Write Better At Work

Three Tech Tools for Writers

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Forgotten passwords, mangled links, corrupted files, and spinning beachballs of death—misbehaving technology can drive the mildest-mannered writer to fury. Tempting as it may be to pound your computer into its component atoms, resist. Technology can also lighten the burden of a writer’s most onerous tasks.

Write or Die
Many writers find that motivation is their greatest challenge. Anyone who has expressed a desire to be a writer has received the standard counsel: ” The best advice I can offer if you want to be a writer is … write.  A lot.” That’s easy for Stan Nicholls to say. But how do you make yourself write when you don’t feel like it or  you can find dozens of more entertaining or more pressing things to do? Let Dr. Wicked motivate you.

Dr. Wicked, also known as Jeff Printy, understands how easy it is to put off writing because any negative effects of delay seem far in the future. His application makes sluggards feel the negative consequences of procrastination as soon as they stop typing. Users set a goal and choose their level of consequences. Gentle mode delivers a “mom-like reminder”; kamikaze mode eats your words as soon as you stop typing. Sounds harsh? You should have been warned by the name: Write or Die.

Readability Calculators
Write or Die is designed to spur writers to create drafts. A readability checker helps writers revise drafts to make them easier for readers to understand. If you use Microsoft Word, you can get a readability score each time you check spelling or grammar. Several checkers are available online. I prefer the calculator available at Online-Utility.org. It applies several formulas to calculate the difficulty of a writing sample. The Flesch-Kincaid score indicates how many months and years of education a person would need to read a sample easily. For example, understanding a passage with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 7.2 would require 7 years and 2 months of schooling. Many newspapers and popular novels are written at  about a seventh-grade reading level. Less commonly used, the Coleman-Liau index is a good choice for analyzing technical materials.

Although readability scores seem precise, they are based on algorithms that calculate sentence and word length. One formula scores E = MC^2 at a fifth-grade reading level, which ignores the complexity of Einstein’s theory of mass-energy equivalence. However, if your document scores higher than 10.0, readers will probably find it easier to understand if you shorten some sentences and prefer simple words to polysyllables. Online-Utility.org’s calculator suggests ways to make your writing simpler and more understandable.

Writer’sDiet Test
Another way to make your writing understandable is to avoid unnecessary words. However, once you’ve labored to create a draft, stripping out nonessentials can be painful. Experienced writers have developed strategies such as targeting sentences beginning with It is or tightening redundant phrases such as now at this present time. Beginners may have no clue about how they could tighten their writing. Writers at any level of experience can find out whether their writing is fit or flabby by taking the Writer’sDiet Test, developed by Helen Sword. Enter a sample of 100 to 1,000 words, run the test, and get writing results based on your “diagnosis.”

This entry scored “lean,” as shown below. After submitting a sample,  you can get editing suggestions by selecting How can the Writers’Diet Test help me improve my writing?

 

Notes

Stan Nicholls’ advice is found on his home page, stannicholls.com

Write or Die, available for several platforms, can be found at writeordie.com. Printy explains how he puts the “prod” in productivity in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdLLo08cJKY

To check readability in Microsoft Word, choose your version’s Help menu or visit http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/test-your-document-s-readability-HP010148506.aspx

Online-Utility.org’s readability calculator is available at http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp

The use and limits of using readability formulas are well explained in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/WrittenMaterialsToolkit/Downloads/ToolkitPart07.pdf

Take the Writer’sDiet Test at http://writersdiet.com/WT.php?home

Habits of the Most Productive Writers: Avoid Binge Writing

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Many people assume that writing is best done in long, unbroken blocks of time. Some writers may have that kind of stamina, but few people have the time or endurance to write for hours at a stretch.

Fortunately, the time you have available to write is less important than whether you

• write often

• set concrete goals

• track your progress

Psychologist Robert Boice found that if you write nearly every day, even 15 minutes can be productive. Some writers prefer to work for half an hour, an hour, or even two hours. Your limit should be how much you can do without tiring. Boice advises, “Don’t let writing become so fatiguing that you don’t feel like coming back.”

In a 1990 study, Boice asked writers who usually scheduled big blocks of writing time to work in shorter, more regular sessions. Compared to “binge writers” who wrote for hours whenever they felt inspired, the slow-but-steady authors produced four times as many pages. Those who wrote more frequently also reported getting new ideas more often.

Even more dramatic gains were achieved by those who wrote frequently and charted their progress. Those who also reported their progress to a writing buddy or supervisor were by far the most productive.

Writing Schedule in Boice’s 1990 Study

Average Yearly Output
  Binge writing (write whenever I feel like it)                 17 pages
  Write daily; keep progress chart                 64 pages
  Write daily; keep progress chart; report progress               157 pages

 

Notes:

A summary of Robert Boice’s research on Habits of Research Productivity can be found in Gail Sullivan’s “So You Want to Write? Practices that Work.“ 

This blog entry is an excerpt from Write More, Stress Less: From Getting Ideas to Getting It Done.

Writing advice for Halloween: Think skeletal when you write

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The best way to create polished writing, paradoxically, is to write a terrible first draft.

Anne LaMott begins with what she calls a “shitty first draft.” Her goal is to get something—anything—down. By drafting freely, she creates momentum. She then goes with the flow, trusting she can shape the piece later.

Carolyn Kaufman agrees that writers should “Always Write Terrible First Drafts.” However, she thinks of the first draft as building a skeleton. Her first draft lays out the bare bones of a piece. Each successive draft adds a layer to fleskeletonsh out the framework: plot twists; character development; “the stuff,” she says, “that makes your story (forgive me for using this word) meaty.” She adds the finishing touches, such as skin and hair, only after the skeleton is fully fleshed out.

