| Organizing Your Data to Write Better Copy | | | | Weed out any repetition or weak data. Now you |
| | | | work on flow. Do you have a logical flow of |
| | | | ideas that your reader can follow? Are you |
| | | | telling him/ her a story that you yourself |
| Last quarter I talked about interviewing / | | | | could believe in? |
| gathering data. So now you've got several | | | | |
| thousand words of notes, hopefully digitally | | | | You will go through the same exercise with |
| recorded. What comes next? | | | | the remaining blocks of notes, ie "B","C" and |
| | | | "D". |
| GETTING ORGANIZED | | | | |
| | | | EDITING IS PRIORITIZING |
| I suggested organizing your interview | | | | |
| questions into 4 groups. I'm going to label | | | | Editing is prioritizing. Often you will want |
| them for you A, B, C, D. | | | | to limit a list of ideas to 3. Three has a |
| | | | flow to it. And is about as much as any |
| ·what is the business problem? = A | | | | reader or listener can grasp at one sitting. |
| | | | |
| ·what is the high level solution? = B | | | | Finally you polish. Now you are reading for |
| | | | flow or musicality.You are cutting out |
| ·can you tell me more about the solution? | | | | superfluous ideas and words. |
| = C | | | | |
| | | | This is the long way to write. |
| ·why should I trust you (as my vendor?) = | | | | |
| D | | | | THE SHORT WAY TO WRITE |
| | | | |
| Any decent piece of writing has a beginning, | | | | The short way is to sift and prioritize all |
| a middle and an end. So before you start | | | | your notes in your mind ie you turn on your |
| editing / writing you want a map, to show you | | | | thinking tool. The key idea will pop into |
| where you are going. Take a blank sheet of | | | | view, and hey presto, you begin writing about |
| paper, write four major headings and label | | | | that one. You have a feeling for what comes |
| them A, B, C, D, as above. | | | | next and what after that. You understand how |
| | | | to prioritize your ideas. Soon with a bit of |
| Now read your notes. When you find data | | | | jiggling ideas around the page, your story |
| relevant to "A" (the business problem), | | | | has a beginning, a middle and an end. |
| underline that copy and mark a big "A" in the | | | | |
| margin (in red?) . Keep working through until | | | | You can teach yourself the short way by |
| you have marked up relevant copy for all four | | | | writing the long way, again and again. Or by |
| sections of your piece. | | | | turning copy round in the middle of the night |
| | | | for an 07.00am deadline as I often had to do |
| You will be leaving out anything that does | | | | as a newspaper feature writer. |
| not seem suitable as you go. | | | | |
| | | | "When we encounter a natural style, we are |
| THE CUT AND PASTE JOB | | | | astonished and delighted: for we expected to |
| | | | see an author, and we find a man." Blaise |
| Next comes a cut and paste job. Group | | | | Pascal. Quoted with thanks to John R. |
| together all the "A"s, then the "B"s, "C"s | | | | Trimble, Writing with Style published by |
| and "D"s. | | | | Prentice Hall. |
| | | | |
| Next, take a look at all the ideas you have | | | | Do you have a robust marketing plan to |
| in the A group. It helps if you take a new | | | | execute against? How clear and persuasive is |
| sheet of paper and write a list of the ideas | | | | your website, brochure copy or direct mail? |
| or facts in the A group. Now prioritize. Be | | | | Call Neroli Lacey NOW to win more business |
| ruthless. And trust your first instinct. If | | | | TODAY. |
| an idea seems to leap out and have life, put | | | | |
| it first. The less important ones come later. | | | | CALL ++ 612. 215. |