Here’s to better writing in the New Year
My favorite writing quote? Ever?
“For 40-odd years in this noble profession,
I’ve harbored a guilt and my conscience is smitten.
So here is my slightly embarrassed confession —
I don’t like to write, but I love to have written.”
— Michael Kanin, screenwriter of “Woman of the Year” and other movies
I like it so much, I had it engraved on my iPad.
Here are eight other favorite quotes about writing. May they spur you on to greater writing success in the New Year.
1. And there’s a great big I in TwItter. Don’t let your social media efforts become one big selfie stick. Instead, focus on your friends, fans and followers. There’s a reason You is the most retweeted word in the English language. Learn all of Ann’s tricks for engaging readers with relevant content marketing pieces.
2. The more you say, the less they read. The more you say, the less they buy. The more you say, the worse decisions they make. Stop the data dumping. Don’t tell people everything you know: Tell them exactly what they need to know. Get Ann’s system for reaching more readers with short, clear copy.
3. People spend, on average, 11 seconds on an email blast. So how long should your email be? Your email newsletter? Your subject line? Your links? Get all of Ann’s research on email length targets.
4. Humans are wired for story. Storytelling is “the most powerful form of human communication,” according to Peg C. Neuhauser, author of Corporate Legends and Lore. So … how do your storytelling superpowers stack up? Add more tools to your storytelling toolkit.
5. Me, too, Mr. Liebling. What tricks do you have to help you write better, easier and faster? Learn Ann’s 6-step system for knocking out brilliant messages with less time and effort.
6. Journalists rank PR quotes as the least valuable thing in a release — below the boilerplate and dateline. So how can you transform lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites? Get all of Ann’s tricks for writing quotable quotes.
7. Want to grab people’s attention and move them to act?The secret of persuasive writing is to position your information in the readers’ best interest. Instead of yammering on about Us and our stuff, focus on the reader’s needs. Get all of Ann’s tricks for writing persuasively.
8. More than half of your visitors look at your webpages on their smartphones, not their laptops. Problem is, it’s 48% harder to understand information on mobile. People read more slowly, spend less time on, and click less often on the small screen. So … how do you get your message across? Learn all of Ann’s tricks for writing for mobile.
Happy New Year!
Hope these tricks help you build your writing skills in 2020.