Her strategy, like LaMott’s, separates drafting and polishing. Either method can silence your inner critic and create flow. Some writers may revel in the freedom of letting a “shitty first draft” sprawl it may. If you crave a little more structure, try Kaufman’s skeletal approach:
http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2012/10/always-write-terrible-first-drafts.html

Image by Mikael Häggström https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHuman_skeleton_front_-_no_labels.svgFile:svg

Becoming a better leader using an authentic voice

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Singers and writers are often urged to find their authentic voice, but leaders?

Kouzes and Posner believe that as a leader, you must speak in an authentic voice: “If the words you speak are not your words but someone else’s, you will not, in the long term, be … credible. ”

In The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner offer several long-term strategies for developing an authentic voice, including imitating other leaders and clarifying your values.

But what can you do when you have a short-term deadline—two hours to compose a memo preparing employees for bad news or two days to write a speech inspiring your whole organization to change?

Here are some ways to find your words in challenging situations.

1. Ask yourself, “What do I need people to know or do?”

2. Find a simple way to tell people what you want them to know or do. One way to pare your message down to essentials is to ask,”If I had only 30 words or 30 seconds to share this idea, what would I say?”

3. Experiment with different wordings until you find one that feels right. You might sense, “That’s it!’ You might notice a shift in your body, such as a feeling that your head is clearing or your gut is relaxing.

4. Once you have a basic message that feels authentic, test your wording. Consider how your audience might react to your message. One strategy is to imagine yourself speaking your message in front of an audience. What reactions might you expect? Would your audience be likely to be enthusiastic? confused? offended? You can also ask for feedback from trusted associates or typical members of your audience.

5. If your message resonates well with you but not so well with your audience, go back to Step 2. Ask yourself, “If I had only 30 words or 30 seconds to share this idea with this audience, what would I say?”

6. Continue refining your message until it feels right to you and for your audience. If you start to feel that you’re just looping through the steps without gaining additional clarity, take a break or start to develop a rough draft. Either strategy will give you a fresh perspective. You can also switch modalities. If you’ve been speaking, try writing. If you’re stuck writing, try speaking aloud or creating a presentation. If your ideas refuse to come together, talk them through with a sympathetic listener. If you need ideas, try reading or consulting a colleague.

7. Read your final draft aloud. Revise any wording that causes you to stumble. Notice whether your words sit comfortably in your voice, or whether they feel stiff and too formal or lightweight and too casual.

The end result will be a unique combination of your message, your personality, and your relationship to your audience: your authentic voice.

Notes:

The quotation from Kouzes and Posner is from The Leadership Challenge (Jossey-Bass , 2002), p. 44.

For more on noticing bodily shifts, see “An Introduction to Focusing: Six Steps”: http://www.focusing.org/sixsteps.html

 

To plan or not to plan: Rachel Aaron on how her first book “found its own way”

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One of the great debates among writers is whether an outline is an essential planning strategy or a counterproductive shackle.

There’s no question that having some kind of plan improves the depth and quality of the finished work. But that plan doesn’t have to be an outline.

In an informal study, composition teacher Rory Stephens found that about 50 percent of writers found it helpful to make an outline. However, some writers do their drafting n their heads. For these think-writers, as Stephens calls them, an outline may be redundant.

Even writers who find outlines helpful may not need to make a formal plan. For a short piece, a key idea with a few bullet points may be enough. If your organization has a typical format for a progress report, all you need to do is follow the format.

Rachel Aaron, author of The Spirit Thief, is one of the adventurous types who makes up her own format. Her description of how she developed the concept for her series about the charming thief Eli Monpress is a good example of think-writing by letting an idea find its own path.

Monpress began as “a character concept” from a Dungeons and Dragons player who conceived a thief who wanted to increase the bounty on his head. The other characters crystallized around Eli. The wizard Miranda was originally a rival thief, but Aaron “realized this woman was way too duty bound to ever steal anything.” So she became “the cop to Eli’s robber.”

Once the characters were in place, the novel “evolved naturally. After all, I had a thief and a cop, now I needed a crime, and what better crime than kidnapping a king? But, since nothing can ever go smoothly, the king had to have a dastardly brother waiting in the wings. Once I figured those bits out, the novel found its own way.”

This kind of flexibility requires a willingness to believe that disparate ideas will eventually come together into a coherent whole. Those who can sustain this belief leave themselves open to possibilities. They can quickly recognize and adapt to new ideas.

Those who write by outlining can also take advantage of possibilities. As a general rule, outliners should stick to their plan—unless an idea that’s obviously better comes to mind. If inspiration strikes, it’s usually best to go with the momentum and capture the idea. You can always check your new organization by making an outline based on your draft (called a “reverse outline”). That gives you the best of both worlds: focus and flexibility.

For an explanation of reverse outlining, see this post to Rachael Cayley’s Exploration of Style blog:  http://explorationsofstyle.com/2011/02/09/reverse-outlines/

Notes

Several studies by Ronald T. Kellogg explore the benefits and drawbacks of outlining.

Rory D. Stevens wrote “Variations in Composing Style,” Journal of Advanced Composition, II(1-2), which is available at http://www.
jacweb.org/Archived_volumes/pdf_files/JAC2_Stephens.pdf

Quotations from Rachel Aaron are from “Interview” in The Spirit Thief (Orbit, 2010). Aaron posted a more detailed description of how she plots at http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-i-plot-novel-in-5-steps.html

For a self-scoring quiz on whether your brain tends to organize by outlining or by random association, see /quizzes/are-you-a-web-or-step-thinker/