As a news writer, I embrace the concept of stating your message as concisely as possible. As a creative writer, I also love to wrap myself in imagery. Maybe I am wrong, but I get the feeling most people familiar with news writing think creative writing by its nature is wordy.
If that’s what you think, then I disagree. Whether writing for news sources or recreational sources, your goal should be to get your message across without using redundant words, not necessarily to cut useful information for the sake of word count. Superfluity is where writing goes wrong, and it happens in all genres.
For example, I just read a sentence that says, “… 88 presenters from 20 different departments at …” Did you catch it?
I’ll give you a hint. I re-wrote the sentence to say, “… 88 presenters from 20 departments at …”
To be clear, yes, these were 20 departments within the same institution. Therefore, telling your audience the departments are different is unnecessary and verbose.
(I badly wanted to say “completely unnecessary,” but then I would be missing my point.)
My best tips for avoiding wordiness:
Read your draft multiple times.
Read it out loud. (Sure, you may feel silly talking to yourself, but reading aloud is a good skill to practice.)
Don’t just use a phrase because it’s common or comfortable. Make each word serve a purpose.
I was typing an email this morning to my husband’s cousin, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to end it. As one of my favorite people in the whole world and someone in my extended family, I do love her. But closing an email with “love” doesn’t seem to be something my husband’s family uses often (or ever?) So, while with my family I would normally say “Love” or something similar, I wasn’t exactly sure how to end it. But I knew it had to be something stellar. After all, she sent me some snail mail recently addressed to, “The Fabulous, Beautiful Kandi.”
“Websearcher” definitely had some great suggestions, especially for the professional world. I find “Best Regards” (and my friend @VanaeShope agreed) to be a favorite for business emails, especially ones sent to international clients. It’s fairly neutral, and I always try to be wary of how things will be taken by other cultures. And most often, I use “Thank you” in business emails.
But back to my dilemma this morning. How did I solve it? I went with “YOU are the beautiful, fabulous one!” She truly is.
What unique phrases do you use to close your emails?
It’s official – KandiKreatives Mag “Pieces of Me” is now in print … if you consider a blogazine “in print.” In the very least, it is no longer a dream. I still have plenty of work to do to really get it going such as styling it, but I decided in this case it may be best to work backwards – just do it! Then worry about how it looks.
The point is number one on my list of ways to amp up my writing is now in the works. I’m hoping it will also help keep me in practice with another hobby of mine: photography. Afterall, what would a blogazine be without pictures?
And since I am a natural-born cheerleader and everyone needs a little encouragement (especially from themselves!), it’s time for one of my favorite cheers (learned while playing a slot machine at Harrah’s in Cherokee): Go Kandi, go! Go Kandi, go! Go Kandi, Go Kandi, Go Kandi, GO!
Eight months have passed since my last blog post? What happened? Several things: lack of passion, lack of focus, and lack of time because I had a baby. Maybe it would be better to say my priorities temporarily changed. Thanks to my friend @VanaeShope, I was reminded that some people do enjoy my writing and maybe I should get back to it. So, what’s next?
For starters, I hope to launch a second blog – ironic I know since I’m having trouble committing to this one. But I actually think a second blog may be one of the answers to my lack of interest in blogging. My inspiration for a while has been to start KandiKreatives Mag – a magazine blog that will allow me to write about any topic I am inspired by. And the pieces of that blog that fit into public relations, writing, branding, presentation, etc, will fit nicely with this blog. I have always wanted my own magazine. Granted, I always imagined it would have pages you could hold in your hands, I am excited to get started on this next project. Besides, the more I write … well, the more I’ll write. Right? (Did I take that too far?)
Second, and this one’s tougher, when I am inspired to write a blog post, I need to make notes or put it in a voice recorder. It’s best to write during your creative time of the day. My challenge is that my creative time is in the morning when I’m in the shower and driving to work – not exactly opportune moments to whip out a blog post. So, maybe a voice recorder is my answer. Then my challenge will be moving my message from recorder to keyboard, but hey, it’s baby steps.
Third, when I am typing a blog post, I need to tune out the rest of the world. I keep getting distracted by a Twitter or Facebook post and my mind gets off track. Currently, I’m having a very tough time finishing this post with all the excitement over the Royal Wedding (sorry to the folks who are tired of hearing about it, but it’s a historic moment and I had to record it.)
So, this morning I was listening to “Unwritten” by Natasha Beddingfield on Pandora, and the lyrics were exactly what I was thinking about my blog – today is where my book begins and the rest is still unwritten.
So, the journey to a wider writing vocabulary begins. My first word of the day is (cue drum roll)
bedizen
\bih-DY-zuhn\ , transitive verb;
1.To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.
I love this word – it’s already got me thinking about my current favorite movie, The Blind Side, which I watched for the first time Sunday night … “I will not wear that gaudy orange!”
And now for my first sentence:
Sports fans unfamiliar with Vol-Nation probably think Vol fans bedizen themselves for football games.
What sentence have you thought of using bedizen?
Do you have a word you think I should learn for my Word of the Day expedition? Be sure the share it with me!
The word impromptu popped in my head this morning as I was driving to work (I love that word!) which prompted me to consider ways to expand my vocabulary. I have been writing news for 10 years, and news writing is all about simplified words. While I like simple, I love words. When I am writing, I get energized when I find a word that has the exact meaning I wish to convey. Sometimes these words do not work well for news and I have to opt for a simpler synonym, but now that I am an academic news writer in the medical arena by day, I find that using perplexing words is widely accepted. While thesaurus.com and dictionary.com are two of my best friends, I think it’s time to begin some vocabulary exercises.
As I follow @dictionarycom on Twitter and (almost) always read the word of the day, I realize I need a way to get new words to stick. Just reading a “word of the day” is not getting the job done. In high school, I found that I typically learn best by writing something down. So, I have decided that in addition to discovering a new word, I will plan to write a couple of sentences using my new word and then at the end of each week, I will write a paragraph using all of my new words from that week or month. (Writing exercises … bonus!) This should be interesting; definitely stay tuned.
What exercises do you do to expand your vocabulary? Better yet, which words do you like that I should learn? Submissions will be happily accepted via the comments section or on Twitter @kandikreatives.
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