10 Professional Writing Secrets - Louisville Digital Media Summit

10 Professional Writing Secrets

"Write good

content" is

stupid advice

1. A word is worth

a thousand pictures

@edeckers

2. Use Metaphors.

@edeckers

Men's words are bullets, that their

enemies take up and make use of

against them.— George Savile, Maxims of State

Life is like a box of chocolates.— Forrest Gump

And the impending squint of first light

And it lurked behind a weepin’ marquee in

downtown Putnam

Yeah, and it’d be pullin’ up any minute now

Just like a bastard amber Velveeta

yellow cab on a rainy corner

And be blowin’ its horn in every window

in town

3. Use

Words

Wisely

@edeckers

Kill,Torture

Fuck

4. Be Human

“We will leverage end user learnings on

a going forward basis.”

“We'll use what you learned

from now on.”

“We have created a frictionless user

onboarding experience.”

“Signing up is easy.”

“For sale. Baby shoes.

Never used.”

5. Write tight

@edeckers

6. Your English Teacher

Is Not a Writer

@edeckers

If proper usage gets

in the way, it may

have to go.

I can’t allow what we

learned in English

composition to

disrupt the

sound and rhythm

of the narrative.

Elmore Leonard

John Dryden

Hunter S. Thompson

7. String together 3 – 5 good ledes.

@edeckers

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when

the drugs began to take hold.

I remember saying something like, "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe

you should drive . . ."

And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was

full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and

diving around the car, which was going about 100 miles an hour with

the top down to Las Vegas.

And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn

animals?"

— HST, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

8. “Write Shitty First Drafts”

@AnneLamott@edeckers

(Just don’t publish them)

9. Your

Words

Are

NOT

Your

Babies.@edeckers

10. “Write Drunk.

Edit Sober."@edeckers

Read meErikDeckers.com

ProBlogService.com

@[email protected]

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Thank you!