve your writing skills is one thing; actually creating a plan and sticking to it is often a lot harder.

Joshua Sowin of Fire and Knowledge, writes on the Desiring God Blog, "We make time to watch television and surf the Internet for the latest triviality, but we can't seem to make the time to sit down and read for an hour."

It takes effort. As pastor and author John Piper says, "The ability to read does not come intuitively. It must be taught. And learning to read with understanding is a life-long labor."

Read books. Blogs, newspapers, magazines--they're fine (I read several blogs and magazines regularly) but books are ultimately better. Through reading a good book you can see how an author develops his arguments or stories over many more pages than in a blog post or magazine article; also, especially with the classics of literature, the quality of thought and elegance of writing is often much higher. Not always, but often.

There's also something more disciplined about sitting down or lying back with a book and reading it from beginning to end without distraction. When you're online, you can jump from link to link, blog to blog, site to site, and not have to deal with one compelling, in-depth argument or story. Same thing, to a lesser extent, with magazines. You can flip around from article to article, many of which are often completely unrelated. When you settle down with one book, your attention is necessarily bound to it alone--this can help you to develop more focus and discipline, attributes that also help you to become a better writer.

How to Stick to a Reading Plan

The simplest way to stick to a regular reading plan is to read books you enjoy. In the post I mentioned earlier, I also wrote:

"Don't get on your reading plan and start reading something you find really boring and try to plod on just for the exercise. It may backfire. Read authors or subjects that really excite you and your natural enthusiasm for what you're reading will enhance the experience so that you will retain what you've read."

Al Mohler, a theologian and radio show host, offers the following advice on developing and sticking to a reading plan, based on his experience:

"Maintain regular reading projects. I strategize my reading in six main categories: Theology, Biblical Studies, Church Life, History, Cultural Studies, and Literature. I have some project from each of these categories going at all times. I collect and gather books for each project, and read them over a determined period of time. This helps to discipline my reading, and also keeps me working across several disciplines....

Read all the titles written by some authors. Choose carefully here, but identify some authors whose books demand your attention. Read all they have written and watch their minds at work and their thought in development. No author can complete his thoughts in one book, no matter how large....

Allow yourself some fun reading, and learn how to enjoy reading by reading enjoyable books."

Do It.

My current reading plan is pretty simple. I'm always working my way through two books--a particular book from the Bible and another book that I find interesting. Each day, I try to read one chapter from whatever book in the Bible I'm going through (currently, it's the Psalms; previously, it was the Gospel of Matthew) and one chapter from my other chosen book (currently, it's Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity). A chapter a day from each book until each book is completed; then, I move on to the next book in the Bible (I alternate between the Old and New Testament) and the next book on my reading list (I've got about 15 lined up ready to go).

My only real rule for my reading plan is, again, reading things that interest me.

So, if you want to become a better writer, you should develop a regular, disciplined book reading plan. If you want to stick to that plan, you should pick books on subjects that you enjoy reading about.

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The Writing Skills of John Grisham and Canadian High School Students

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Writing skills (meaning the ability to communicate one's ideas clearly) are important for everyone to develop--it can help you get better grades, get a better job, secure a meeting with a high-profile person, create a profitable blog, write easy to read drug prescriptions, and on and on. Clear writing is crucial to a productive, safe society.

I found two news articles on writing, one an interview with John Grisham and the other about a plan to combat the poor writing skills of Canadian high schoolers. It's an interesting contrast between a highly successful author and young people just starting out.

John Grisham

An AP article entitled, "John Grisham has no illusions about writing," notes that Grisham's "books have sold 235 million copies worldwide, according to publisher Doubleday. Some, of course, have been adapted into blockbuster movies, starring such heavyweights as Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Cruise and Matt Damon." A couple of his well-known books are The Rainmaker and The Firm.

Despite his success, the article notes that Grisham is often seen as a "fine storyteller but not a particularly good writer." He did make $9 million last year--I'll take that critique in exchange for the money.

Grisham has one thing many writers with perhaps better skills don't have: persistence. His book proposals were rejected 15 times before he got his first deal, "A Time to Kill."

