Tag: Point of View

Posted on

Write for a Win-Win

When was the last time you heard someone say, “That’s a Win-Win?” That doesn’t work in baseball, football, basketball, and all the other sports. For a team to win, the other team has to lose, and for some reason people don’t like losing.

Okay, you know that. But how does win-win apply to writing? I’m glad you asked.

The answer is based on understanding. Author, speaker, and mentor Stephen R. Covey said in Habit #5 in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” Learning to actively understand someone else and his/her point of view is mandatory to effectively communicate our thoughts.

That’s why we must know our target audience. We need to understand their interests, goals, needs, etc. If we understand them, our writing can appeal to them. They will enjoy our writing and we will sell more books. That is a Win-Win.

So invest the time necessary to establish and understand your target audience. You must write YOUR story in a manner that THEY understand and appreciate it.

That is the writers’ Win-Win. So make sure you …

Write Creatively

Posted on

Set Your Imagination Free

On Monday morning, the teacher gave the economics class the assignment: “You have until Friday morning to write and hand in a three to five-page article about a dime.” Many of the kids thought it was a silly topic, but it shouldn’t be too hard. But one boy just couldn’t figure what in the world there would be to write about, and went to the teacher to protest.

“What’s there to write about? It’s just a thin, little old dime. How could I possibly get enough information for three pages?”

“Well, George, let me ask you a few questions.

  1. Why is it called a dime?
  2. What’s it made out of?
  3. What’s on the edge of the dime?
  4. Who’s image is on it, and why was he chosen?”

That was enough to get George started. But he ran into another problem, and three days later approached the teacher after class.

“Teacher, I might be in trouble. I thought about your questions and looked up a lot of info, but a whole lot of other ideas popped up that I had to include.”

“What’s the problem, George?

“You gave a limit of five pages. I tried in every way possible, but I just can’t cut the page count lower than ten.”

The teacher smiled because she had succeeded in helping another student learn how to use his imagination. “Well, don’t tell anyone in class, and I’ll let you get by this time.”

So, as you write, do not limit your thinking to what you know. Climb out of your self-imposed or culturally-imposed intellectual prison. Practice writing from various points of view. Practice replacing adjectives with verbs. Practice replacing narrative with action. Look up information about writing. Study various writing skills. But most importantly, be fully informed about your topic. Writing is complex, but it can be easy.

You get the point. As you broaden your writing ability, you’ll deepen your message, and you’ll be able to …

Write Creatively