THE CONTENT ADVANTAGE

  We begin our second episode of Remarkable Writing Techniques with a lesson in distinctiveness from Dada artist, writer, and general fruit-bat, Kurt Schwitters. On the face of it Schwitters' sound poem, "Ursonate", doesn't make sense, but  I think that it's an excellent illustration of  the need for distinctiveness. iTunes link for podcast archive and subscription.  A writing lesson from the back of a motorcycle (3:15 mins.) We follow that with more on writing distinctiveness – this time from the back of a  Triumph Bonneville. Except that this one doesn’t just concern writing: Distinctiveness is more than a writing technique. It’s something you have to create across your brand, in everything you do on your platform. The message is this: Beware the cliché of every kind - clichés of form, clichés of ideas, cliches of perspective, of design, of conception, and so on.  Go through your writing and your branding and find the clichés. Then do a Kurt Schwitters on them. (For an in-depth Slideshare presentation on avoiding convention and cliche, go here.)     Do you want to sound like everyone else? (6:30 mins.) More on the technique of distinctiveness. We move to a discussion of George Orwell’s quote from his essay Politics and the English Language: “Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print” Or, of course, on pixels. So, do you want to sound like everyone else? Don't answer that. If I ever see you use terms like “rockstar blogger”, or “WTF?”, I’ll come to your house and do a Kurt Schwitters on you. Do you hear me? You’re supposed to avoid buzzwords and catch phrases – unless, of course, you want to sound like everyone else. Orwell was wont to make constant changes and re-writes  until he found the right words:   I know what you're thinking  Now, I know what you’re not thinking: “Clichés in writing are handy. I don’t have to think - I just slot them in and that saves me time.” Erm, yes. That’s correct. But thinking is the whole point: Good writing is about choosing the words that capture your true meaning, not reaching for the easiest cliche. So, learn to take a moment to look for accurate, interesting, fresh, clear ways to do the capturing. Your readers deserve it.   The most useful writing technique of all? So, here’s one of the most useful writing techniques ever invented: Stop and ask, this question “What exactly am I trying to say here?” The question is so simple that we often ignore its power.  It amazes me how often I've struggled with a piece of writing, for hours on end until I really faced up to this question. Ouch. So, what are you trying to say? Your writing should reflect your voice, not everyone else’s. To find your voice, think your word choice through. It'll help.   Distinctive writing in drama Do dramatic things. Like this.  (12:00 mins.) We head to the lobby of a local theater only to find Host regaling his literary lackeys. Amidst the swill of hooch and the clink of glass, Host takes his cue from Edmund White, who wrote: “Great theater begins with great talkers… and great talkers… never sound like anyone else…”  The need for distinctive writing is as true for non-fiction writers – meaning you – as it is for screenwriters, playwrights, novelists, and everyone else: You have to find your own voice and make it distinctive. Cheers.    How to sell half a million digital books Now, (15:20 mins.) Host changes the subject for a few moments to talk about a fitness instructor called mike Geary. Geary has sold half a million digital books that he wrote and marketed himself – no editiors, no publishers, no gatekeepers, no middle-men – all by himself. See the book here: www.truthaboutabs.com. Now Geary would never have become a writer in the days before the platform. And his writing is not the pristine stuff you'd expect to see in the New Yorker. But it serves its purpose. There are writing techniques behind the sales pages if you look closely. I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years. I know I’ve said it before but, everything is changing. We’re seeing the rise of the solopreneur and the age of the information product. And the ability to perform certain crucial writing functions has enormous potential value. Are you with me?   "Too many -ings" Here’s a stealth writing technique from Roy Peter Clark that impacts distinctiveness: Avoid too many –ing verb endings.  I recommend that you listen to the anecdote that I take  from Clark’s excellent Writing Tools (21:00 mins). I highly recommend that book – there's a kind of audio summary of it here. But why are ‘too many –ings’ bad for your writing? Well, first of all, when you have too many verbs ending in -ing, the verbs all start to look like each other. With too many ings there’s a dullness and a sameness about the piece. It’ll look flat and generic, rather than vigorous and distinctive. With each –ing ending that you use, you’re almost certain to lose a little bit more of the reader’s interest. Still with me? Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer Weak verb forms Beyond the sameness problem, –ings are inherently weaker verb forms. The ing ending creates what’s known as a gerund. But gerunds refer to generic activities, things that we can’t envisage. ‘Swimming’, ‘singing’, ‘walking’, ‘talking’ refer to activities in some general sense, not to a specific person doing something. It's always better to write about specific people doing specific things so the reader can follow visually. Specifics, and in particular, specific people doing specific things, make for engaging and distinctive writing. Like in the audio anecdote from the busy office. Or when we track down George Orwell. Watch out for the ings, watch out for the gerunds.    