Writing Advice From A Word Nerd

A Witty Guide To Creating Conversational Authenticity

You should listen to me. I’m a total word nerd. Well, actually, you should READ me. Don’t listen to me. My voice sounds like Minnie Mouse during an acid trip. I can’t fix the way I speak, but I can definitely tell you how to be a better writer.

I have a bachelor’s degree in English, my second book will be published in December by Rowman & Littlefield, I can beat almost anyone at Scrabble, and I happily proofread my friends’ doctorate theses for fun. I’m not bragging by telling you these things. I’m just letting you know why you should keep reading this story and why you should believe what I have to say about writing. There are a boatload of folks that write about things they have no business writing about. I’m not one of them.

The fact of the matter is that there are different types of writing for different types of situations. In this piece, I’ll be mostly addressing writing for conversational pieces, so if you’re looking for a guide on how to write your next case study for your MBA class, this isn’t the place. If you’re hoping to be a better blogger, I invite you to pull up a virtual chair.

As with most things in the world, tone is everything. Writing is no different. And the tone of your writing or blogging should be appropriate to whomever you’re addressing. But, how does a person discern tone from an inaudible medium? Well, you hear it. If you’re ever confused as to what style of writing you should use, you should consider how you would talk out loud to your reader. That’s pretty much always the answer.

If you’re drinking beer with your buddies and discussing what the next Marvel movie will be, you’ll probably speak significantly differently than you would when you’re in your boss’s office asking for a raise. (If you don’t, that could be a problem). This should be no different in your writing. Your writing in a business setting should be different than your writing for a blog. This is simply because your audience and environment are different.

How do you make sure your tone is appropriate for your reader? Well, you read it. Out loud. Or you read it silently, but you should always “hear” your reading in your head. This may sound silly, but it absolutely works. (Trust me, my husband is over me asking him if I can read to him. But I don’t care!) Reading things aloud helps you “hear” your writing the way your reader ingests it. Here are some rules for reading your writing that will help you hone any piece:

Rule #1: Read every word

You know what you meant when you wrote it, but when you read your writing aloud, you absolutely must not skip over or add any words. If you feel that you do need to add words and/or skip things, then that means you need to edit your writing.

The minute you discover that you verbally added or omitted a word, stop, drop, and rewrite. Stop reading your piece immediately and insert or omit the word(s) you changed to make your writing sound better. Then reread the altered sentence out loud. AAAHHHH. That should feel much better.

Additionally, don’t be afraid of words like “but” or “um”. If you’re writing a conversational piece, your reader wants to hear your true voice. Think of it from a marketing standpoint. The advice, experience, or life lessons that you are attempting to convey come from, well, you! So, if you try to sound like anyone other than yourself, that’s almost false marketing. Be real. Be you. And add or subtract words from your writing to make you sound more authentic.

Rule #2: Stop at punctuation

That’s actually the point of punctuation. Punctuation adds air to your writing. Every period, comma, and parenthesis should mean either a short stop, a long stop, or a lowered “voice” in your writing. (By the way, you’re STILL reading your piece aloud even though we have moved on to another rule)! Here is the cheat sheet of how to treat some of the most common punctuation in the English language:

• Period — 1/4 second stop. A period should separate your ideas so readers can take a beat to digest what you’re trying to convey.
• Comma — Pause (when commas aren’t separating lists of items, it can usually be read with a tilted head — try it)
• Parenthesis — An aside. You can read what is inside a parenthesis in your best impression of a town gossip whispering behind her hand in church.
• Question mark — An invitation to participate. Even if you answer your own question in your writing, a question mark is still an invitation for the reader to answer a question or an invitation for them to think of a potential answer. I recommend a sensible eyebrow raise with a question mark.
• Colon — Pulling a rabbit out of a hat. What is before the colon in your writing should be the equivalent of you showing your audience the hat and whatever you put after the colon is pulling the rabbit out. Ta da!
• Exclamation point — Drama. Exclamation points can mean Seinfeld drama, Taylor Swift drama, or cheerleader drama, but an exclamation point always adds DRAMA!
• Ellipsis — The annoying old uncle. You know that guy. He’s either too sauced to complete his sentence and dozes off in the middle . . . or he waits too long to deliver the punch line. Basically, an ellipsis indicates a long pause or a pause so long that . . . zzzzzzzzzz.

Rule #3: Read with your heart

People want to read what you have to say, so if you’re not writing about something that truly means something to you, you’re not going to be an effective writer. In essence, if you’re a writer, you’re marketing yourself in addition to conveying information. Whether you’re writing about optimizing your content for SEO or sharing some life lessons learned from your grandmother, you’re still . . . you.

So, if you finish a piece and begin to read it aloud (as you SHOULD BECAUSE IT WILL IMPROVE YOUR WRITING), it should tickle your heart strings a little bit. You should internally giggle at your wittiness or pine over a lost love. Whatever your writing is about, it should make you feel something. Yes, I know some of you write about technological advances and business strategies. That’s great (better you than me), but if you feel nothing when you read your piece aloud, you’re missing something.

See, we humans love to connect with other humans on an emotional level. We tell stories, we share a part of our guts with one another through these squiggles on our screens and pages that we call words. If you’re writing about how to grow your business, then you should include how you feel about growing yours. If you’re writing about marketing, it should give you joy to share your wisdom with other people in a fun or informative way.

The point is that if you read whatever you’ve written aloud and you don’t feel happy, sad, proud, or some other emotion, then you need to get back in there and rewrite.

I truly believe that we all have something to say. We have some little piece of our wisdom, our life lessons, our expertise, or our souls to share with others and I am so happy that Medium has given so many of us a vehicle to do this. Writing has so much power to change the world. If you can improve the clarity and authenticity with which you share your experience and wisdom with others, we will be all the better for it.

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