Canadian High Schoolers

An article entitled, "Past time to edit poor writing skills," published in the The Edmonton Journal, examines the University of Alberta's plan to improve the writing skills of its incoming students. The article says:

"Talk with a committed Canadian high school, trade school or university teacher about the quality of their students and they will usually enthuse....Sharper math skills, science skills and certainly tech literacy in its many forms are often cited as strong and getting stronger....But one area those same educators will point to as a matter of concern is the ability of their students to express themselves properly. The problem, they'll say, is usually not a lack of verbal agility, which is often sterling. Instead, it's the difficulty so many young people seem to have writing clearly and effectively that's sending up flags."

It isn't just high schoolers, though:

"As well, the lack of an ability to write clearly and succinctly isn't restricted to the lazy or unschooled. Indeed, many of the most highly educated among us seem incapable of personal expression that isn't choked by jargon, rendering even brilliant concepts incomprehensible to mere mortals."

The article concludes:

"The new U of A initiative, which will give students the option to take classes devoted to the writing process, is laudable and overdue. But there is also a sense of loss in that students will also have the option to avoid the study of English literature. Effective and intelligent communication springs from a combination of the two.

That said, recognizing that a problem exists, and offering potential solutions, is cheering by any measure."

Why

Why do you think John Grisham is so successful while by his own admission, he's not a great writer? He says, "I'm not sure where that line goes between literature and popular fiction...I can assure you I don't take myself serious enough to think I'm writing literary fiction and stuff that's going to be remembered in 50 years. I'm not going to be here in 50 years; I don't care if I'm remembered or not. It's pure entertainment."

Why do you think Canadian high schoolers, as a group, are lacking clear writing skills?

A couple of questions for writers to ponder as we head into the weekend.

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Better Blog Posts: A Five-Piece Toolkit

[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Phillip Hines, a freelance photojournalist who is also Editor of Tidewater Sports Report, a site devoted to the sports scene in southeastern Virginia. In addition to writing the post, he took the photo for it as well.]

Blog posts should get a writer's message across as simply as possible. After testing various posting formats, I have compiled a basic posting style sheet. What follows are five of the tools that have improved my blog posts and may help you improve yours as well.

1. Title

Sum up the essence of your post quickly so that you can entice readers to check out the entire article. One effective method I have found is to use the most popular keywords in my niche (southeastern Virginia sports--players, teams, businesses, etc.) in the post titles. For example, I might use the following words: Tidewater, Hampton Roads, 757, Peninsula, Highlights, Allen Iverson, Plaxico Burress, baseball.

2. Body

It's all about quality content. A great title will only get the reader to begin reading. Now, the body has to maintain the reader's attention. Well-written and clear content is key to a successful body. In addition to words, I try to always use attractive, unique photos to enhance my posts. Unique, quality content is the most important part of a good post. Give your readers information that they can't get anywhere else; at least, put a fresh spin on the subject matter. Also, make sure that what you post about really matters. If it's relevant to readers, presented well, and adds value in some way to their lives, people are much more likely to stick around.

3. Related Links

This has given me tremendous success. I have averaged about 20 percent more unique page views since adding related links at the end of each post. Related links are important because they provide the reader with more relevant content connected to the post, giving them easy access to similar articles, either ones you've written or outside sources. Want to increase your click-through-rate (CTR)? Do related links.

4. Subscription

Hopefully you've gotten your readers this far. You are almost done to maximizing the post. Usually, if readers have reached the last part of your post, they like what you offer. Give them an easy option (in addition to other subscription buttons and links on your site) to subscribe to your posts. As the editor of my site, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing my subscription rate increase. If you are passionate about what you post, then the satisfaction of watching your subscription readership go up is a great feeling.

5. Labels

The final step! Use LOTS and LOTS of labels. The more labels, the more improved search engine results you will have under your particular category. While labels are more effective for some blogs than others, they are still a must for each post. A label, or tag, is simply a keyword. Labels are important because they increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The labels you put after each post affect how your article will come up in search results. For example, if you wrote a post entitled "Increasing Google SEO," and actually talked about that, you would most likely put words such as "Google," "increase SEO," and "search engine optimization," as the labels. Your post title would be placed under these label categories, so when someone searches those keywords, the chance of your article being found is greater.

The Five Blog Post Tools

1. Title: Use catchy, explosive words to hook readers.

2. Body: "Content is king." Consistently produce quality content that readers can’t find anywhere else. Use appealing photos to add visual and figurative color to your written content.

3. Related Links: Give your readers easy access to additional relevant posts on your site. This will increase your unique page views and CTR.

