Improving over time.
WHAT IMPROVES WRITING MOST
Writing regularly, and editing what you wrote.
WHAT DOES NOT
Reading about writing.
WHAT TO PRACTISE
Putting the point first Cutting a fifth of the words Reading aloud before sending
WHAT TO DO WITH IMPORTANT MESSAGES
Draft, leave, return, cut.
WHAT TO NOTICE IN WRITING YOU ADMIRE
Sentence length Where the point sits What is absent
WHAT TO NOTICE IN YOUR OWN
Phrases you repeat Hedging Sentences you cannot say aloud in one breath
WHAT TO DO ABOUT EACH
Remove them, deliberately, for a period.
WHY DELIBERATELY
Habits change only under attention.
WHAT FEEDBACK TO SEEK
Whether the reader knew what to do.
WHO TO ASK
Someone who was not in the conversation.
WHAT TO REVIEW
Your own writing from a year ago.
WHAT THAT REVEALS
Patterns invisible at the time.
WHAT TO KEEP
Examples of writing that worked.
WHY
They become your templates.
WHAT TO ACCEPT
That first drafts are always worse than you think.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Always edit.
WHAT TO MEASURE
Whether people act on what you write without clarification.
WHY THAT MEASURE
It is the only one that matters.
