My guide to better business writing, new web3 companies, and more

Why use many word when few word work?

Sep 14, 2021

Readwise. I’m a quote junky, always weaving in my favorite sayings when I talk and write. I used to collect quotes in a word doc, paper journal, and elsewhere. Now all of that is in Readwise, which gives me a daily prompt to review 5 quotes from all my past readings. Repetition is key to encoding lessons in your mind. You can’t read something once and expect to change your behavior no matter how mind-blowing the phrase is. Readwise helps me cherry pick the most impactful quotes, paragraphs, tweets, whatever that I’ve come across and remind me of their wisdom regularly. They also have new features rolling out soon that make the one app to read all your favorite articles, blog posts (author’s staring intensifies), etc. Check it out!
How often do you inflict help on your team?
Deep thought:

management is mostly just helping your employees work through the trauma of their previous managers

Enjoy my curation of stuff? Let me know! I’m debating focusing more on this sort of stuff vs. creating my own articles. I enjoy both, but I know one of my skills is having a good radar for finding the novel stuff. So imma do it anyway, but should I do it MORE? My crippling need for social validation means I’ll do whatever you tell me.

Your business writing sucks, make it better

Since I’m a product leader, writing is my primary tool. I spill a lot of ink to help people understand the why and what is getting built by my team. Trying to get people on the same page, sharing the same vision, path, and timeline is hard. Writing is a mechanisms to reduce that difficulty. So being a good writer is paramount.

Writing can be the most powerful tool for any leader to scale their thinking, but only if it’s done correctly.

Problem is, it isn’t often done well.

When you waste ink, you waste time, effort, and money. The higher you go in an organization, the more important your writing is. An hour-long meeting to review a doc that brings in half the company’s executive team is enormously costly. If that doc doesn’t drive clarity and ease decision making, you haven’t just wasted an hour of some very expensive people’s time, you likely lost your company money. Decisions get delayed, efforts aren’t coordinated, and follow-up meetings are necessary. That’s no bueno.

BEAUTY BAY on Twitter: "Me after doing my makeup for 4 hours with nowhere to go x… "

To fix this, I’ve put together a guide. Being a good writer is a journey, not a destination. I do not consider myself a good writer, but am always trying to be better. If I hope to advance further in my career, it is a necessity to continue to invest in this area.

I hope you’ll find this as helpful as I have.

Cy’s Guide to Better Business Writing

Why is writing well so important? Organizations lose time because of poor communication. Leaders need clear, accurate information to maximize their decision making. Time spent trying to understand is time wasted. By helping stakeholders understand the problem and solution, decisions get made faster. Faster decisions = quicker business outcomes.

“…an order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood”

So how can we improve our writing skills?

Good communications writing is five-tenths mental discipline, four-tenths willingness to rework first drafts, and one-tenth aptitude.

Plan
If I only had one hour to save the world, I would spend 50 minutes defining the problem and 10 minutes building the solution - Albert Einstein
1. Think out what the message is before writing. Think well = write well. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? Why does it matter? Who cares?
2. Failing to plan is planning to fail
Write
Write drunk, edit sober - Ernest Hemmingway
1. Write with the ending in mind. Have a North Star and center the doc around it.
2. Provide a clear vision. Use the format of “what, significance, why it matters, and what comes next”.
3. BLUF. Your summary paragraph should tell the reader what the problem is, why it matters, and what your solution will be. The first paragraph should hook them. Don’t bury the lede.
4. Write like a 6th grader. Big words and long sentences does not mean you are communicating better. Don’t use a five dollar word when a one dollar word works. Write so everyone understands.
Edit
In writing, you must kill all your darlings - Faulkner
1. Good writing is rewriting. The first draft and the final draft shouldn’t look alike.
2. Nobody wants to read your sh*t. Seriously, they don’t. Reduce what you have written by 33-50%.
3. Why use many word when few word work? Kevin was on to something. Every word must earn its place. Ruthlessly cut words that don't add value.
  1. Due to the fact that → because
  2. Lacked the ability to → could not
  3. With the possible exception of → except
4. No Weasel Words - very, somewhat, a lot, nearly, etc.. Replace with metrics or cut. It’s never “a lot of users”, it’s “73.4% of users over the trailing seven days”.
5. Use adverbs sparingly
6. Destroy passive voice. Active voice makes for forcible, clear writing. Passive voice hides the doer of the action.
  1. The passive voice is easy to recognize: it uses one of the eight forms of “to be” plus a verb usually ending in –en or –ed. Example: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been plus the –en,–ed word (is requested, were eaten).
    1. Bad: “the Navy has always been beaten by Army” Verb, subject
    2. Good: “Army always beats Navy” Subject, verb
7. SPELLCHECK. God help you if you submit something that hasn’t been spell checked.
8. Read it aloud. Does it make sense now that you’ve heard it?
9. Buddy check: At some point, you lose the ability to self-edit. Pass it to a peer for a fresh set of eyes to help spot errors and omissions
Most common errors
1. Ego. Are you writing to impress the readers of your knowledge and how smart you are? Or are you writing to help the reader understand the subject?
2. Not concise. Over-writing is a sign of insecurity and lack of clarity. Few word work.
3. Not reviewed. Good writing is a team sport. Enlist editors who won’t be kind
4. Burying the Lede. This isn’t an academic essay. Get the most important information to the top of the doc instead of requiring the reader to go on a narrative journey. Pitter patter, get at ‘er.

Useful Resources

Clear Writing: Harvard Business Review

www.hemmingwayapp.com

That’s how I approach writing. There are many paths to Rome, so take what resonates with you and improve on it. I’d love to hear what other tactics, frameworks, and tools you all use for business writing!

Now, a guide is all but worthless if not put into practice. And practice you must!

Write. Write a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

This doesn’t mean write a lot of words! It means write about a lot of things but write about them with brevity and clarity. Remember what Kevin tells us - few word work.

Focus on quantity over quality. Because quality only comes after quantity. You can’t read a guide on to how to write well and suddenly expect to write well.

If doing something well was simply a matter of acquiring information about the topic, we’d all be billionaires with six-pack abs.

Practice makes perfect. Consistency builds ability, as David Perell says.

Hence me writing a newsletter

Rough Terrain

Discussion about this post