This workshop was presented to help demystify some parts of the writing process that, when put in a practical light, have the potential to help anyone tap their writing gift as well as share it with the wider world in today's media context. Enjoy!

1. Finding the joy in
writing and the courage
to share it, widely
A presentation that evaluates mainstream thinking and reactions
around writing rules in order to make them your own
Photo credit: Metatron Mandala by Soulscapes

2. Skill
A provocative edit of a talk byAllanWatts, entitled “Stop Competing
withYourself”

3. Your participation is key
• Empowering
• Sharing
• Rethinking the way you
write to enjoy the process
• Adding more purpose to
your pieces (doing more
things “on purpose”)
Photo credit:Unsplash/Nasa

4. “Everyone thinks they are a writer”
… because everyone IS a writer.
• Only difference between me and
you is how long I’ve been doing
it, with focus and determination
• Talent or skill—both depend on
time and practice
• Tools, e.g., morning pages
Image credit:Carli Jean,Unsplash

5. Who is your audience?
• Are they like you? Really?Are you
sure?
• Start out writing to yourself but keep
the sense of your audience—busy,
inundated with information, seeking
guidance but …
• Try, as a writer, not to underestimate
someone’s intelligence or
overestimate their knowledge
Image credit:Anna Dziubinska,Unsplash
Image credit:Anna Dziubinska,Unsplash

6. Identify and tame your critic
• You need your critic, like you need your mind
• You also need to know that it is constructive in the right place,
at the right time, and possibly destructive otherwise
• It is a participating member of the meeting within your mind,
not the dominant member

7. Budget your time
• You want to finish
• You have a deadline
• Build a timeline that allows for time away
and returning to the piece as a “new you”
• Embrace the process
• Editorial process—someone you trust
your baby with (or not)
• Read out loud, finishing touches
• This all depends on experience and
context Image courtesy:my instagram

8. The writing relationship process
• Romance/resonance
• Conception
• Incubation/growth
• Birth
• Taking your baby out in public
• Grace
Image credit:Casey Allen,Unsplash

9. Romance/Resonance
Essential
Short-lived
Passionate (how do we keep this alive?)
Critic is at the table, but is doodling in their notebook at this stage
Photo credit:Christopher Sardegna,Unsplash

10. Concept(ion)
• Concept
• Formulation
• Gathering—interviewing,
brainstorming, researching
• Essentials decided now, a lot left to
decide but it builds on this
• Critic is still scribbling but kind of
paying attention to make sure it’s all
feasible
• Innovator informs critic, critic advises Image courtesy: Skeeze, Pixabay

11. Research
Wikipedia—fantastic … start
You want confidence not just information
At least three reliable sources
Stop when themes repeat and you feel confident
Image credit:Joao Silas,Unsplash

12. Growth
• Surrender what you thought so you can integrate the new information
• Allow the idea to reveal itself
• Take time—some days where you revisit the ideas, in you mind
• Transcribe the interview
• Notice how your idea lives
• Brainstorm the story with friends—disguise it as a conversation topic
• Be open
Image courtesy:BlueTreeWith Blossom Bud Dimopoulos,Wikimedia commons

13. The fun-messy bit
• Put on some music, give yourself an hour
• Relax, breath
• Just start—claim the white space
• Tune in—free-form writing
• Critic leaves the room along with its
grammatical assistants,fact checkers and
media analysts
• Trust, let it flow, let it grow
• Passion leads in this phase
• Step back, take a break
Image credit:Jason Rosewell,Unsplash

14. Organizing matter so it matters
• Sit back down and look at this amorphous, potent information
• “Aha, now how will I turn this into a structured story?
• With a head
• A neck
• A heart
• Hands that reach out, guide a reader
• Feet that kick up the dust of the ordinary
• A soul that lives and haunts them to talk about it with their friends
• The real pushing begins, the story is being born
Image courtesy:Angelina Litvin,Unsplash

15. Managing the
emotions of those
first tender
moments
•Your baby is born
•You are tired
•You feel many things
•Mostly protective
•Take a break
•Budget at least a day away
•[You change in time, a lot—reread something you
wrote 2 years ago, do you recognize it?]
Image credit:Varshesh Joshi,Unsplash

16. Approaching the editorial process
• Yes, you can achieve the word limit, the critic is great to bring
back to the table here—and to lead this part of the process
• No matter the level, two pairs of eyes are better than one
• Clean it up—save the scraps somewhere
• Skilled editor: Luxury of time? Conversation is best, then
tracked changes and exchange, then just sending it off. Depends
on context.

17. Saying:“There are
no good writers,
just good editors.”
Is it true?!?
• Somebody did all the hard work
• Somebody had the intentions
• Somebody’s passion is on the line
• Work together—combine brains,
max this chance OUT
• Make it about the information,
the impact, the effect, not the ego
Image credit:Lukas Budimaier,Unsplash

18. Dressing up
• Enhance vs. distract
• Think: using every bit of space wisely
• Images—abstract OR precise, active,
inclusive
• Subheads (multipurpose, breakup/air
out content and act as transitions)
• Concision and cadence (getting to the
point, sentence lengths, repetition)
Image courtesy:Pixabay,Girl,With,Pink,Dress

19. The stuff editors look for
Socializing your child
Image credit:Abigail Keenan,UnsplashImage credit:emaze.com

20. Excessive length
• Context is everything
• A book is a book, a feature is a
feature, a blog is a blog
• 5-800 words, please
• Reader has expectations
• Meet them halfway
• Or give them a nap and a pass to
the next website
(It’s hard to cut sentences—save your
scraps in a separate document so you
feel less fear!) Photo credit:JordanWhitt,Unsplash

