Structure your message like Tom Wolfe, William Faulkner — and me
When William Faulkner couldn’t figure out how to structure A Fable, he wrote a simple outline — directly onto the wall of his writing sanctuary.… Read the full article
Writing and editing
How-to story example: The American Egg Board
Tipsheets are an eggcellent idea, demonstrates this Silver Anvil winner
When Americans bought more plastic and candy eggs and fewer real eggs for Easter 2012, the American Egg Board turned to Edelman to take back Easter.… Read the full article
How-to story map: Green Apple Day of Service
Silver Anvil winner gets attention with tipsheets
When PR pros at the U.S. Green Building Council needed to round up resources in their Green Apple Day of Service, they didn’t write stories telling volunteers to get donations.… Read the full article
Try this how-to story template
Tips for writing a tipsheet
Service stories aren’t news articles. Which means that the inverted pyramid isn’t the right structure.
Instead, use the feature-style story structure, and organize your piece like this:
Introduce your piece in the intro.
… Read the full articleHow to write a how-to story
7 steps for tipsheets
When the folks at Topolobampo, Chicago’s cathedral to Mexican cuisine, wanted to sell more syrah, they didn’t put signs on the tables saying “Buy wine!”… Read the full article
Why write how-to stories?
Tipsheets get read, shared, used and acted upon
What makes people share information?
News they can use to live their lives better, according to Chadwick Martin Bailey research.… Read the full article
How to avoid noun phrases
They suck the energy out of your copy
There’s nothing like noun phrases to make a tight sentence long, to transform clear, conversational language into stuffy bureaucratese:
“It is the intention of this team to facilitate the improvement of our company’s processes.”
… Read the full articleWrite like Churchill — in one-syllable words
‘Short words are best, and old words when short are the best of all’
What do you notice about this passage, excerpted from an article in The Economist?… Read the full article
Don’t commit verbicide: Choose verbs, not nouns
Action words streamline syllables
This just in, writes one of my favorite correspondents, sharing a sentence his subject matter expert has written:
Somebody just kill me now, my friend writes.… Read the full article
How to hit the best word length for blog posts, other content
Choose Anglo-Saxon words, write to ‘you’ & more
More than 80 years of readability research demonstrate that short words are easiest to read and understand.… Read the full article