After a writing webinar I sat in on this week, a follow-up survey looked for suggestions for future webinars. Don’t laugh, but I said…writing. I always want to know more about how to be a better writer, how to grab attention, how to tell better stories.
In case you’re interested in that too, here’s a collection of writing tips you might have missed when I first shared them on social media:
How timely, with Taylor Swift performing in Toronto this month! Here are nine things she taught Cristian Lupsa about storytelling, via Nieman Storyboard. Bonus description about what it’s like being at a TSwift concert.
Here’s a great example of getting technical details from scientists and other experts and showing what they mean. “Every aspect of the storm that could have been dialed up has been.” Zoe Schlanger gets the perspective of scientists in “Milton Is the Hurricane That Scientists Were Dreading” in The Atlantic.
A checklist of eight writing tips Jim Ylisela says you can use to improve, like taking out anything that smacks of boring policy in favor of people doing stuff and eliminating all the bad quotes.
Get to the point faster online (within the first two screens, like the old “above the fold” of a newspaper). Ann Wylie reminds us not to bury the message under more words, buttons, images, sharing buttons and more.
Seven lessons for communication pros from famous writers, like “Get the first sentence right” and “Write, read and rewrite.” Via Ragan Consulting.
What Roy Peter Clark learned about writing from watching the Olympics, like how to stick the landing (ending of your story). Think, “What if my story ended here?”
“Layoff notes aren’t easy, but that doesn’t mean the news needs to be muffled by verbal throw pillows,” says Mister Editorial. (How great is that analogy?) He says comms pros use “plenty of euphemisms to avoid the nasty L-word, ‘reduction in force…’” although I blame the executives for demanding them.
Five tips for writing meaningful thank you notes – and you do, don’t you? — including thank those who are often forgotten and be specific, by Sally Susman via Harvard Business Review.
And finally, here’s an engaging story about the return of beavers to urban England with a “jam sandwich” structure and an inviting voice, shared by Laurie Hertzel. Even with a science story, “If there is something funny, you should put it in,” says Tom Whipple, science editor at the Times of London. From Nieman Storyboard.
What other helpful or interesting posts about writing have you found recently? Please share in the comments or drop me a note.
Photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash.
Related reading:
Writing good profiles, 50 writing tools and more writing tips
Interviewing, quoting and more writing tips
Turning numbers into compelling stories and more writing tips
Helpful tips for and examples of plain language