First, you must know WHY you are writing.  What’s the point? When people are done reading your work, what should they walk away with? You should be able to write out the main idea you want to communicate on the back of a business card… (That means one or two sentences MAX.) if you can’t, you probably need to think it through some more. (This type of clarity will save you many hours of frustration –I GUARANTEE IT.)

Second, once you know your main idea, you must realize that no one else knows your main point.  It is your job to tell them, not their job to guess. It is your job to make your main point as easy to understand as possible. Walk your audience through the necessary details to arrive at the main point.

Do not expect your audience to patiently study your piece of writing. Do not ask them to wallow through ambiguous thoughts that are thicker than quicksand to arrive at your conclusion.

Third, Make it your goal to gain as much knowledge and wisdom as you can on the topic of writing. You can always improve on this critical skill.  It’s worth your time. The pen is, after all, mightier than the sword.

Lost in an idea...

The medium is the carrier of the message. Just as medicine can be administered by pill, capsule, I.V., or needle the medium can take many forms such as songs, blogs, web pages and lectures.

The message is the idea that is to be communicated.  It is the thing that we wish to put inside of our audience where it can ripple and resonate and create new ideas and new actions.

Very important messages  -the ones that pertain to life and death- often need to be delivered with the acute clarity and precision of a needle.  There are no niceties – just the brutal truth that often leaves a sting.

Non emergency messages can take any number of forms -from chewable pills to healthy diets.  Their effect is not as immediate or potent, but we would not want it any other way.

In the 60’s the famous Canadian philosopher, Marshal McLuhan, made the bold assertion that the medium IS the message.

In effect, this meant that people no longer cared about what you were saying so much as how you were saying it.  If the message appeared to be in a syringe it must be bad.  If the message was easy to swallow – it must be good.

Discriminating minds can still see the difference between medium and message HOWEVER many people cannot.  If it doesn’t look good, they want nothing to do with it.

This is why it is essential that all communication be presented with the best medium available.  There is no room for error or our message will not be taken in by our audience and there will be no new ideas or action.

No one likes needles... No one!