What Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Rilke and Annie Dillard Can Teach Us About Writing for the Web

Certainly, there are subtle differences in writing for the web and writing for the sake of literature. Brevity, for one: reading from a monitor is much more tiring than reading from a book, making it even more vital to edit out unnecessary ideas, words and phrases. Make your key points early in your text, keep your text short, and use memorable, active language.

And never hesitate to learn from the masters, even if they wrote decades or even centuries before the advent of the Internet.

• Hemingway: "If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.” And: "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.'
• Fitzgerald: “You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” 
• Rilke: "And still it is not enough to have memories. One must be able to forget them when they are many, and one must have the great patience to wait until they come again. For it is not yet the memories themselves. Not until they have turned to blood within us, to glance, to gesture, nameless and no longer to be distinguished from ourselves-not until then can it happen that in a most rare hour the first word of a verse arises in their midst and goes forth from them.” 
• Annie Dillard: "One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better.” 

You write what you read, in a way; so choose your reading carefully. Reading is our continuing education, both in wisdom and the craft of writing itself. And we close, of course, with Hemingway: Never forget that "we are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” The attempt, though, it is all about the attempt.

Writing Effective Twitter Posts

"All you have to do is write one true sentence," Hemingway said. "Write the truest sentence that you know." It's good advice considering the brevity of social media updates, especially for the 140 character Twitter limit. There's not much room to violate Hemingway's admonition of "no fat, no adjectives, no adverbs," but at the same time the strange abbreviations and acronyms we see often on Twitter can look more than a little weird (not to mention unprofessional).

Really, do you want a tweet such as this representing your business or corporate image? I think not. Consider the Twitter character limit sort of a literary challenge, less of a constraint than an exercise in creativity. Effective writers can turn the limit into an asset, writing compelling and entertaining tweets that help you achieve your marketing goals and make an effective contribution to your corporate image.

A few brief tips:

• Learn from the prominent players in your field. There are best practices out there; identify and use them.
• Write with your own personality and voice. Followers enjoy reading tweets from real people, not corporations.
• Set goals for your tweets and posts. You can't measure effectiveness if you don't first identify realistic goals.
• Use hashtags to broaden your audience and join popular conversations (make sure your tweets are relevant, though).

Put these principles into practice and see immediate improvements in your social media efforts, not to mention a greater return on your investment. As always, send us comments on what you learn and experience.

Make the Most of Every PR Opportunity

It's a fact of life that you can't control every public relations opportunity. Perhaps it's not your event; perhaps you're a guest without even a minor speaking opportunity. So, you can forget about any news coverage, right?

Speaking from experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, there are many events where opportunities simply do not exist, where you or the person you represent are tangential at best to the proceedings. These are the events where you build goodwill merely by your attendance, receiving gratitude simply by showing up and expressing your support and goodwill.

But over your career, you will attend many events where your very presence will add to the news value of the proceedings. For example, I'll always remember serving as Director of Communications for Kentucky Attorney General Chris Gorman during the time we were active against child sexual abuse. I especially remember the day when we were invited to attend an exhibit of children's art in the Capitol Rotunda; it was an informal event, but I was convinced that we could win some news coverage from the event.

So, on the short walk to the Rotunda, I advised the Attorney General to walk into the event as if he belonged, locate someone he knew well, and closely examine one of the works of art. He did, and was soon surrounded by television cameras. Needless to say, the video that evening was mostly of the Attorney General.

No, this sort of tactic doesn't work every time. But it's an effective example of making an informal event your own, which of course is made much easier when you have standing on the event. So, always remember that even though you or your client might not be on the official agenda, it doesn't mean that news coverage is beyond the realm of possibility. Be creative, make yourself available, and you might be surprised at the result.

Are You Going Overboard with Public Relations?

In the ultra-competitive business environment in which we live, there's a natural tendency to distribute a news release or pitch a story for virtually every little development. We all want to get noticed, right? And besides the validation of appearing in print or on television, there aren't many better ways to broadcast our message to the widest possible audience. Throw in the instant credibility of legitimate journalism, and there's a greater likelihood that customers and clients will take note of our products and services. So, we should send out news releases at every opportunity, right?

In a word, no. One of my first mentors when I worked as a political strategist advised me to "make the letterhead mean something." Simply put, he meant that I should be sparing in sending out news releases instead of inundating my news contacts with notices of every little sneeze or minor event. It all comes back to credibility: when establishing your credibility with journalists, less is often more.

