Write what you *don’t* know (yet)
Write what you know is standard advice for authors, playwrights, screenwriters.
But this week I’m advising… not for you.
When you need to write about & for your business, you may not have the luxury of waiting until you know. And, you may not really know until you start writing it out.
I’m all about buttoned-up business writing. Be clear. Keep it short. Make it a joy to read. Edit meticulously. But there’s value to ‘writing messy’. Many of us figure things out as we write.
The process of writing, the act of choosing the words, helps us work out our own thoughts. Writing help us figure it out.
I love a shitty first draft.
That’s the draft where you pump out all your ideas, stream-of-consciousness style. You type/write as fast as you think, not to write well; but in order not to lose a single idea. You can start without even know the ending.
It has taken me lots of practice to not edit as I go; not stew over this word or that; not think too much about the reader. Not until I’ve emptied my head anyway. I always start with a shitty first draft to get everything out, as quick as it comes. When a new idea pops up, even mid-sentence, I just hit [hard return] and keep typing. I know folks who prefer pen-on-paper to connect with their body and get into flow.
Get it all out, then go back and clean up the mess.
(Thank heavens for computers where we can move things around after the fact. Flashback to me in my university res room, with snippets of white paper holding one or two paragraphs each, taped together in a long string that flows from the ceiling, down the wall and across the floor. A 10-page paper taped together one paragraph at a time, ready to then be re-typed, white-out at hand. Sigh. I am that old.)
Self-editing as you write is a hard habit to break. Here’s what I do to resist the urge and keep moving:
write/type ‘blah blah blah’ - yes, literally - when you’re not sure what to say, to signal there’s more but you don’t have the words yet
use ‘not these words’ or underline/highlight phrases when you know you want to say *this* and you also know you *don’t want to say it like this*
decide whether you’re going to research first, research as you go, or research after. Sometimes I go hunt for the quote I’m thinking of, because it’s on the tip of my tongue, driving me crazy and I know I won’t be able to keep typing ‘til I have the words right. Other times I want to keep going and “insert quote here” is as much effort as I want to give at that moment.
Don’t let any thought die on the sharp point of word-searching. Let it out. Polish it later.
Write about it, before you write ‘it’.
I’m not a business coach. I have had the benefit of ALOT of business coaching. And I hear it all the time: write the Sales Page before you’ve built the program. Write your Speaker Page before you’ve finished the speech. As you answer your own questions about how to promote your Thing, you’ll figure out what the Thing needs to be.
For example, you’re dreaming up a group yoga program, delivered via video, that clients can do whenever it’s convenient.
Don’t stare at the ceiling while your head figures it all out; sketch out your Sales Page copy in the middle of your dreaming. Common Sales Page sections are Who It’s For; What You Get; Why Me? Why Now? Write those Who It’s For bullets before you’ve fleshed out the avatar. You know generally that it’s for women who need a break from busy lives. You start choosing the words for those 5-7 bullets and you realize it’s for
New mums
With schedules ruled, not by them, but by their darling baby
Who have never been hard-core gym rats, yet know that movement feels good
With a to-do list so long and aspirational, they can only give 5-10 minutes to any one task
And appreciate that even a little is better than none to relieve them from tension, brain-fog, and gym-guilt
That is a totally different list of descriptors than…
C-suite executives
Exhausted when it’s time to crawl into bed
But knowing, once again, they’ll toss & turn while they rehash the day
Who want soft sounds and stretches to help them unwind
And are willing to try a new before-bed yoga practice to release racing thoughts
That’s why the headlines, subject lines and blog titles often come last. Because you work it out as you go, you write through the details, and then… when it’s all out, you’re way more clear on what this Thing is than you were when you started.
Decide. Declare. Become.
And, my favourite part of choosing words is the affirming quality of articulation. When you write down your title, your topic, your tagline… it becomes real. You feel it. You own it. Writing is one way to declare your intention. It’s more physical than thinking about it, and lasts longer than speaking it out loud. (Writing it down plus saying it out loud, for other people to hear and read, is even more powerful!)
I will admit (way down here, at the bottom of this blog, because I’m uncomfortable about my need for reassurance) that my ultimate reward in what I do comes when someone publishes their website, thanks me for my writing help, and admits that now their business feels REAL, and their commitment feels TRUE, because the words are there in front of them and everyone.
We’re all figuring it out as we go along. Writing it out, writing it down, doesn’t come after the figuring out. It is part of the figuring out.