4. Subscription: Provide your readers with plenty of opportunities to subscribe to your feed, through feed readers and email. Put “subscribe to this site” links at the end of each post. Watch the subscriber numbers grow.

5. Labels: Increase the rate at which your articles show up in search engines. Use plenty of labels.

As with anything, there is almost always more than one way to successfully accomplish a goal. I do not claim to have the best or top-notch posting procedure; rather, I offer this checklist based on my experience. It serves me well in preparing simple, consistent posts on a weekly basis for my subscribers and regular readers.

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Writing Advice from the Greats Series: William Faulkner

Photo by Sister72

“The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.”--William Faulkner (1897-1962)

William Faulkner is recognized as one of the greatest American writers in general and one of the greatest “Southern” writers in particular, focusing much of his storylines in his native Mississippi. Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature as well as two Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!

Faulkner’s point is pretty clear--if you want to be a writer, a successful writer, you’ve got to write. Seems obvious, but there’s more to it; the successful in any venture in life are the ones who get on with the task by throwing themselves into their chosen field, actively learning what works and what doesn’t.

“The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics.”--I’m sure Faulkner isn’t saying that new writers shouldn’t pay attention to the advice of experienced authors (we wouldn’t have a Writing Advice from the Greats Series), but what he’s probably getting at is that it’s possible to spend too much time and energy focused on what the “experts” say you have to do to succeed, letting that hinder you from developing your own skills. If you’ve got anything in common at all with the great writers, it’s time--so use it wisely.

“The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.”--Again, how will you spend your time? If you’re an aspiring blogger who wants to build a lot of traffic and make money from your blog, it’s very possible to spend all day, every day, reading the latest “How to Make Money from Your Blog” post and never put in any work on your own. After you’ve read a certain amount and gotten a basic idea of what you’re doing, you really should just jump in and do the best you can, putting your style on it and seeing what happens.

Faulkner’s advice is something that many successful people know intuitively--they don’t spend a lot of time analyzing and questioning and planning--they do some minimal, focused research on their chosen endeavor and then attack their tasks with ferocity, ignoring the “experts” who often end up less successful than the determined neophytes.

More advice from Faulkner along the same lines:

“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him” (emphasis mine).

Get in the ring and fight, get on the court and play, get your pen and write, get on the road and find your way. Yes, spend a certain amount of time in wise, concentrated research--but once you’ve got the fundamental idea of what to do, do it. That’s the only way you’ll ever really become successful. You learn by doing. That’s true for anything in life. It’s why uneducated or undereducated people often surpass highly educated people, because the latter are so hung up on theory and end up in paralysis by analysis.

Get out there and see what you can do. Michael Masterson of Early to Rise, echoes Faulkner’s advice in explaining one his core principles of success:

“Key to understanding the Ready, Fire, Aim approach is the principle of accelerated failure. The principle of accelerated failure rests on the recognition that we learn the most - in any enterprise - by making mistakes along the way. The faster we learn the critical mistakes, the sooner we acquire the knowledge we need to succeed. In other words, don’t fear failure… seek it out!”

Masterson says it as clearly as can be said. This is one the biggest things to remember if you want to succeed:

“The single biggest reason that people fail in life is that they never take effective action….obstacles can be overcome, easily, by the individual who makes a commitment to take action, to figure out where he wants to go and then set one foot in front of the other in that direction....

Successful people don’t sit around waiting for everything to be “100 percent” right or to be “absolutely sure” they will succeed. They assess the odds. And if the odds are reasonably good, they strike out boldly and energetically. They don’t need absolute assurance because they realize life doesn’t provide any.”

Aspiring writers (or anybody else looking for success): read and analyze (but not for too long) what William Faulkner and Michael Masterson have to say above and you should find the inspiration to get hustling with what really matters--doing the deeds, developing your talents--and you’ll be better off than if you join the many others who are forever researching but never applying, dreaming but never trying.

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Writing Advice from the Greats Series: Ray Bradbury

Photo by comiquero

Many writers are interested in advice or tips that will help them improve their writing--where better to look than heavily published, highly successful authors?

I've decided to start an ongoing Writing Advice from the Greats Series--truly unique bits of advice from truly unique authors. The advice here goes beyond such things as write clearly, double-check your grammar, be concise, etc.,--all good advice and all things I regularly encourage. However, in this series, I want to go beyond the purely technical side of writing and look more at the philosophical foundations of good, effective writing, courtesy of the greats. To that end, I didn't look to copywriters or high-traffic bloggers, but rather literary giants. Ready? Here we go with the first installment.

