Write it on a sticky note
One of my favorite college professors, R.S. Musser, used to say: “If you can’t write your story idea on the back of my business card, you don’t have a clear idea.”
A tight story angle will keep you from getting scattered. It will tell you what to put in — and what to leave out of — your message.
So how can you condense your big idea into a little space? Summarize your story angle into:
A walkaway sentence
What’s the single sentence you want your readers to walk away with after reading your piece? That’s your story angle.
Keep that sentence to eight words or less, because that’s a length people can grasp fully at a glance, according to the American Press Institute.
An elevator pitch
Your biggest prospect joins you on the elevator in the lobby. As you zoom up to the third floor, what one thing are you going to tell her about your product, service or idea? That’s your focus sentence.
Six words
- SMITH Magazine calls for six-word memoirs.
- The Harvard Business Review suggests summing up your leadership style in six words.
- Sixwordstories.net is dedicated to publishing prose in six words. (Some are almost unbearably compelling: “Family’s tears hurt more than chemo.”)
A classified
Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of The Practice, suggests that you write a classified.
“What’s the offer?” he asks. “What do you want me to do? You’re paying by the word!” Because attention is expensive.
Maybe, he says, you’ll write something like:
Lose weight now. Join our gym.
“Six words,” says Godin. “Promise and offer.”
Enough said.
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.
