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When I was fifteen, I wrote a novel. I thought it was pretty good, and daydreamt about literary stardom. Fast forward ten years. I recently found my old notebooks and read that novel over again. And … let’s just say it wasn’t as good as I remembered, and leave it at that. It’s amazing what a difference perspective makes. Usually, you’re not going to be revisiting work from a decade ago. You’re going to be busy trying to get that new website copy done, or that sales page written, or that ebook finished. Problem is, when you’re writing, you’re working at a zoomed-in level. You’re so deeply into the words that you can’t get a grasp on the whole piece. You’re emotionally attached to your work, and even if it doesn’t seem perfect, you simply can’t see any way to change or improve it. Here’s how to zoom back out and get the big picture. 1. Let it rest Ever since I started writing as a teen, I’ve heard this piece of advice. Put your first draft aside for a few days (or at least 24 hours ). Leave it alone. Yes, it’s hard; you’re itching to get your piece finished . You’ll need to plan ahead: give yourself a few days in the middle of a project to take a break. Your unconscious mind will carry on mulling over that project while you’re away from it. When you pick it up again, you’ll come to it afresh. You’ll have new insights. You’ll see different possibilities. Mistakes will jump off the page at you. How long should you put your work aside for? I’d say, the longer the piece, the longer you let it rest. For a blog post, leaving it for a day is probably enough. For a novel, give it at least a couple of weeks — preferably a month. 2. Read as a reader When you pick up your piece again after a break, try to get into the mindset of a reader. Imagine it’s the first time you’ve read this. It helps to make a clear physical break between your writing mode and reading mode. Depending on your project and how you like to work, that might mean: Printing out the whole thing and reading it in a coffee shop Turning it from a word document into a PDF so that you can’t keep changing the text as you read Creating a “real book” version of your manuscript on Lulu Reading through the whole thing in one session While you’re reading, watch out for: Anything vague. Have you assumed knowledge which your real readers might not have? Anything extraneous. It might be interesting to you, but if you can cut it out without losing any meaning from the piece, it should go. In fiction, I ask myself “Is this part of the story?” Anything redundant. When you’re working on a project over a long period of time, you’ll often end up with two similar sections, or very similar phrase or word choices close together. Next to impossible to spot when you’re writing, glaringly obvious to readers. 3. Ask for feedback However great your imagination, you can never truly put yourself in the position of a first-time reader. You know your writing and your topic too well. There’s an easy solution, however: Find some actual readers Ideally, pick people in your target audience. You could try: A writing circle — either a group that meets in real life, or an online one Regular commenters on your blog Participants in a forum or membership site which you belong to (I’m sending out my ebook draft to some fellow Third Tribers this coming weekend) Unless she happens to be a writer too, or typical of your readership, your mom is not the best person to ask for feedback. Ditto for your spouse. They’re likely to be kind rather than constructively critical. When you ask for feedback, be clear about what you want If this is a first draft, you’re not primarily concerned with typos or the occasional clunky sentence. You want to know if whole sections should be cut, or whether your angle works, or if your call to action is clear. I always give my guinea-pig readers a free copy of the finished piece, if appropriate. It’s also nice to offer to reciprocate if they ever want feedback on a writing project. 4. Proofread Once you’re past the revisions stage and into the final version, you’ll need to proofread. Although you can get away with the occasional typo, spelling mistake or grammatical slip in most blog posts, you’ll want to avoid any embarrassing mistakes in your shiny new ebook or your slick sales page. I find that I’m great at finding typos in other people’s work … and awful at spotting them in my own. Usually, I find a long suffering friend to proof-read for me, but if I’m proofreading my own material, this is what helps: Proofread on paper For some reason, it’s easier to spot mistakes on paper than on the screen. Perhaps it’s because we’re more prone to skimming on the screen, or because our eyes glide over any mistakes which the spellchecker hasn’t picked up. Regardless of why , it works. Print out your piece, and go through it slowly with a red pen in hand. Proofread backwards When we read, we rarely take in every word. Uur brain fills in what it expects to see — even if that’s not quite what’s there. (Ever mis-read a headline? Or a billboard?) Reading your work backwards deals with this. You’re forced to look at every single word. It’s a slow and tortuous process, but if you have a piece of work which absolutely must be error-free, it’s the best way to do it. How about you? Do you find it hard to get perspective on your writing? What methods work for you? And have you ever written something which you thought was perfect … until you looked at it again a few months later? Let us know about it in the comments. About the Author: Ali Hale writes about productivity with perspective alongside Thursday Bram on their newly-launched blog Constructively Productive: you can grab the RSS feed here .