Respect the verb  Respect the verb. Because the verb is the motor of the sentence. But it has to refer to a specific person doing a specific action if it’s to take the reader anywhere interesting. Let verbs be verbs. Don't convert them to nouns – especially generic nouns i.e. gerunds. Gerunds are abstract. Martin Amis talked about the need for a war against cliche. I think we need a war against abstraction and I plan to start that war in an imminent installment. So, let the people in your prose swim, or swing, or walk or talk and avoid the generic verb forms - the ings. Do you rely on too many ings?  The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000       George Orwell’s crib (24: mins.) I go to George Orwell’s house in London, pull back the curtain, and find him cramped over a Remington portable and a pile of manuscripts. Orwell doesn’t appreciate the intrusion, but who cares?  This is Writing Techniques, with Ken Carroll. I find some gems in his papers: Here's one: Two qualities that he  inevitably finds in bad writing – stale imagery and a lack of precision. Hmmm. This squares exactly with what we’ve been saying. Clichés and stock phrases are almost always stale images - putting all your eggs in one basket, thinking outside the box, free as a  bird, go the extra mile, and so on. Stale as three-week old bread. And imprecise. Because clichés, by definition, are generic things that you slot into place. They may kind of convey your meaning but they'll also distort it. The alternative is to think and choose your words according to precisely what it is you want to convey. That’s how you make your writing precise. And precision really goes a long way in giving power and vigor to your writing. It also makes for distinctiveness.  Does Orwell live up to his own standards? “Don’t let us disturb you, Mr Orwell. Please. Keep writing…” The question I have as I wander around George's crib is whether or not he lives up to his own standards. I find the manuscript of  Coming Up For Air. Here’s how it begins: “The idea came to me the day I got my new false teeth.” Ha! Not flash but original, unexpected. Another quote: “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” Hmmm. Concrete. Very concrete. Orwell doesn’t do distinctiveness in a Kurt Schwitters way. He does it through plain language. This helps me understand distinctiveness in writing but also in branding. First off, you have to avoid doing what everyone else is doing. That’s the avoidance part of distinctiveness. But at the same time you need to develop your own voice. If you’re weird, then be weird. If you’re political, then be political. This is true for your brand and your writing. And Orwell's distinctiveness has penetrated deep into our culture:      Gorge Orwell loses it But it seems I disturbed George Orwell once too many times. I'm tempted to use a cliché, or worse, to describe what happens, but I think you should just listen instead.    The post Writing Techniques #2: Distinctive writing appeared first on THE CONTENT ADVANTAGE.

In this first podcast on remarkable writing techniques, I look at 4 things: 1. (Begins at 4:00 mins.) A simple but powerful writing technique that gets people to read and keep reading anything you write: How to create anticipation and suspense in your writing. 2. (Begins at 18:00 mins.) Why writing in recent years has become a very big deal. In the connected economy the opportunities for those who can write are astonishing. Never before have we seen these types of opportunities. 3. (Begins at 29: mins.)  'How to be an extremist.' These are a few ideas from my upcoming course on writing like Seth Godin. 4. (Begins at 35:00 mins.) What to expect in future podcasts. And here are some of the highlights: 1. Writing technique: Suspend the reader (Begins at 4:00 mins.) Let's talk about reader engagement. How do you get people to read any piece of writing? How do you pull them into your book, your blog, your pdf, or for that matter, your podcast? How can you get readers so involved that they really want to find out what you have to say? How do you ramp up reader engagement and get people to read from beginning to end of your piece? Well, there’s a very simple technique for presenting information and creating that type of anticipation. So here it is: You ask questions but you delay the answers. You ask questions but you delay the answers. This is the secret to creating anticipation. It’s as simple as that. Posing the right questions in the right way will draw people in and an keep them on the edge of their seats. It’s all about the questions. Human curiosity is an incredibly powerful thing. Look at how people can be led around by their noses on the web. Think about how people sit for hours helplessly following links that look interesting – even if they have no value whatsoever - simply because they've had their curiosity aroused. And so, in your writing you can use your own questions to mobilize reader curiosity. Whether you pose the questions directly, like in non-fiction, or indirectly, as stories and novels, human curiosity may be the single most powerful thing the writer can use. Ok, so questions. But what types of questions? Which ones are most effective? Well, although we’re mostly about non-fiction here, I want to look at two questions from the world of fiction. These two questions can create a very strong kind of anticipation that we call suspense. And so we'll see how crime writers and writers of action novels create the most powerful effects of anticipation and suspense... [For more, listen to the podcast.] Also, for more on suspense and for other techniques see David Lodge's excellent The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts 2. Why writing is suddenly a very big deal (Begins at 18: mins.) I have a message that I want to share with you and I want this message to sink in slowly so that you can meditate on it. This message is for anyone who wants to lead a more self-determined life, anyone who wants to build a personal brand, anyone who wants to take advantage of the the new reality - the reality of a connected world, a connected economy. I’m not addressing people who necessarily see themselves as writers, but people who may not have realized how the