Arm-Wrestling with a Writing Octopus?

5 tips to ensure your newsletters are being read

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In my blog entitled, “Are You Writing Flyers or Letters,” I encouraged you to focus on writing clearly rather than creating spectacular graphics. But this presents two problems:

• Some (most?) gospel-workers believe they are excellent writers since communicating with people is “who they are.” 

• Others want to write better but think it is too onerous to improve. 

Good news!

• You are not as good a communicator as you think! Ask your spouse or children or a friend.

• You can write well without suffering brain damage—follow these suggestions.

After you have written a draft of your letter, go over it again looking for these common errors:

1. State-of-being verbs—is, was, am, were, has, had, etc. These “nothing verbs” do not stir readers’ imagination. Replace them with action verbs to bring your readers into the story. For example: 

   “There were 15 students at the Bible ‘humility’ Bible study and we had pizza.”

   “Fifteen hungry students crowded into our tiny living room to study‘ Humility’ from the Bible while devouring six pepperoni-onion-pepper pizzas.”

   Action verbs energize your writing. 
2. Eliminate un-needed words. As my journalism professor told me, “Scott, you are so wordy!” What! I thought I needed many words to communicate better. Not so. Kill your sacred cows! For example, notice the un-needed words in this sentence. Added words in red.

   “I met with Joe at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant to discuss and study the role of the husband(s) in the marriage relationship. I could tell Joe seemed was feeling nervous and anxious about the study. So after we had eaten our appetizers, I told him about shared my own marriage mistakes, and he seemed to relax and smile.”

   Reduced from 55 words to 31. And the meaning is not lost. Give yourself a dollar for every word you eliminate in your next draft. Your readers will thank you.

3. Limit your letter to one or two topics. Go into depth on one or two topics rather than trying to squeeze everything you have done since your last letter into one page. This is not a letter to your mom.
4. One or two photos with sentence captions. Some readers will ignore the letter, but they will look at photos and read the caption. So let your caption(s) carry the message. You can eliminate copy in the body of the letter if you insert it in the caption. For example, which caption communicates more (under a photo of six guys outside Luigi’s Restaurant)?

   Bible study guys at the restaurant Our group meets at Luigi’s Mondays at noon to study what the Bible says about marriage. One guy said, “I never heard this stuff before!”

5. Have someone read your draft? Someone without the gift of mercy! Outside-eyes see what you cannot see because you are too close to your timeless words.

As famous author Earnest Hemingway famously said, “The only thing more difficult than good writing is arm-wrestling with an octopus!”

You can prove Hemingway wrong. Try these four suggestions. The octopus doesn’t have to win!

“In the beginning was the Word....”

— John1:1