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The Foolproof Cure for Weak Content: 4 Ways to Get Some Perspective

Roger Ebert’s name is synonymous with movie reviews. Many of us remember him bantering with Gene Siskel on the TV shows Sneak Previews and At the Movies . But he doesn’t banter much anymore. He lost his ability to speak due to complications of thyroid cancer in 2006. Ebert may have lost the lower part of his jaw, but he hasn’t lost his voice. He continues to receive new acclaim and appreciation for the quality and feeling of his writing in books, newspaper reviews, and criticism. It shows a deep sense of character. But it also shows a few other valuable traits we as content creators would be wise to develop in ourselves. Keep a sense of humor I’m sure Ebert must have some bad days. He can’t speak, eat, or drink. But it never affects the quality of his writing. His words continue to sparkle and shine with life. He receives continual praise for the power of his insights and the humor sprinkled within his work. Ebert’s recent criticism of Glenn Beck show that his wit and sensibility are still strong. He doesn’t go for the laugh-out-loud moment, but he uses sharp observation and quiet humor to pull the reader in, as he does in The London Perambulator . Lesson: There is little in life that’s more valuable (to you and to your readers) than a sense of humor. Focus on what you can do well Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer before becoming a famous film critic. Some people think his writing is even better since he lost the ability to speak. His ability to analyze and reflect on movies (or virtually any topic) is strong. He writes in a way that reaches both the average person and his peers. Ebert is rarely in front of cameras any more (his recent appearance on Oprah is a memorable exception), but he remains a prolific writer. He uses notepad and pen to communicate in person and the keyboard for larger audiences, and he communicates constantly. Profiled recently in Esquire magazine , Ebert offered up a journal entry to explain the power of writing: When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be. Lesson: Be thankful for what you can do well. Do it as long and as vigorously as you can. Be honest Ebert has plenty to complain about. For that matter, so would a couple of other smart guys like, say, Jon Morrow or Stephen Hawking. None of them is wasting his time whining, though. They’ve had their fair share of happiness and fulfillment. They all enjoy what they do and they are damned good at it. They don’t look for pity. They are sincere when they say that they are doing what they love to do. The Esquire article features a small picture of a Post It note written by Ebert: There is no need to pity me. Look how happy I am. This has led to an exploring of writing. In his post Putting a Better Face on Things , Ebert gives a frank and insightful look into his feelings about reconstructive surgery and prosthetics. Ebert’s journal has produced close to half a million words of honesty that are touching thousands, if not millions, of readers. Lesson: Use your life experiences to fuel your work and offer others education and inspiration. Be forthright and frank whenever you talk about yourself. Let your passion save and sustain you Ebert makes this point loud and clear in the Esquire article: Writing is what saves him. His journaling has led to a gripping and moving exploration of the art of writing. Writing provides him with continued purpose in trying circumstances. How many people is he inspiring with this new phase of work? Millions? Can you do the same? It’s worth thinking about, isn’t it? Lesson: Your passion can carry you through hardships. If even a fraction of that passion spills into your content, the potential to build your audience and develop true fans is huge. Don’t phone it in. Bare your soul. Engage. And follow the examples set by the greats like Ebert. They know how it’s done. About the Author: Mark Dykeman is the founder and main brain of Thoughtwrestling , a blog devoted to developing ideas and bringing them to life. He is the author of the award-winning blog Broadcasting Brain . His work has appeared in numerous blogs, including Mashable.com, Dumb Little Man, Pick The Brain, Copyblogger, and more.

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What All Content Creators Need to Learn From Roger Ebert

How long should an article or a blog post be? How about a sales letter? The answer is, of course: “As long as necessary. And no longer. ” Obvious, right? Most writers know that brevity is crucial. In writing, like many things in life, “less is more.” But in writing and in Texas BBQ, we tend to over-indulge. We don’t need the extra words any more than we need those surplus calories, delicious though they are. Why does brevity matter? In your content marketing , you might want to inform or you might want to entertain. If your audience is mentally screaming “Get to the point!” you’ve done neither. And no one will share your work if they don’t understand it, or if it bores them into a coma. For sales copy, brevity is even more important. Yes, long copy sells . But “long” means you cover all of the important facts your prospect needs to know. It does not mean you indulge your desire to natter. If you have ever silently waited, cash in hand, while a windbag salesperson droned on, you will recognize the issue here. It actually takes more work to write a short post. You may find you spend twice as much time editing as you do writing. But you owe it to your readers to cut the fat from your content. Bottom line: If you want your words to have impact, get to the point — then get out of the way! About the Author: Chris Garrett is a professional blogger and co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income . He is a man of few words, and many of those words can be found on his blog, chrisg.com .