21. Repetition of words and ideas
• Same word twice in same sentence is a
wasted opportunity to enliven the point
• Putting people in a trance vs. actively
engaging them
• Look closely at your writing because
this is subtle. Do you really need to say
it two, three different ways? If so, good
you decided. If not, cut one of them.
• Consider this: Is it more important that
people read my piece all the way through or
that I tell them in three ways that,say,hot
dogs are processed and thus not healthy?
Image credit:Ng,Unsplash

22. No little (cookie) breaks??
Even if the topic is serious, breaking it up helps a reader to digest it
easily instead of feeling like they are cramming for an exam—that’s
really the way of the web and the modern attention span now, actually.
Image credit:Padurariu Alexandru,Unsplash

23. Burying the point
• Real-life, worldwide, readers have
options—it’s a competitive,
overkill market
• Readers like to be considered
• Readers want to know that the
writer understands that they are
busy, that their time is valuable
• Show them by getting to the point
and then elaborating
• Let the rest of the story back the
point up—tell the reader what on
Earth is going on,ASAP
Image credit:Auggie GomezVergera, augie.com.au

24. Tempo/sentence length variability
This is a pretty big deal
Snip apart compound sentences
Simple, compound, compound, simple, simple
Read out loud—feel the rhythm of the messages and how it helps energize the information
Image credit:Jamille Queiroz,Unsplash

25. Active vs. passive voice
• Research: passive (put the author’s voice and
interpretation behind the data)
• Mainstream media:ACTIVE
• Ever read a story that gets into your bones?
Motivates you to take action?
• You are telling a story—nouns, action verbs,
right up front doing something
• Our audience is only partially a research and/or
academic audience—they are a lay audience: a
group of very busy and information bombarded
people we wish to inform about something we
have the luxury of having experience with
Image credit:Adam Horton,Unsplash

26. (Un)supported claims
• “It’s highly effective” according to who? (Even “in my own
experience” is fine)
• “Research shows” (what research?)
• Superlatives—“the best,”“the biggest,”“the most respected”—
What? Really?Who said??
• We are on the web so we can link out, use video, draw on
resources and inspire confidence

27. Flow and transition
• Distinct yet related ideas in paragraphs
• Look at their levels of relationship
• Look carefully at their order, how they
build on one another, how they relate
(editing phase)
• Like music (parts and whole—effect)
• Transitions—sentences, words, ways to
keep the information humming along
• End provides a sense of closure, a moral,
a lift, a frame, or recaps beginning
Image credit:Andrew Bertram,Unsplash

28. Consistency with rules
Know the rules and break them, but break them consistently
Shows care, pre-meditation/deliberation
Inspires trust in the quality of the pub and the knowledge of the writer
Subtle yet important
Image courtesy:Lagos04,Unsplash

29. Levels of excitement
• Italics
• Bold
• Underlined
• Exclamation points!!
• ALL CAPS
• “Very”
• Feelings—but they are yours! Give
your audience room to find theirs.
Image credit:Davide Ragusa,Unsplash

30. GrammarCritical to flow and your credibility
Meeting common expectation around language
Most common things I see:
Image credit:Joao Silas,Unsplash

31. • British vs.American English—Bra-merican English
• Comma overuse or underuse (comma use without purpose)
• Use of “which” (British overuse relative toAmericans) and “that”—they are
different
• Hyphenation of compound non-adjective/non-descriptive phrases
• Misuse of semicolon and colon
• General inconsistency in rule application
• Capitalization of things for emphasis, inconsistently
• Spelling is another matter altogether but: to, too, its, it’s, where, were, we’re,
who’s, whose, etc.

32. Livening up the road ahead

33. A few requests to draw more
readers … and keep them
• Please provide minimum two, engaging images (Samahita image library or many
online free shots: https://bootstrapbay.com/blog/free-stock-photos/)
• Please consider your headline carefully, as part of hooking the reader (have
someone else brainstorm with you or think of one for you based on their reading of
the piece if you are tired at this point)
• Look in your piece, find the golden sentence and use it as a subhead
• Subheads will go under the title and for the subhead in the blog main page:
(172 characters no spaces/203 with spaces)
• Length—no longer than 800 words, and please split it up with …
• Section heads

34. Support
I am here, just let me know a time—my work is subject to your
feedback as well. Let’s have a conversation.This is not one-way.
Image credit:Kyle Szegedi,Unsplash

35. Making this information yours
Ideas and practices to help you hone your public-facing writing skills
—give your light some elegance.
Image courtesy:Kim Greenhalgh,Unsplash

36. Critique stories
• Go to a reputable publication
• Find an article you want to read about
• Read it
• Read it again as if you were an editor
and wanted to make it better
• Rewrite it based on what you would
do with the information
Image credit:Sergey Zolkin,Unsplash

37. Mine sites for what works
• Look around who is succeeding at
getting this kind of content viral:
Mind Body Green, Elephant Journal,Huff
Post Health, others?
• What is it that they are doing? List all
of the things you love about their
content—think critically
Image courtesy:social media policies,cdc.gov

38. Step into another
writer’s shoes
• Pick a favorite writer
• Read a chapter of their work
• Read it critically—looking for
what about the writing makes it
unique
• Write a story about your day, a
past event, a fantasy that
incorporates their techniques
Image credit:Wikipedia (Eileen Chang)

39. The magical rear-view mirror
Look back at something you wrote a year ago
Do you remember writing these exact words?
Would you think, feel or write the same way?
What useful insight can you gain with this experience?
Image credit: BoriskinVladislav, Unsplash

40. Morning pages
• Every morning, spend a set amount of
time writing
• No editing
• No critiquing
• No stopping
• Just write whatever you want and
don’t stop until the time is up
Image credit:Mine,Instagram

41. Enjoy!