Looking to Improve Your Business Writing?

Learning a variety of writing skills isn’t nearly as hard as you feel it may be. Truthfully, I think all aspiring (and professional) writers — and designers, LOL — out there will agree with me when I say that “we are never truly and fully satisfied with our work. We always feel that we can do better, go bigger and that our best work has yet to be written.” So, if you’re already writing … whether for business, a blog or even possibly for a client, and you’re looking to improve your skills to give your wording more structure and make your copy crisp and readable, then this blog post is just what you’ve been waiting for.

With that being said, let’s just dive right in!

Learning to write is like learning to cook. You want to improve your skills by mastering multiple mini-skills first. You will want to learn how to write really good sentences, be more conversational, actively study how to choose more “flavoured” words and learn to compose smooth transitions so your readers just glide across the page.

By practicing some of those skills, not only will your readers swoon over what you’re writing about but writing for you will become more joyous. Your content will become more nourishing, like a Schmoo torte (back to my chef reference, LOL).

To nourish, delight and inspire your readers you want to also actively practice empathy.

Now, you may think that’s a strange way of thinking when it comes to writing but it means knowing the difference between effectively communicating connecting with your readers instead of leading them into a void. You want to understand your readers … their thoughts, their feelings so that you forge that special connection with them. Empathy truly is the key to gaining a following in every style of writing (re: blog, social media, marketing, etc.).

But remember, there is a huge difference between empathy and sympathy. Sometimes people confuse the two.

To write with empathy you want to ask yourself …

Who will be reading this?
What types of questions do they have?
Why do those questions matter?

You don’t start our writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. ~ Octavia Butler, Sci-fi Author

So, to sum things up, here are 10 straightforward tips to keep in mind as you write:

Always start off your main message with a bang! Short yet powerful.
Put statements in the affirmative (e.g. use “remember” as opposed to “do not”).
Use more power words to blow people’s minds. Keep them intrigued,
Replace the verb “to be” with active verbs.
Limit exclamation marks – use them sparingly.
Don’t overuse the word “that”. 90% of the time is can be removed from your sentences.
Favour an active voice in your writing style.
Keep things simple and avoid redundancies.
Create more white space (re: shorter paragraphs).
Craft up some shocking titles and lead lines.

Writing is often the primary way you interact with people in business. So, the clearer and stronger your writing is, the more likely the reader will decode the message, then take the desired action (if any).

“The first draft is just telling yourself the story.” ~ Terry Pratchett, Fantasy Author

Lastly, let me leave you with this amazing TedX video that offers some insight to secrets to catching creative ideas …

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Crystal Kordalchuk

Crystal is an artist, a writer, an organizer, a dreamer, a doer, and down-right proud of it NERD!.

Struck with a love for #AllThings creative at a very young age, Crystal dreamed of a life fueled by her passion for creating and bringing the stories and images in her mind into reality.

As she worked toward her dreams, she earned a diploma as a Computer Applications Specialist then another in Graphic Design and from there began to develop her extensive background in multimedia and the arts. She began her worked in the magazine industry as a layout designer and had a succession of design jobs thereafter. It was her role as a graphic/web designer that gave her the first real glimpse of her future. Soon she began a side job as a freelance designer while keeping one foot in the corporate world. A spark was lit! She turned her freelance gig into a full-time business combining design work with her other passion: creating organization from virtual chaos.

Crystal is one of the most organized individuals on the planet. She is by all means a Zen master of her crafts. She excels at helping others become “untangled” and provides her clients with tools to run their businesses smoothly while she takes care of the details behind the scenes. Thus Virtually Untangled was born. A successful business where her work as a top notch creative in graphic and web — with a twist of virtual assistant — married into one amazing place where clients can come with their virtual messes and become magically untangled. Crystal can always make sense of even the most unorganized chaos and offers a virtual detox of order and peace, so her clients can get busy doing the work that they love the most.

Looking to Improve Your Business Writing?

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Crystal Kordalchuk

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