reynoldswriting.com Blog

At a recent client meeting I casually mentioned that writing is “a different language” than speaking. My client agreed as if it were an obvious truth, and we went on to talk about other things. It was only after the meeting broke up and I was driving home that I stopped to reflect on what we’d both accepted so easily. Is writing really a different language than speaking? English is English, right? If I say, “The ball rolled down the hill,” do I communicate something vastly different when I write the same sentence? Do you receive a totally different message when you read it as opposed to hearing it?

It’s a fair question. But I stand by my original statement.

I’ve seen this phenomenon in action. Several of my best clients are terrific public speakers. They can light up a room with their personal charisma, and from their opening remarks they have audiences hanging on their every word. But their writing is no match for their speaking. Now, these people don’t suddenly lose their marbles when they sit down to write. They don’t forget all their captivating stories or their gripping message. But they find themselves in a different world, facing a virtual audience instead of a live one. Hands must replace the voice. The rules of the game have changed.

What makes writing such a different skill set from speaking? Here a couple of the main points that occur to me:

Inflection. How many times have you been accused of sounding angry or hurt or sarcastic in an email when you thought you were simply communicating? Chances are, if your friend had heard you say those same words, your emotional state would never have been misinterpreted. No wonder emoticons are so popular — they’ve probably saved many a friendship!

Writing requires a very skilled and subtle use of emotional cues — end a sentence a bit too abruptly, and you may “sound” curt or indifferent; add one too many exclamation points, and you may seem enraged instead of enthusiastic. A writer has to learn this emotional vocabulary, just as an actor or public speaker has to learn the many shadings of tone and pitch that bring color to his performances.

Inflection applies to body English as well. A speaker’s stance and gestures can communicate as deeply as his words. In writing, the words have to carry the full load.

Pace. Time plays out differently in the written world than in the spoken world. I’m no speed reader, but I know I read much faster than normal people talk. Examine your own reading habits sometime — do you go word by word, or do you scan big globs at a time in a flash? Now imagine those words being spoken at the same speed you just read them. It’d be like listening to a recording on fast-forward — you’d hardly be able to make it out. Yet that’s how people receive written information, especially on the Internet, where speed-browsing has become a way of life.

(That’s one of the great challenges of writing web content, by the way — hitting the reader with exactly what he’s looking for so quickly that he stops in mid-browse to read on.)

Spoken communication relies on linear time as a communication tool. The dramatic pause, the sudden leap forward, or the slow drawl all add dramatic punch a speech. Written communication uses tempo changes as well, but the total effect still exists in a compressed time zone.

There are other differences between speaking and writing, to be sure. Maybe I’ll expand on the subject in a future article, or maybe you’d like to contribute your own insights. I’d keep going, but my throat is getting tired….

If you’re a business owner, you’re painfully aware of the fact that time is money. That’s the value of hiring me — I can save both.

For us entrepreneurs who have only X amount of time to earn Y amount of money, time management may be the most important skill we’ll ever learn. This applies not only to sole proprietors or micro-businesses but to large companies — in fact, the bigger and faster a business grows, the more money can be lost from tiny individual inefficiencies that add up to a massive waste of time. We must always ask ourselves which activities earn us money and which tie up our time and inhibit our money-making ability. Then we need to offload those time-wasting tasks so we can free up more time for the money-making tasks. Makes sense, right?

Creating professional-quality marketing copy is one of those necessary tasks that can propel a business to the next level of fame and profitability, but the time investment is brutal, especially for a non-writer. One of the reason so many people — including some writers! — fear writing is the fact that it demands so much time, skill, and mental energy. I’ve been doing it professionally for 13 years now and I can tell you from experience that it’s draining, so much so that I have to limit my daily output just to prevent serious burnout. So if it can tire an experienced pro, how exhausting must it be for someone who does something totally different for a living?

Your business needs you. Yes, it needs marketing copy too, but doesn’t it make a lot more sense to delegate that task to a professional and devote yourself to the daily tasks you must perform to keep the money rolling in?

“But I can’t afford to hire a writer.” Well, that depends on what your own billable time is worth to your company’s bottom line. How many of those hours will your company lose while you sweat over a blank screen or page?

I once remarked at a networking meeting that a professional writer can accomplish more in a few hours than a non-writer, burdened with a host of other responsibilities, could manage in a week; I heard several business owners muttering to each other, “More like 2 weeks,” “You mean 3 weeks,” “For me, 3 months,” et cetera. Well, that’s time leveraging — you hand the job over to a professional who charges a handsome rate but does the job in so much less time that you still come out way ahead. Plus, you can be reasonably certain the the final product will actually be good enough to help your business make money. That’s what marketing is supposed to do, after all. How stupid would you feel to have spent all that time (money!) and frustration writing copy that doesn’t even work for you?