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Are You Too Lazy to Write Less?

More subscribers. More traffic. More followers. It’s easy to get caught up in the race for more. More is better, right? We all want our businesses and blogs to grow. But not all growth is ideal or even beneficial. Sometimes blind growth can be harmful. More contacts and more eyeballs doesn’t always mean better eyeballs . Would you rather have 1,000 people’s eyes completely glued to everything you do, or 100,000 with an attention span rivaling a fruit fly on amphetamines? More traffic isn’t always better either. New traffic is great, but if 99% leave without subscribing or taking some kind of desired action, does it really matter? Wouldn’t you rather have a few new followers join you every day as lifelong customers, than a few thousand who window-shop and quickly move on? How big is “big enough?” Have you thought about this? Incredible size easily leads to overwhelm of too many good ideas . I’m sure there are quite a few “big people” out there who wish their businesses were smaller and simpler. It’s not that growth is bad Growth is natural. If your product or service is first-rate, if your content is terrific, if you spend lots of time building quality relationships, and if you learn to effectively promote yourself, you’re going to grow. But we could always do more. We hit one milestone number and immediately we start wishing for the next. We have this idea that in order to be successful we need to be as big as possible. So is that really true? I don’t think so. Charlie Gilkey has a blog of just over 3,000 subscribers. And with this relatively “small” following, he has had no problem carving out a niche for himself helping creative entrepreneurs launch and develop their products. He regularly partners with peers who have five times or more the size of audience he has. Adam Baker runs another profitable, agile business with a few thousand subscribers. He’s managed to stay lean enough to travel the world with his family while he runs his business. Yusuf Clack has built a successful business by targeting a small niche and speaking to them in a way that no one else has. He doesn’t have a huge online following. But he has a passionate one. These are just a few of the many people out there who are doing quite well with a relatively small but highly engaged audience. How exactly do you make this work? Instead of playing for numbers, you play for depth. Think knock-out punches instead of a torrent of annoying fly-swatting jabs. Okay, maybe that’s a bad analogy, you don’t make friends by hitting them in the face. How about if I just tell you a few ways to deepen your reach? Do less, better. It’s much easier to make an impression when you focus on doing a few key things incredibly well. Become known for helping people by doing something amazing. Create high-value products and services. If your product price range is under $20, you’ll have to move a ton of inventory. But if you focus on valuable, higher-priced products (like awesome consulting or private training) you won’t need as many clients. Make more intimate connections. You can create a deeper connection with someone in a five-minute phone call than you can in five months of twitter conversation. The more you can connect on the phone and in person, the better, and the more likely you’ll create relationships that go beyond the surface level. Build a referral based business. When your focus is on people (not just numbers), more people will want to refer you to their friends and peers. This means you need to offer excellent customer service and you need to always exceed expectations. Also, if you have a service or product that complements someone else’s, it will be a natural fit for them to refer their people to you. Make yourself accessible. So many people create unnecessary distance between themselves and the people they help. They have filters, gate keepers, and barriers to communication. One benefit of staying small is it’s much easier to engage with your audience. Show that you’re someone who really cares and wants to help. The more you do that, the greater depth of connections you will build. The more you focus on depth, the more you realize that breadth is only relevant to a point. If you become obsessed with growth for its own sake, it can be hard to keep perspective. Sometimes being small is just fine. Sometimes, in fact, it’s fantastic. About the Author : Jonathan Mead is a martial artist and self development writer. He just released a guide called The Dojo that helps you get amazing things done before most people finish breakfast.

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How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

Congratulations, you have a hot writing assignment! Maybe it’s a proposal that could make your company’s fortune. Maybe it’s your first professional writing gig. It could even be a guest post for Copyblogger. The stakes are high . . . and you know it. In fact, it’s all you can think about . . . the F.E.A.R. trying to sabotage your aspirations for success. Your fingers are shaking too hard to type anything , and your stomach has sunk down to the bottom of an ocean so deep that all the fish have weird lights on their heads. Well that’s not helping any, now is it? Instead, let’s get those pixels flowing with these 7 not-too-scary steps. 1. Write down your goal What does success look like? Get imaginative , specific and visceral . Imagine yourself being awarded with the Employee of the Month trophy while your boss announces: Without Catherine’s vital work on the proposal, we would never have won this contract. Now we will be giving bonuses to all our staff and hiring three new ones, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks, Catherine. Everyone is clapping and there’s cake. This goal serves two purposes: It encourages you to get writing. It gives you a way to measure whether your writing is effective . If it increases the chance of the successful proposal/trophy/cake then it’s effective. If it does not , then you need to make changes. An objective yardstick is critical when your emotions are getting the better of you. 2. Plan your content Grab your favorite brainstorming tool. Could be mind-mapping software, a bunch of index cards, parchment and quill pen . . . whatever suits you. Start with the high-level ideas. If you’re writing a sales page, you need to describe the benefits , so that’s an entry. The call to action is another. What content do you need to provide to support the high-level ideas? In the last example, each specific benefit would have a separate entry. Go down as many levels as you need to until every entry makes only one point . Evaluate the entries. Does each one move you toward your goal? Can some be removed? What order makes the most sense? Shuffle and remove entries until you have a working plan of what to write. Notice you now have a nice, clear idea of what the finished document should look like. Awesome. It’s time to take a deep breath and start on the actual writing. 3. Ten minutes of gibberish If you’re looking at the blank screen with mounting horror ( Have I forgotten the English language entirely? ), open a new document and pound out anything . A history of cheese The lyrics of your favorite song A stream-of-consciousness piece that starts with “Daffodil Philomena carousel elf-wine fodder marmalade” A cake recipe An imaginary shopping list Endless lines of All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy Don’t force it to make sense! Just let it flow out with no judgment or expectations. When there’s no pressure to get anything Right, for many people the mental vapor-lock vanishes. They can go back and start writing the important stuff. 4. Divide your ideas into sections Remember back in school when we were taught, “One idea per paragraph”? Still a good idea, although you may need more than a paragraph. But each section of your document should convey one idea, and only one. Introduce each section with a good subhead to make the document more readable and keep your ideas organized. You can go back and adjust your content plan to include extra ideas, but give each idea its own section and subhead. 5. Explain it to the potted plant If you’re trying to make a point and you’re . . . umm . . . you know, how do I say it . . . it’s on the tip of my tongue . . . stuck on how to explain it? Talk it out with another person. It doesn’t actually need to be a real person. It can be to the potted plant on the windowsill. You’ll start out stumbling and inarticulate, but quickly the thoughts will come together and you’ll have it all sorted in your head. Or you may realize that this was one of those ideas that seemed good at first blush but doesn’t really make any sense. That’s fine too. Delete it and move on. 6. Editing, your deadly new friend After you’ve written what you need to write, the dreaded post-writing stage kicks in. This is where you edit your work to make it the best it can possibly be. Revising, polishing, reordering and spell-checking are all wonderful tools. They help you make your point more clearly and concisely. BUT. Perfectionism, the copywriter’s curse , loves editing. If you’re not careful, deadlines will fly by while you make infinitesimal improvements. Never try to write and edit at the same time. Write first, edit later. Focus on removing words when editing. This doesn’t mean you can’t tell a relevant story or insert an interesting adjective, but every word must contribute to that goal you set out in Step 1. Set an upper limit on revisions. For truly critical documents, you might go as high as ten revisions. But pick a number and stick to it , no matter how much you think, “Oh but I just have this one tweak . . .” 7. Still overwhelmed? Today I’m releasing a new resource called Awesome Fear-Wrangling: Manage your Website Fears, Grow an Awesome Website . If you want some industrial-strength help, come check it out! (There’s a special bonus today too. It’s my birthday. There’s cake.) What are your techniques to get you writing when you’re facing a bunch of fear? Tell us in the comments! About the Author: Catherine is wicked passionate about helping people to start and grow an awesome website. When she’s not adding five-minute missions to BeAwesomeOnline.com , she can invariably be found on Twitter .

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7 Quick-Start Techniques for Fighting the Fear to Write