"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance." --Ray Bradbury (1920 - )

Bradbury is the author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. He's "widely considered to be one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction during the twentieth century," according to Wikipedia.

It's sometimes hard to know exactly what anyone means when they issue a quote like this, but we can do our best to discern it. The first thing I take away from Bradbury's advice is that, as a writer, you've got to stay focused on your ultimate goals and not let criticism or praise affect you too much.

"Accept rejection"

Be honest with yourself. Maybe you didn't do as well a job on that piece you submitted for publication as you thought, and that's why the editor rejected it. Maybe your heavily researched, deeply thought-out blog post failed to resonate with readers, resulting in no comments and less traffic than normal. Rather than be defiant ("they just don't know good writing"), embrace the learning experience and figure out how you could have written your piece better, made it more engaging and colorful, etc.

You should be able to accept (temporal) rejection without letting it end your writing aspirations by giving up on them or letting it derail them by refusing to learn from the rejection so that you can improve by continuing to develop your skills and pursue your dreams.

"Reject acceptance"

Perhaps Bradbury is warning against big-head syndrome, getting an inflated sense of your writing skills because of a few highly-praised and paid projects. Top writers (or athletes, politicians, movie stars, musicians, etc.) know the business really is a what-have-you-done-lately arena. Certainly enjoy the success you've earned when one of your writing pieces elicits excitement and nets you good money, but don't rest on it, thinking that you don't have to work just as hard on the next project. You're only as good as your last article. Enjoy your success but know that it may be gone soon if you get too comfortable and slack off.

Another meaning to rejecting acceptance could be that just because the mainstream begins to accept you doesn't mean you have to accept their acceptance. Don't let the praise begin to mold you into the shape the elites or the masses want--stick to your core beliefs and remain authentic.

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Elimination is a Key to Better Writing and Better Living

Elimination. I've come to love that word over the past year as I've sought out ways to find more fulfillment in my life generally and more productivity in my career and financial pursuits.

Eliminate the things that don't add value but do add complications.

Some examples:

I was subscribing to six magazines a month, and often several new issues would end up lying around unread--I felt like I had to read them to the point where reading all six each month was another little job. Upon review, I realized that I was getting four magazines that were all very similar--I promptly cut my subscriptions in half and now get the three I most enjoy. I save money, time, clutter, and stress and don't really miss the other three magazines anyway.

Should have done this a long time ago--I've quit answering phone calls from numbers I don't recognize. If it's important, they'll leave a message and I can get back to them. I've had too many calls from telemarketers or other people who have no business contacting me to waste any more time with that.

Writing

I've noticed that many bloggers (I've fallen into the trap) write as if they were God, telling everybody they must do this or do that or never do that other thing if they want to succeed. It would benefit all of us to eliminate the arrogant, naive, God-like writing. This post by Matt Keegan at The Article Writer reminds us constant pontificators:

"Speak to me, not at me — Conversational writing is fine, but you are missing an important point: I don’t want you to tell me what I should do, rather you must persuade me. I hear your opinion, but you don’t back it up with compelling reasons. Instead of saying “you must” use “consider this” and you may keep my attention."

I suggest you read that quote again, fellow bloggers.

I've Moved--Please Read

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Be Precise Both in Your Writing and Use of Time

Being precise in your choice of words can invigorate your writing, making it more enjoyable for you and your readers--and hopefully gain you more readers. Exactitude in language can also enable you to write more persuasive copy, possibly bringing you more money as well. Being precise, or intentional, about how you use your time can enhance your work productivity (often making you more money) and free up more leisure time; spending your leisure time on things that you truly enjoy will net you more ultimate satisfaction in your overall life.

Writing

Don Hauptman, writing for Early to Rise, has a post up, The Language Perfectionist: Verbal Vexation, about when you should use "verbal" or "oral."

He says:

"The word verbal is often used as a synonym for spoken. But verbal means having to do with words or language, whether spoken or written. When you refer to the spoken word as opposed to the written word, use oral."

Hauptman's example:

Wrong: "A verbal agreement is legally every bit as effective as a written one."

Right: "An oral agreement is legally every bit as effective as a written one."

