Your job is to change behavior, not to report news
Might I rant for a moment?
Right this minute, all over the world, communicators are knocking themselves out to deliver organizational news that nobody wants or needs.
We’re exhausting our resources — not the least of which include our own time and our audience members’ attention — making sure the people know who won the Corporate Challenge billiards tournament, how many tons of concrete went into the new headquarters building and how thrilled we are to support the ballet’s spring season.
And we’re definitely making sure they know that IT is entering Phase 6 of a 66-phase campaign to … OMG! I just passed out from boredom for a half a second.
- We’re doing battle with approvers over whether to use “that” or “which” in the fourth paragraph of news stories that nobody reads.
- We’re struggling to help content experts beat their 6,000-word essays on the award that engineering won down to the 30 words it actually deserves.
- And we’re smothering our readers with inconsequential blah-blah that doesn’t even serve the organization.
The worst of it is: That’s not our job.
How do I escape the newsroom model? >>>
Work with — not against — your brain
While we talk a lot about what to write — More stories! Fewer words! Shorter sentences! — we don’t focus so much on how.
Writing is hard because we weren’t taught how to write. Instead, we were taught how to edit: how to spell, punctuate and use the right grammar.
But there is a how to writing. Learn a few simple steps that will make your writing time more effective and efficient at How to write Better, Easier & Faster — our writing-process workshop starting Sept. 18.
You’ll learn to invest your time where it’ll do you the most good … stop committing creative incest … even save time by editing before writing.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.