transformation around us presents us with staggering new possibilities. And many of these possibilities grow out of the ability to write. So here, in broad terms, is the point: The context for writing has shifted radically. The context for writing has shifted radically. Writing in the professional sense used to mean writing business letters, memos, reports. It’s sad to say, but that was writing in the professional world. And it bores me to tears just thinking about it. Writing memos? That’s what writing was about? Yes. Talk about a lack of imagination. But what’s even more astonishing is that this is still how people think about writing in the professional context. It’s writing in the most limiting, stifling, nauseating, horrendous way. No wonder we rarely learned to write well. But now the context has shifted radically. Now we write in ways and write for purposes that didn’t exist even five years ago. I know it’s a cliché but it’s true – we live in a new world, a new business world. It’s a world that has already been transformed. We just haven't come to terms with what it all means. And of all of the characteristics of this new world of ours,  one is the elevated role that writing now plays in it. Writing in that new context isn’t about how to format a memo or the etiquette of the business letter. The new writing is far bigger than that. Because something has changed. Something big. And if we fail to see what’s happening, then we will fail to take the opportunities that the change can yield for us. So, what is the big shift? What is it that changed? What happened? Well, the platform is what happened. The platform. The platform. The platform... [For more, please listen to the podcast.]   3. How to be a writing extremist Over a period of 6 months I studied Seth Godin’s writing in depth - the books, the blog, the articles, whole thing. (Now, by this I mean his writing, his writing techniques, rather than his ideas per se.) I think I may have become an expert on his writing style and technique. And now I've built a short writing course around that. In the course, I’m going to give my take on how he does it - the secrets and the techniques behind his writing success. So, here's one short and simple insight from dozens that appear in the course: You have to be an extremist. Ask most people about their impression of Seth Godin and they’ll tell you he’s a think-outside-the-box guy, a maverick, maybe even a kind of corporate malcontent. And to an extent, he is all of those things. But what I want you to understand is this: He’s way more radical than that. He’s an extremist. Not a political extremist, but a writing extremist. In his book, Free Prize Inside, Godin explains the idea of ‘edgecraft’. Edgecraft is a way for marketers to get radical. Edgecraft is about finding and developing extreme qualities in your products and highlighting them over the bland. Because products that are just a little bit different and a little bit better than what already exists, are bland. And bland is never going to cut through the clutter that surrounds us to reach an audience. Bland is not on the edge. But edgecraft, according to Seth Godin, goes beyond mere differentiation. It means going beyond the obvious to find what he calls the free prize inside the product, to uncover its purple cow quality. It'sa a practice that most definitely applies to good writing...[More in the podcast.] 4. Future podcasts Here are some of the thngs you can expect to see in future Remarkable Writing Techniques podcasts: - Techniques, techniques, techniques. That's what you can expect. In each podcast I'll be bringing you the most powerful writing techniques that I can find. I'll present them in ways that are clear and simple and do not require grammar in the descriptions. - A short course on the fundamentals of good writing – the basic stuff you have to know about writing. This will offer a logical starting point for anyone who has never assessed his/her own writing but would like to get more effective at it.  And I’ll do my best to make it interesting. -  Expect a free e-book on the top ten techniques that helped me improve my writing. This is the result of three years instensive work. It condenses what I learned during those three years. The e-book will be out soon and I'll be talking about it in future shows. -  Another theme I want to look at is how to tell good writing from bad. Appreciation comes before production. You won’t go very far in writing until you learn to appreciate the good stuff. We’ll do a lot of work on appreciation, so that you will be able to distingusih good writing when you see it. - The super writers. There are some truly excellent writers out there. I'll be looking at techniques from people like Malcolm  Gladwell as well as from super writers from the past. -  Super articles and books. From time to time I come across an article that is so pristine I just have to discuss it. Get ready for some imformative discissions from the very best sources and see how we will pull the best techniques out of them. -  The greatest book titles of all time and what makes them so special. -  Courses, tutorials, and so on. So, I’m here to help you get better at writing, to work with you so that you can take advantage of the new opportuntiies on the platform the new opportunities that exist to create a personal brand or create new and exciting information products. Because common to all of those goals is the ability to write effectively. So, what are you struggling with? Let me know what I can do to help. Btw, the music in the podcasts is my own - I recorded it on Garage Band. (Hey, I told you it's a new world out there.) I'm very interested in how music can be integrated with speech to make the experience more effective. I've also tried some other experiments in these podcasts. I may add separate links to the music in mp3s if anyone is interested. Ken Carroll     The post Writing techniques: Episode #1 appeared first on THE CONTENT ADVANTAGE.