Six-Figure Freelancer Blog

Harness the writing process to become more effective (and efficient) writer

If you want to become a more effective (and efficient) writer, you need to harness the writing process. First off, to be effective any document should AIAA:
- Capture Attention
- Maintain Interest
- Influence Attitude
- Motivate Action

To be effective, you need to AIAA in that order. If you do not capture my attention, I will not read. If you do not hold my interest, I will stop reading. If you do not influence my attitude, I will not act – even if I am predisposed to doing what you want. (Think about elections: you might support a particular party but if the party leader or party platform does not inspire you, you may not act – vote.
The party must influence your attitude before you will act.) And finally, if you do not motivate me to act – could be as simple as telling me what to do and when to do it (and sometimes how to do it) – I may not act.

Be specific
When asking people to act, be specific. For instance, if you want me to do something by a certain date, say so. Do not say “ASAP”. When you say “ASAP” you might mean today or tomorrow. But my interpretation could be as soon as it is possible for me to get around to it – as in next week.

Note: In advertising, motivation often includes time-limited incentives, such a discounts or give-aways.

As the subject line of this blog post indicates, writing is a process. Effective (and efficient) writers spend:
- 40% of their time planning
- 25% of their time writing
- 35% of their time revising

Less effective and less efficient writers spend more time on projects and distribute time differently:
- 20% planning
- 60% writing (writing, pausing, sighing, tinkering…)
- 20% revising

The key to effective writing is to invest more time up front:
- Planning (thinking about your topic, audience, purpose, scope, media)
- Research (conducting appropriate internal or external research)
- Organization (creating an outline)

If you do all of the above, you no longer start writing with a blank screen. You start with an outline - the points you want to make in the order you want to make them. This means you no longer have to remember everything you want to write about; it’s all there in front of you, in the form of a logical outline. You simply write from outline point to outline point, kind of like Tarzan swinging through the jungle from vine to vine to vine…

When you finish a first draft, you edit and proofread. With that in mind, write with grammar and spell check off. When you let your computer tell you that you’ve made a mistake, you tend to edit as you write, which is inefficient. It can also make you less effective as you ten to lose your train of thought when you edit while writing.

One final point
Before you write, determine your true business purpose and work it into your first sentence or your first paragraph. Doing so will help you capture the attention of the reader. Also, if the reader knows what you want up front, then he or she will be reading your email message or document with your purpose in mind. That helps hold interest. You still have to influence attitude. However, when you start with purpose, you are half way there.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer, copywriter, business writing trainer and media interview trainer.