“TOP 10 SECRET TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING: Adopt a Mentor!”

TAKING WRITING BLOG MEDICINE. YUCK!: This blog comes to you from Kodiak, AK, home of MONSTER brown bears, buckets of salmon, the Boston Red Sox, and the world-famous University of Arkansas Fighting Irish. It’s about 9,367 miles, give or take a foot, directly northeast of St. John’s Wort.

I am taking some of my own writing blog medicine. I feel like one of the kids in Mary Poppins. SUPERCALAFRAG… “Don’t even think about typing that full word!” With a total flight time of 15 hours, of which 9 hours was in flight on 3 different planes with a layover of 4.5 hours in Anchorage, I had a choice to make:

A. get a fishing rod and go catch salmon
B. write my guts out on the flight and in the airport
C. waste the writing opportunity to watch a made-for-flight movie, which was never released or bombed at the box office
D. engage in other boring, unproductive activities, like dreaming of catching a salmon in my mouth. Wait! That’s what the bears do.
E. A & B
F. C & D
G. all of the above

Guess which one I picked. WROOONG! I choose the lox. Of course "B": I had to write or I would have been “Hypocrite Blogger of the Week!” What a knucklehead! Why did I have to include airports and airplanes on my list of venues to write. (NOTE: The aircraft of choice for the flight from Anchorage to Kodiak was only slightly bigger than a #2 pencil.)

TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
Unlike my previous blog which gave you a belly full of pointers related to your heart and spleen, this one does not deal with any internal organs. It is a noninvasive blog that focuses on external organs. Hold onto to your spleen, heeeere we go.

5. ADOPT A MENTOR OR COACH TO REVIEW DRAFTS

 Who do you know that’s “been there, done that”? Solicit feedback on your writing from anyone who can and is willing to provide constructive criticism. You don’t need put-downs and sarcasm. Your writing mentor can be anywhere in the world. He or she can be an incredible support and sounding board to improve your writing conceptually and mechanically. A copy editor would be even better if you can find one who can review your work regularly. These reviewers can provide valuable input on any writing piece before you submit it for publication or post anything on the Internet.

(Up Close & Personal: After 35 years of writing, I still send my article and book manuscripts out for review to colleagues before submitting them for publication. I also request reviews on several blogs before they’re posted. My writing is not good enough for me to go it alone. I still make mistakes and, probably, always will. Constant feedback from colleagues and editors is the best input to continue to grow as a writer. That growing is a lifelong process.)

My next blog will examine Tip 4: think draft. Not beer, silly. I’m referring to your manuscript and even e-mail.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

“TOP 10 SECRET TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING: Write with Passion—Part 2!”

TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:

6. WRITE ON TOPICS ABOUT WHICH YOU ARE PASSIONATE (continued)

Back in Your Heartland: Where’s your heart? This is not about your content knowledge. We’re back to the heart again. Your whole heart should be engaged in your writing. Half-, third-, or quarter-hearted writing is not enough. It’s either all or nothing. Pour yourself into your writing. It should be a fully immersive experience. Allow your readers to feel your spirit of passion about your contribution, whether it’s a tweet, comment on a discussion, response on Facebook, or a scientific breakthrough for a cure for stupid reality TV programs about spoiled, immature celebrities. You may start with the content, but as you revise and edit each draft, make it sneakily engrossing and captivating for your readers.

(Up Close & Personal: Every e-mail, LinkedIn message, PowerPoint presentation, blog, article, and book I write begins with the substance—the serious content. That’s the most important element to be communicated---the “WHAT.” Then I shift gears into the “HOW.”

Once I’m tentatively satisfied with the content draft, I scan line by line and read the words as a reader would, to search for places to add humor or spin some of the material with rewording to make it fun or more interesting. I assume every paragraph to be boring for my readers. I use this same strategy with every PowerPoint slide in my presentations.

The challenge is to create appropriate humor, visual metaphors, and popular cultural references to grab and maintain the readers’ attention. It’s an unending process of revision, especially in my articles, books, and PowerPoints. The more deadly serious and boring the content, the more turbo-charged I am to humorize that material. That’s how I brand my writing. It’s the art of writing for me and what I love the most. I’m never satisfied that I’ve done enough to make it interesting and funny.)

My next blog will present Tip 5: examine how a mentor or coach in your writing life can provide mighty wise counsel and poke you in the eyeballs (like the 3 Stooges) or kick you in the shins along your writing journey.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC