The Key to Good Writing

Recently, I was meeting with one of my mentors and we got to talking about interesting interview questions that we’d used or had been asked. He offered one that he liked – “tell me of a time that you received criticism at work that you felt was valid.” As I thought about how I’d answer it, I also realized that my answer might make for a potentially useful post.

So what is (one of) my problem areas? Well, I tend to write too much, especially when it comes to email… and, perhaps, when I am blogging :).

I’ve had several colleagues tell me over the years that I put too much information into my notes especially if I’m writing about an important topic. (A manager actually put in my review one year that I should try and use more bullets in my emails. Ouch.)

Still, I can’t disagree with them. In fact, probably my favorite observation came from a colleague who admitted “I never read your long emails when you send them but I never throw them away, either.” What my friend was saying was that she didn’t always have time to read and parse through everything I might write, but she valued the details I provided and would often reference them at a later date.

It was a funny observation but it illustrated to me a problem that many of us face in writing and which is captured well in a great quote from Henry David Thoreau:

Put another way, it’s fairly easy to write but it takes time to go back and tighten things up. President Woodrow Wilson made a similar observation when asked how long it takes him to prepare his speeches: “If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”

It really does come down to how much time we have to play with and refine something. Ideally, I like to let my initial draft sit for at least a day or longer if possible. Then I go through and aggressively edit things out, removing unnecessary words or irrelevant tangents. Editing needs to be both objective and merciless since your goal is to get your message down to its core, pure essence.

So, in the spirit of this post, how would I summarize all of the above? Good writing takes time. Great writing takes deleting.

Know that I’m pulling for you!