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Summary: Writing is hard, even for writers. These five techniques will make your writing chores easier, and your writing livelier.

Total words: 800

Category: Small Business

Five easy ways to add punch to your words

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

Writing is hard, even for writers. These five techniques will make your writing chores easier, and your writing livelier.

It's time to write something important, and your palms sweat. You force yourself to write, while gritting your teeth and hating every moment of process. Your palms sweat some more. And your head aches, because you realize that your words have all life of roadkill. Why is it that more important writing task, more lifeless your words? Maybe it's performance anxiety. You tense up, instead of letting words flow.

Try these five easy ways to add punch to your words:

1. Get conversational, and write fast

When you're writing, imagine you're talking to someone. Just having a quiet chat. You want to tell them about whatever it is you're writing about.

To make this easier, write in form of a letter: "Dear Joanne Let me tell you about..."

Write quickly, exactly as you'd speak. Don't worry about grammar, spelling and typos. Just blurt out whatever you have to say.

Force yourself to do this by setting a time limit. Set a timer for five minutes. Tap out (or write, if you're using pen and paper) any kind of gibberish at all for five minutes. Turning off your monitor helps, because it stops you seeing words and going back to correct typos.

2. Get specific

Want to write waffle? Generalize. Like in this sentence from a real estate agent's ad for a house:

"You are certain to be impressed by space in this three bedroom family home."

I looked at photo of house, and wrote:

"Shaded by palms and eucalypts and surrounded by a well- maintained garden, this three bedroom, honey-gold brick mini- mansion offers your family space to play and grow. "

Not Shakespeare, but words describe this house specifically.

3. Get sensuous

Be a reporter. Use your senses. What can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste?

Key to success is avoiding hype

For small business owner, advertising is a critical expense that helps to drive customers through doors or to a website on Internet in hopes that they will spend their money. With tight ad budgets, small businesses need their advertising to payoff every time. Ads that result in no sales are simply wasted money.

There are countless online articles that tell you to use words “free”, “guaranteed”, and “limited time offer” in your advertising to boost sales. They work, however ongoing overuse of these words has reduced their effectiveness somewhat. When you’re writing your next ad, keep following advice in mind when if you plan to use these key advertising terms.

“Free” – Getting something for nothing has universal appeal and is a strong attention getter. Where most businesses fail is that they give away something that is essentially useless, leading customers to believe that your business falls into same category (i.e. “useless”). For example, many websites give away free “e-books”, in order to entice potential customers to visit their site. The e-book itself is usually loaded with advertising and links to website, and contains very little real, valuable information.