I write a lot each day. About 9 hours of my day are spent hunched over a keyboard, clickity-clacking away at some email, blog post, or note. Would you like recommendations JK Rowling offers to supercharge your writing? You should.
Writing is a magical and therapeutic resource. It’s a way of getting to what is in your heart and mind.
Writing from your gut shows you the good, bad, and ugly perspectives and beliefs that run your life. It’s immediate, and it’s confidential.
As Vladimir Nabokov put it, “writing is rewriting.” The greatness comes not from the initial spark of inspiration, but from the long hours spent honing it down to reveal its core. But before you do that, you need to dare to be crap and produce the first draft.
In other words, writing is work. As in most things, talent is overrated. You produce good work not from having a knack for a clever turn of phrase, but by putting in the effort to express your ideas clearly.
JK Rowling feels this type of supercharging is also helpful for writing novels and memoirs. It is with mine.
When you learn to get to the depth of feeling through your writing, you will write more believable characters and bring more aliveness to your writing in general.
Writing and editing thoughts has saved her in many such situations. I’d like to share the finer points of this supercharging process that can lead to self-discovery and sound well-being for your writing.
JK Rowling offers to supercharge you writing as design
Designing for meaning rather than for the moment requires being a great communicator. As JK Rowling says, “Design is the method of putting form and content together.”
Writing as a design is just a tool to help get the message across. It’s an artifact created along the way—not the goal. But an essential artifact, nonetheless.
JK Rowling offers … an idea prototype
A rough draft is, in some form, the gist of what you’re trying to say. But Dan Ritzenthaler argues you should go with an idea prototype instead:
“I’m not writing rough drafts anymore. I’m writing idea prototypes. I’m not writing to start an article, but to get an idea to a place that I can see it outside of my brain.
Where I can show it to someone else and see what happens. Only then do I decide if I want to write the article.”
Writing answers questions
My wife watches a lot of true crime shows, which means that I do as well. What I’ve learned from watching these is that interrogation is a useful tool. Good detectives will sit down with a suspect and begin chiseling away at the hard surface they’ve projected.
They ask the same questions over and over — and they do so on purpose. They want the truth; they want to understand. But as any good detective will tell you, the best results come when whoever you’re interrogating feels like they can open up to you.
When you write about what you’re thinking and feeling — just like when interrogating a suspect — you will get a lot of false starts. Like someone being interrogated, you will frantically stutter through false narratives about yourself.
That is a worthy analogy, isn’t it?
JK Rowling offers … the short sentence
Good writing moves the reader effortlessly through the text. Reading suddenly becomes as quick as thought. Part of mastering flow in writing is understanding the interplay between short and long sentences.
When used well, a short sentence can bring clarity, heighten suspense, or place a magnifying glass on the point of interest.
Stanford Professor of Communications JD Schramm boils down the advice he’s given over the years to executives, students, and everyone else who wants to tell a good story. A personal favorite:
“Parachute in, don’t preamble. The best storytellers draw us immediately into the action. They capture our attention and set the tone for a unique audience experience. Drop us into the action and draw the lesson out later.”
JK Rowling offers … you might be wrong
What causes writer’s block? According to Hunter Walk, it’s the need to feel confident that what’s written is unquestionably correct, with the air-tight logic that cannot be challenged. Anxiety is inevitable in this state of mind, and the anxious writer seldom writes.
If you want to find your best ideas, dare to keep writing—even when you might be wrong.
Supercharge your writing … it nurtures
Ideas pop into your mind much like infants pop into the world: naked, weak, and unformed. And like infants, ideas need to be nurtured; they need care and attention to turn into what we hope they become.
Writing provides all of that. It is the swaddling clothing, the feeding hand, the nurturing guide to your ideas. Writing puts your ideas into battle with reality, where only the strongest ones survive — and they are stronger as a result.
I have yet to find a time where I was stuck on how to solve a problem, or what to think about a topic, and writing about it didn’t help.
The obvious reason is that writing walks hand in hand with thinking. It lays out your ideas in front of you, in real time, where you are forced to deal with them — to accept, reject, or refine them.
JK Rowling offers … writing is thinking
It gets better.
When you sit down to write, you often know where you’d like to end up. With each keystroke, you get closer to the outcome, but uncertainty remains throughout the entire process. This can be intimidating, as JK Rowling explains:
“There’s this expectation of artful precision, mercurial grammatical rules, and the weird angst that comes with writing for other people. You start with a tiny nugget of an idea, but as you try to string it into language, it feels more like you’re pulling out your intestines.”
This is a piece I continually revisit. If you enjoy Paul Graham’s essays, this is a rare look into his process. Here’s a suggestion she uses religiously:
“read your essays out loud to see (a) where you stumble over awkward phrases and (b) which bits are boring (the paragraphs you dread reading).”
Writing reveals understanding
We are all living a story, but we’re not all aware of the ins and outs of those stories — both our own and those of others.
Writing helps you understand what is happening in your world, what is happening in the worlds of those close to you, and what all of it means. It doesn’t happen right away — no deep understanding does.
You will have to spill a lot of ink, but if you keep doing it, you will begin to see a clearer image of things come to the fore.
JK Rowling offers … further planning
Before you do any magical writing, you should first think about what you are going to do what you are going to write and how are you going to write about it. Make notes.
First, draft it out, check and recheck. When you are prepared, your notes are in order and correct; you can begin your writing.
Take your time, but do not worry if you make a mistake, just corrected in a simple way, the most common is to cross it out and put the correction straight after it.
Remember, these are your ratings and unless you are writing for someone else do not fret about the imperfections, the substance is the most important.
Now … the idea
With the very nature of supercharging everything you do should be very personal and highly individualized. You must understand the very basics of the work, how it is constructed, breaking each down to its components.
This will enable you to formulate your own specific, effective topics for any purpose in the future. Even if you intend to use a traditional one, you should tailor to your specific needs
Before you can start to write, you must set up an idea.
First, what is the exact purpose of the subject?
It must be precise without any room for error; the result must be very clearly and exactly predetermined.
JK Rowling offers … method and research
There are many parts to consider in magical writing, as JK Rowling says. Magical Words and Magic Symbols, essential for magical work.
Magical Words and Magic Symbols, essential for magical work like baking a cake, this part is where you prepare the recipe.
All the ingredients must be correct of the cake will not “RISE.” Does it need plain or self-raising flour? Chocolate or Lemon cake? How hot does the oven need to be?
You are working on the recipe for your topic. This is where you start to formulate. This is where you start putting into practice everything that makes you an author, everything that you have learned. This is where you start to make your own words.
Planning and writing the actual words
Here is the deal:
Do not attempt to do writing when you have anything on your mind that can interfere with your concentration. Writing is hard work. It must be right, and the focus must be retained throughout.
You should write the whole thought out exactly how you plan on presenting it. You will have this in front of you so there can be no mistakes when it comes to the presentation it.
You can make it as long or complicated as you like, and you can add whatever feels right to you.
Now you know what the main things that are essential. When you have a simple basis, you can then fill out the elements as you add them to the presentation.
What is the bottom line?
Ok, you have written your masterpiece. Now its time to finalize Gather together all tools, ingredients and anything else you need in the one place so when it is time to produce you have everything to hand.
You will need to gather together the things that your article requires and these need to be chosen with care. Everything you gather at this point is a tool.
Remember that JK Rowling says your magic comes from within. Everything you use is a tool to help you focus your intent.
Tools do not hold the magic; they are all elements of bringing the magic out from deep within you.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of the small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
