Write Music

A tip on writing.

Welcome to the inaugural “Just the Good Points” newsletter. While it’s another newsletter hitting your inbox, at least it’s not a podcast.

I will keep these as short as possible with the hopes of giving you, busy reader, one or two communications-related ideas or insights. “Insights” being short for things I find interesting (and hope you do to) in and around comms and messaging work.

I will start by sharing one of my favorite writing tips from Gary Provost, author of 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing: Proven Professional Techniques for Writing with Style and Power.

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.

The part about being certain the reader is rested resonates most with me. I’ll talk more in a later “Just the Good Points” about writing from the reader's perspective vs the writer's perspective. Big picture, though, I think many issue advocacy-type comms (e.g., op-eds, blogs) suffer from not being thoughtful enough of the reader. Some of this is content issues (e.g., too much data). But some of it is style (an opening sentence that stretches on for 30-40 words).

So, I like to keep this tip from Gary in mind when I’m nearly finished with a piece of writing. I go back through, not always successfully, and I try to write music.