It may seem like a very minor point, but writers committed to excellence will choose words as precisely as they can, words that mean as exactly as possible what they are trying to say.

Time

Without a clear idea of who we are and what we truly want, it can be very easy to just do this thing or that thing at any moment, just based on how we feel (physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.) and stumble around so frequently that we become used to it and hardly notice what we're doing. Then one day, 40 years later, we wake up and realize how much we failed to achieve or how much we failed to appreciate the people and things we had all along.

Tim Ferriss wrote in a post over the past weekend,"The next 48 hours of your life — or this weekend — is a microcosm of your potential retirement. How you spend this time is reflective of how you would fill time once you cash in your chips for the good life after 10-30 years of accumulating capital and assets."

He's encouraging people to figure out what really gives them passionate joy and find a way to pursue those things now, before it may be too late.

You can stop wasting time and start living more intentionally this very moment by doing just the two following things:

1. Be precise (exact) in all things that matter to you. Figure out what you really want and develop a plan that best enables you to achieve it. Be precise in your word choices and it should help your brain to start thinking about everything more accurately.

2. Focus on achieving between one and three major tasks per day--no more. Write down on paper the one, two, or three most important things you could accomplish today that truly matter above anything else you could possibly do today--then knock each one out, giving full attention to each task until it's complete. Cross it off and move on to the next.

Living a more precise lifestyle (without being psychotic about it) can enable us to live more fulfilling lives throughout our life span, and I think all of us ultimately do want that.

So..."verbal" or "oral"? It depends--think precisely and you should figure it out. Precisely.

Related

Vanishing Mists: How Wisely are You Using the Short Time You've Been Given?
Got Writer's Block? Just Eat that Frog

3 Simple Things You Can Do to Increase Your RSS Subscriptions

Most writers want more readers and most bloggers want more RSS subscribers, but it's often hard to figure out how to get more people to read what you write. It all starts with "what you write." If your content is interesting (people enjoy reading it), unique (no one else is saying what you say or saying it the way you do), and well-written (full of precise language and colorful imagery), over time, you will gain readers, even without significant marketing--although you should market as well. But your primary focus should be on content--provide smoothly-written posts on worthwhile subjects that people can't find anywhere else. Set the standard; don't be like everyone else or you may become just another tree in the internet jungle--readers will pass you by because they can't see what separates you from all the other similar-looking trees.

In this article, I'll lay out three simple things you can do to gain RSS subscribers, things you can control; you really can't control which posts will catch fire and bring you lots of StumbleUpon or Digg traffic (I woke up recently to find that StumbleUpon sent me 100 visitors in a 12-hour span and I didn't submit anything to it). That's out of your hands, but what is in them is the ability to consistently write the types of posts that generate enthusiasm in your readers, increasing the likelihood that some of your posts will get lots of Stumbles or Diggs and bring you waves of traffic.

Simple Step #1: Make It Easy to Subscribe

No matter how well you write or how interesting your content is, if people can't find your subscriber links, they won't be able to sign up. If they're not easily accessible, readers likely won't spend much time searching for them either. Make it easy for visitors--put a colorful, medium-sized RSS subscriber button near the top of your page. Make it clearly visible so that it's one of the first things your readers see when they land on your site. Make it even easier--add an option to subscribe by email. Simply take a minute to add some attractive RSS subscriber buttons or links to the very top of your site and then forget about it--you may see an immediate jump in subscribers if your buttons have been down somewhere in the middle or bottom of your site.

Simple Step #2: Eliminate Clichés

I regularly rail against clichés because I believe they are the enemy of clear, colorful writing. Recently, I've heard the following clichés on radio or TV news--all related to the presidential campaign--and they really irritated me:

"Only time will tell." A commentator used that empty phrase as an answer to his own question about John Edwards' political future now that he's dropped out of the race. We've heard that phrase so often that it sounds robotic when it's tacked on at the end of a rhetorical question asked by a journalist. "How will Tom Brady's ankle hold up for the Super Bowl?...Only time will tell," says some reporter as he nods his head, looking seriously, apparently thinking he sounds profound. I hate that phrase. Will so many journalists continue to use it and eventually push me to write letters to ESPN and CNN encouraging them to ban the phrase from all newscasts? Only time....