Many is the time I distributed an obligatory minor release and followed it with personal contacts stating that the release wasn't major news. Traitorous, eh? Hardly. This allowed me to make personal pitches for releases I believed in, releases which might have been met with reluctance or skepticism by the journalists I worked with. Being judicious with my pitches gave me journalistic credibility, one of the most important qualities a public relations professional can ever have.

So, evaluate every news release as if you were the editor or reporter receiving it. If it's of questionable news value, don't send it, package it with other news or take a low key approach when you follow up with individual journalists. There will quickly come a time when you pitch a story with news value which might not be readily obvious, and you'll need that credibility when you tell reporters how much you believe in the story.

Everything I Know, I Learned from Strunk and White

The Elements of Style: that slender volume by Strunk and White has taught me as much about writing as my careful lifelong study of Fitzgerald and Hemingway. This book doesn't condescend by teaching you a formula for writing; what it does is  identify the common elements in all powerful writing and inspire you to include those elements in your own work.

Here is a brief selection from The Elements of Style:

1. Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive: "I shall always remember my first visit to Boston." This is much better than, "My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me."
2. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
3. Omit needless words.
4. Exclamations. Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation!
5. Write in a way that comes easily and naturally to you, using words and phrases that come readily to mind.
6. Write with nouns and verbs. Even Hemingway advised, "No fat, no adjectives, no adverbs."
7. Be clear. Always.

No, following Strunk and White won't make a novelist out of you. But careful practice of The Elements of Style will make you a much better writer, especially in business. And that could make the difference between success and disappointment, especially in regard to winning new clients.

What Can Martha Tichenor and Other Journalists Teach Us About Writing for the Web?

In my days as a television journalist, there were times when I spent a few moments I didn't have staring at my computer monitor in the attempt to come up with a new and elegant way of stating very basic facts. It made deadlines more interesting, of course, but I like to think that it also made my prose and stories much more elegant, memorable and compelling.

So I very quickly learned to detest cliches and shortcuts, as well as any kind of formula which would typecast my efforts as merely another television news story. It all depended on my available time, of course; writing in the car and arriving in the newsroom an hour before the newscast didn't allow much time for revision.

But the basic principle is valid. Whether the field is journalism or writing for the web, we all want to stand out and have our audience take special notice.

A few simple guidelines for memorable writing, especially for the web:

• Avoid cliches, as you don't need them. There is always a new, memorable and simple way of getting your point across if you're creative and persistent enough to find it.
• As Thomas Jefferson said, never use two words when one will do. It shortens your prose and makes it easier to read and comprehend.
• Create memorable phrases which fit perfectly with your subject matter. In a very recent story which featured images of religious statuary, CBS correspondent Martha Tichenor described the "alabaster emptiness" of the statues. That's quite poetic.
• Write simply, and don't forget the best prose is like music. It should have both rhythm and flow.
• Keep the alliteration to a minimum. It's a bit too obvious, to be polite about it.

Oh, it certainly helps to be a "natural writer," whatever that is. And while there are many more guidelines, observing these guidelines will make you a better and more memorable writer. You'll communicate much more effectively, and your web-based content will be much more likely to attract potential clients and customers.

Speak Out on Social Issues to Become a Social Media Authority

Yes, there's a lot of noise on social media. Some of it is inconsequential, to be polite about it, while other content seems targeted at directly turning followers into clients and customers. That's the idea, of course, but what I term "look at me" posts can seem rather rote if that makes up the majority of content by the individuals and organizations you follow. The natural tendency over time is to tune that sort of content out (just as we often do with television advertisements), and no one can blame us if we do.

It all comes back to credibility, of course. Don't forget community relations and social involvement as you work to establish and fine tune your social media presence. Becoming an authority on social issues increases your overall credibility, making it much more likely that your promotional content will be viewed more favorably as well.

So, how do you strike a favorable balance between the issues you care about and posts which promote your products and services?

• Tweet and blog about the issues you truly care about, with a special emphasis on synergy between your interests and your business. For example, it makes perfect sense for a food company to post about food safety, recipes involving your product and hunger.
• Retweet information from persons and organizations you trust. It builds goodwill, and as they say, what comes around goes around.
• Don't forget to post relevant images. Besides a great headline, nothing captures the reader's attention more than a compelling image to demonstrate what you're writing about.
• Devote some of your posts to developments in your industry. It all comes back to credibility and establishing yourself as an authority in your area.

As we all know, it's not enough to become a regular presence on social media. Offering information of value is the surest way to become an authority on your chosen information, and that can only help your marketing efforts across the board.