Photo by Johnny Delos Santos
Our priest once lamented “
When I give a long sermon, people say I
talk too much. When I give a short sermon, they say I’m not prepared.”
So, how long is long and how
short is short ?
The advertising legend David
Ogilvy, in an internal memo, advised his staff to “Never write more than two
pages on any subject matter. “
Michael Miller, in his ebook
Web Words That Work : Writing Online Copy That Sells, prescribed that “anything longer than 140 characters is too
long to scroll through.”
I judge the length of the
speeches I will write based on the context of the occasion. If my boss will
deliver the speech in a company program in which people will be standing, or
will be moving on to other appointments, I write one and a half pages. Or less.
If the boss is invited to a
faraway event in which people will pay for dinner, I will make it a bit longer.
That will prevent people from saying “ that’s all ? “
Oren Klaff, author of the bestselling
Pitch Anything, believes that our reaction to events or messages is still controlled by the
primitive part of the brain. This “croc brain” ensures our survival. If the brain
senses that what we’re saying is not a matter of emergency, or it’s not new and
exciting, the croc brain thinks “ how can I ignore this or spend the least
amount of time on it ? “
Given our human nature, the
bias is toward shorter articles and speeches.
We only add more info if they
contribute to the substance, or add character. Think of the two E's : Engagingness and Effectivity. A boring one-minute
patter can sound longer than an engaging three-minute story. But even an
entertaining speech can lose its appeal after ten minutes.
The secret to good writing is
first, the planning; and next, the re-writing.
Planning means having an
outline so you can decide what’s important and what’s “too much
information.” And you also decide how
you can say them in the shortest but most effective, most engaging way.
I attend a lot of prayer
meetings and I observe that the boring sharers do not have a mental outline.
After having written the
piece, edit it making sure it is most complete in the shortest possible way.
In the same memo mentioned earlier, Ogilvy advised “ Never send a letter or memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud
the next morning –then edit it.”
Famous novelist Truman Capote
said “ I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil. “
Tip of the week
To help make the time in
traffic more productive, watch a movie or tv show or browse the net via SkyMobi. It is a pocket wi-fi gadget that you use with the Sky On-Demand app. It works on a phone, tablet or laptop.
No comments:
Post a Comment