"And then there were two." A broadcaster on Fox News radio uttered this yesterday as the lead-in to its segment on Edwards dropping out, leaving Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the only remaining Democratic candidates. This phrase, again, must be one that news people think sounds...I honestly don't know what they think it sounds like, but it sounds absurd to me, after I continually hear it whenever journalists talk about the remaining political candidates or the last two football teams competing for the championship. Stop it. Where did this phrase come from and why do people think it makes them sound so...whatever they think it makes them sound like? Besides, that phrase doesn't say anything about what's coming next or even offer a reason to keep listening.

"Mitt Romney wants to keep the ... front and center, while John McCain wants the ... to be the topic du jour." I can't remember which topics each candidate wanted to focus on--with the exception of Ron Paul, it seems they all change their focus based on the state they're campaigning in--but that's all the news anchor should have said--"Romney wants to focus on...." Most listeners know what "front and center" means, but it's an overused and redundant phrase--just use front or center, not both--but I bet many couldn't explain what "topic du jour" means. You don't want to use overused phrases (readers/listeners tune out) or foreign phrases/jargon (readers/listeners don't know what you're talking about).

Finally, this cliché is fairly new, but way too overused--"anything-gate": Watergate, Spygate, Nipplegate, Attorneygate, Travelgate, Troopergate, Foleygate, Ashleegate, etc.--anything that's a scandal (itself another abused cliché) now has to have "-gate" affixed to the end of it. It was kind of cool the first few times. Now it's got to stop.

If readers come to your blog and see it littered with clichés, you'll have difficulty differentiating yourself--so many people use them; you'll eventually stand out if you don't.

Copyblogger has a guest post up by Mohsin of Blogging Bits, entitled, Why Cutting Clichés From Your Copy is as Easy as Pie. Mohsin says, "Clichés are the words and phrases that come to your mind when you write your first draft. They are the language you hear and use when gossiping with your pals. Put simply, in writing, clichés are bland and overused phrases that fail to excite, motivate, and impress your readers or prospective buyers."

He adds:

"What makes clichés so boring? The fact that clichés are so generic you can attach them to any idea makes them ineffective. Given that clichés are the phrases that have struck our eardrums uncountable times, we either don’t associate them with particular ideas and products, or we associate many products and ideas with a particular cliché.

Maybe a cliché was a unique expression when you first came across it, but since then, you have heard it repeated so many times, it has lost all the original shine."

The Copyblogger himself, Brian Clark, in the comments to Mohsin's post, reminds us, though that "some of the top copywriters in the world" use clichés--but they do so wisely. He explains:

"Most clichés are metaphors, and they became overused because they were highly effective at communicating an idea instantly using visual language. So, there are times when a cliché may be the perfect thing to get a point across.

It all comes down to judgment, which is pretty impossible to teach. I think stale, overused metaphors are not something you want littered throughout your copy, but the occasional cliché may actually help more than it hurts."

Eliminate all clichés until you're able to distinguish which ones are acceptable and which ones aren't. You've got to have clear, original language for people to be compelled to subscribe.

Simple Step #3: Use Precise, Targeted Language

Use words that draw readers in to your posts, words that are targeted to the audience for your subject and words that grab their attention and holds it.

Skellie has a guest post up at ProBlogger, How to Write Better Posts, Every Time, advocating a great rule to follow for every post:

"Omit any sentences or paragraphs in your post that don’t fall under the following two categories:

1. Words that persuade visitors to read the article.

2. Words that visitors will want to read.

Your posts should, ideally, flow from one category to the other. The aim of your introduction is to hook visitors in: to give them a reason to read on. The rest of your post should be dedicated to delivering on your earlier promises.

A common mistake I see bloggers make is to forget persuasion: to start with a long anecdote or rambling detail without a hook. If visitors can’t see what they stand to gain from reading your content, they’ll skip it. While their visit will add +1 to your site stats, it won’t grow your blog."

Great advice. You've got to use the right words and phrases (usually not clichés), key words and phrases that pertain to your subject and connect with the audience for that subject.

Summing Up

Want more RSS subscribers to your blog? Then follow these three simple steps and you should see that FeedBurner count steadily grow.

1. Make it easy for readers to find your RSS and email subscriber buttons and links.
2. Eliminate clichés from your writing and replace them with original, more colorful language.
3. Frequently use the keywords your audience resonates with in your titles and posts.

Related
Clichés--the Enemy of Good Copywriting
Are clichés always bad? Usually they are but...
A Tall Order: Stop Using Clichés in Writing--They Stick in My Craw