Most of us already practice this kind of delegation in some way or other. I could do my own taxes, for instance, but it would take me forever and I’d probably miss a lot of valuable deductions or make expensive mistakes because I’m not up on the tax laws. By paying a fair sum to a good professional CPA, I can rest assured that I’ll get a more effective result without stressing myself out and wasting huge amounts of time. In the end, I’ve earned far more in reclaimed time than I’ve spent on the accounting fee. And if it makes sense for accounting, it makes sense for any other aspect of your business that can be farmed out effectively to a qualified pro.

I’ll bet your time is worth a lot to you. Spend it wisely.

Yellow buses clog the streets. Campus stadiums vibrate with a collective roar every weekend. Graduate students sit slumped over library desks, trying not to snore too loudly. Yes, it’s Back to School time, meaning that across the nation young (and not-so-young) people are kick-starting their brains back into action after a summer of mental hibernation.

What about us business owners? Are we content to mark the passing of another season and continue with the daily routine, or could we benefit from some education ourselves? This might be an excellent time to put your thinking cap on, grade your current performance, and school yourself on how to do a better job. Allow me to suggest a few basic questions to help you improve your average:

Has your industry changed? Can you really afford to run your business the same way you ran it just one or two years ago? Economic upheavals, technological advances, and other variables call for constant, ongoing review of our business environment. Small businesses have the advantage over large ones, of course, because they can move more quickly to adapt and evolve. But are you taking whatever steps you can to keep up with your world? Are there classes you should be taking, informational resources you need to build, or certifications you need to earn? Has your competition gotten the upper hand in the knowledge wars?

Have your customers’ needs changed? Maybe those little clients you took on as startups aren’t so little anymore. Maybe they’ve changed brands or headed off in a different direction. Have you kept yourself in the loop as to their current needs? Is it time to get reacquainted so you can continue to serve those needs properly?

Have your needs changed? Your company grows and changes just as your clients’ companies do. Does your business plan still make sense, or does it require tweaking? Do you need to make a shift in your brand or target market? Are you growing too quickly or slowly for comfort? Would you benefit from streamlining your product line or operations for maximum efficiency? It’s easy to let little things slip out of our control while we’re dealing with short-term situations. Is it time to regain that control?

I know I’ll be reviewing and re-thinking various aspects of my own business to make sure I’m on course for a strong 2010. There’s always something new to learn about our industries, our clients, or ourselves, so let’s all get to boosting our business smarts. See you on the honor roll!

As another Labor Day rolls around, here I am, laboring as usual.

Of course many of us take it for granted that we have to work on Labor Day or other holidays, but for freelancers it’s an odd situation. Theoretically, we ought to be able to take any old day we want as a vacation day: “Hooray, it’s time to celebrate Tuesday again!” Non-freelancers sometimes get the idea that we independent contractors are on some kind of eternal vacation, occasionally emerging from our hammocks to deposit the enormous checks that mysteriously appear in our mailboxes from loving patrons. That would be nice, but t’ain’t so.

The “paid vacation” of the 9-to-5 world doesn’t exist in Freelance Land — we get paid only when we work. That’s a fair price to pay, I think, for not being lashed to the time clock, but it lends a weird vibe to holidays and vacations. While most businesspeople are delighted to spend a holiday at home around the grill, your freelancer may hate seeing his money-making engine grind to a halt for even a single day.

Vacations are another fine thing that everyone should enjoy, but all too often the freelancer’s idea of a “vacation” includes a laptop, a cellphone, and an ulcer. We have to find our own ways of coping with — and yes, enjoying — our time off. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up lately from various sources and my own school of hard knocks:

Learn to ride with the tide. Peter Bowerman, in his book The Well-Fed Writer, notes that freelance work ebbs and flows naturally, and the sane freelancer learns to enjoy the occasional downtime without fretting. When the upswing comes — and it always does — you’ll have plenty to do. Be happy for the break.

Perform holiday-friendly tasks. If, like me, you tend to fuss and fidget your way through the holiday, do it constructively. Can’t meet with clients or make phone calls? Then do some other kind of work — catch up on your filing, reconcile your books, finish that brochure, et cetera. I’m a writer, so guess what I plan to do with a full day of peace and quiet….

Stop and reflect. Holidays are good for that. A little time off can be a very useful window for reviewing how far your business has come and planning what direction to take it next. If your business plan needs tweaking, do it now, because when you’re sagging under a full workload again you may never find the time for that critical long-range strategizing.

However you choose to spend your holiday — have a good one!