Writing well is tough!. The details come with practice, and truly great writing must have every base covered.  However here are a couple simple things that should be done in every piece of writing you do, and I do mean EVERY bit of writing, whether it is a 140 character social media update, a journal entry, love letter, shopping list, or thesis paper. 

1. Ask yourself what the goal is for writing in the first place.  Before you even get a sentence down, why are you writing at all? This is often a tough one, but it is the most important.  If you don’t have a reason to write, then don’t! The world is cluttered with meaningless bad writing, don’t add to it.

 I’m not talking about simple reasons like “I want to finish the first two pages of my English paper before midnight.” Or “I’m going to write a blog post about Ignite Boulder.”  Both of these reasons will probably result in junk. Think deeper!  It should be something like: “I want to formalize the important lessons I’ve learned about writing into a simple, understandable list while maintaining the reputation of my blog portraying things from a unique perspective.” Or “I want to share how much I’m enjoying my new camera with the hope that better photographers than myself will leak  jewels of useful knowledge because I show photographer potential, drive to learn, and a capable mind, as well as humble appreciation.”

2. Target your audience.  Who do you want to read your writing? Is it the general twitterverse or a panel of field experts? This helps shape word choice, structure, and length.

3. How much info are you sharing? Whether there is a 140 character limit or a 140 page minimum it is important to assess this before beginning.

4. Rough it out. The first three steps serve to focus the mind on the essential parameters.  Now let the creativity and thoughts flow onto the page!  This stage can be like a dam breaking, as the ideas often come faster than we write.  As the ideas start to slow a bit read back over what you’ve just written to give important ideas forgotten in the initial flood a chance to reappear.

5. Review. Keeping, your goals, your target audience, and your info volume in mind, read over everything you just wrote implementing the hack-and-slash edit approach as you remove parts that don’t fit, combine duplicate sections, elaborate on important subjects, and refine rough parts.

This is a good time to do an initial spelling/grammar check as well, as this is imperative before finalizing.

6. Gut check: Is it still worth it? At this stage take a step back and look at the entire piece.  Does it make sense? Do you think it will accomplish the goals? If not, shelve the idea and try again.  It is far better to take time finding the correct approach rather than to force a bad piece into existence just because you’ve already started. 

This is also the place where the world is saved from drunken texts and angry rants.  If you get a bad feeling about what you just wrote, and think it could be taken the wrong way, or backlash somehow than take a moment to step back and judge whether it’s appropriate.

7. Correct spelling and grammar. It is essential to show the reader that you appreciate the time spent reading what you wrote, and because you are proud of it, you took the time to make sure there are no errors. Many readers will get annoyed if there are obvious spelling or grammar mistakes, and some will even quit reading altogether. 

8. Final polish. Tweak words, massage phrases, add clarification, check punctuation so that each thought is expressed pleasantly and succinctly. This is where your vocabulary comes in. Words in the English language are constantly evolving new meanings.  Make sure you’ve used powerful ones where you want them, and that each sentence says exactly what you intend it to.

Also read it out loud. It will help catch final mistakes, judge flow, and force you to step back away from the details and see the piece as a whole. This is especially important if you don’t have someone else around to look it over.

9. Publish it. Often we write in a different media format than it is read in, so do a final check to make sure original information was preserved.  Do you have a subject line in your email?  Is paragraph formatting correct? Do special symbols and characters show up the way you want them to? Blogs often go to online readers immediately, and do not regularly check for updates; texts and emails are difficult to recall, letters are hard to intercept, all of these are reasons to get it right the first time.

That’s it!  Remember, often these steps can be combined.  A tweet or text for instance already has a predefined audience and length, so you can go straight from defining your goal to writing, do a quick scan for errors and publish.

Writing is quickly becoming the most common form of communication in our culture.  What you write says a lot about who you are, so make sure everything you write says exactly what you want it to, and shows the world the person you want to show off.

When you are confident your writing is succinct and effective try implementing some of these strategies into other actions and communications.  Meetings, events, conversations, dates, photos, art projects and every day actions will all go smoother and mean more if they include a moment of “what do I hope to accomplish with this?”  It will soon become subconscious, and add meaning to every moment without you realizing it.

Happy Communicating, Doing, Being, and Manifesting!