As a marketer, I have missed the mark. Being able to write well is the trademark of a great marketer; which I aspire to be. It is the one subject I wish I would have tried a little harder in while in High School, though I will admit that much of that class time was completely wasted on “great” literature like the Great Gatsby or A Mid Summers Dream.
Being able to communicate clearly through the written word is a vital skill I am missing.
So, here is my plan to do something about it.
- Reading: One of the ways I learn best is reading. A few books I will be diving into over the next few months to better understand writing are:
- Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
- Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose
- On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
- The Robert Collier Letter Book
- Writing That Works; How to Communicate Effectively In Business
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- The Elements of Style
- Deconstion: From the books I read, I’m going to attempt to break down the basic building blocks of what makes good writing (non-fiction) and then sequence them in the right order to master.
- Selection: After deconstruction, I will attempt to select the most imminent parts to master. With any subject, not all parts are equal in importance.
- Practice: This is an obvious step that can not be missed. All writers will tell you that nothing beats putting the pen to the paper when it comes to improving your writing. This blog is a relatively safe place for practicing and, with your help, I might get some good feedback 😉
- Create a Stake: The lack of motivation is the real enemy to any mastering new skill, so a both a stick and a carrot will be needed to move me along this process. Essentially I need to commit to a project of some kind that will be painful to back out of. If you have any ideas of what that could be, let me know in the comments.
