Writing With Less Effort and Stress
Does business writing stress you out? Do you sit fighting writer’s block all day long? Here’s a way to get the writing done, with less effort, and probably better results. Use a three step process, spread over three or more days.
Day 1: I just review the material, familiarizing myself with the ideas and context. If I’m writing something from scratch I make notes or even a mind map (a diagram of the way the idea or argument flows). No writing is done this day, just a gathering of thoughts into some sort of order.
Day 2: Now I write, and perhaps even rewrite, based on the thoughts I’ve developed over the past 24 hours or more. My experience has been that if I carry the ideas around from the first day long enough, the article will just about write itself. So, unless I have a deadline, I don’t rush to write. Conversely, if I’m having trouble getting something written, I presume I’m not yet ready and set the project aside if I can.
On the third day of the process, I edit what I’ve written. It helps to put at least a day between writing and the editing sessions, because the assumptions that guided me during the writing may not seem so clear a day later. In addition, I can more objectively judge what I’ve written if some time passes. When I’m writing for clients, I like to come back to a piece of writing once a day for several days before submitting it.
It’s a simple process, but one that allows me to make the most of my communication skills. I don’t sit for hours trying to figure out what I want to say, or how I want to say it. Instead, I let my subconscious mind do a lot of the work while I’m doing other things.
In summary, this three step writing process – familiarization, writing, and revising – allows me to do a better job on my business writing projects, and to do it with less effort.
