Writing » Sherry Roberts Notebook

One Day at a Time: How to Break the Blocks

Art, Creativity, Maud's House, Writing No Responses »

Feb 052013

Painter Anna Oneglia created the artwork for the cover of my novel of lost and found creativity, Maud’s House. I remember the first time my young daughter saw it she said, “It looks like Maud’s outside looking outside.” The story is about an artist who at one time was so full of creativity that she drew on the walls of her home. So Anna brought the Vermont autumn inside to Maud’s walls. But as the book opens, Maud has lost her muse, and the house that “was once covered in tattoos” has been painted white. Anna painted a lost Maud staring out the window, searching for inspiration.

Anyone can hit the wall, creatively speaking. There is writer’s block and artist’s block, times when the ideas refuse to flow, when the mind freezes because it is so jacked up on confusion or doubt or fear. There are organizations to help such as A.R.T.S. Anonymous, which helps artists recover their creativity through the Twelve Steps. “In A.R.T.S., bottom line sobriety begins with a humble daily action to pick up one’s creativity, ‘one day at a time’. Members are asked to do no less than five minutes of art every day. If one picks up even for five minutes, there will be days when five minutes turns into hours,” according to A.R.T.S. Anonymous.

Of course, we would never suffer the angst of being blocked if we never dreamed in the first place. It all starts with a dream. To finish that painting. To write that book. To live a life of dignity and peace. The It Gets Better Project was created to show gay and lesbian adolescents who are being bullied in their schools and communities that happiness and positivity is in their reach—if they can just get through their teen years.

What does this have to do with creativity? The point is we don’t give up, whether we are crying over an empty page or over the fact that everyone at school seems to hate us. If we can get through one more day, if we can put in just five minutes, we will grow stronger.

Anna Oneglia’s strong art was perfect for Maud’s House. She brings color and energy to everything she does, much in the way as I dreamed a young Maud would do. The California painter works in oils and mixed media and is also a printmaker producing block prints and lithographs. “The figure is central to my work, a grappling with how humans shape and are shaped by the world,” says Anna.

“In looking for art to make a difference,” Anna’s paintings have been published as posters for many causes, including Business Aid for AIDS, Bike to Work Week, The National Nurse Midwives Association, Celebration of the Muse, and the San Jose Women’s Commission.

I thank Anna for her wonderful vision, for showing that dreams are never truly lost; they are just waiting to be found again.

_________________________

Do you have an experience of being blocked? How did you overcome it? Please leave a comment. Also to read how Maud got her art back, I invite you to read Maud’s House.

Are You a Genius?

Creativity, Maud's House, Writing 2 Responses »

Nov 112012

Where do your good ideas come from? Are you a genius or do you have a genius? There is a difference as Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, points out in a recent video about the creative process. She notes that early cultures believed they had a genius, “a divine spirit that came from a distant and unknowable source” that waited in the corner and gifted people with moments of brilliance: showed them a new way of doing something, popped a poem in their head, bestowed a new song to their ears.

Gilbert describes how poet Ruth Stone feels a poem rushing toward her over the landscape and how she races to the house to get a pen and paper to write down the poem before it passes her by. Stone doesn’t believe that she is a genius. She believes that she collects her poems from a genius.

Have you ever had those moments when an idea came into your head, a gift from the universe, from God, from your genius? Did you stop and take note or just carry on and say, “I’ll think about this later.” Don’t do it. Because if we are not geniuses (contrary to what our entitled society would like to have us believe), then we need help and we can’t afford to pass it by.

In some cultures, these moments of brilliance are called being “a glimpse of God,” Gilbert says. If you are in sports, it means you’re in the zone. If you are an artist, it could feel like you are transcendent, lit by divinity.

When I was writing Maud’s House, a novel about lost and found creativity, I was trying to express this idea of having a genius. There is a character in the book, a sheriff who builds birdhouses that resemble famous houses. Sheriff Odie Dorfmann also loves to play baseball. He describes a moment of genius on the baseball field to his friend George:

Odie told George what it would feel like to hit that ball. “I will know it’s the one the moment I connect. Its greatness will reverberate down my arm. I’ll feel it in my muscles; it’s impossible not to feel something that smooth. I’ll stand for a moment and watch it, contemplate the ball I sent to the stars, then I’ll skip once, twice, and head for first. I’ll take it easy, a token run for the crowds, but still the bases will disappear under my feet like the steps of an escalator. And when the reporters grab me and ask how it felt, I’ll just say, ‘It was heaven, boys, heaven.”’

Odie divulged to few people the rest of the dream. There was a feeling, he said, that always came over him at the end, just as the ball was almost out of sight, a feeling that it didn’t matter who had hit that ball, that it was headed for the universe at that particular moment in time and he just happened to be the guy who gave it a lift.

“Sometimes when I build birdhouses,” Odie told George that night in a whispery voice, “I get the same feeling, that I’m an instrument, a channel. It’s not a helpless feeling, not an out-of-control feeling because I seem to be not only the tool but the person using the tool.” Silence. “Weird, huh?”

If we show up and are open to the possibilities, who knows where genius will come from? Maybe you’ll get smacked by a genius while reading a blog, driving your car, or rambling through the jungles of Pinterest. My daughter is always looking for brilliant ways to organize her life. Recently, she asked me to help her create wardrobe organizers out of CD labels, one of her many Pinterest projects. CD-looking things bringing order to your fashion life. To the harried mother trying to get five kids dressed for school or the career woman who hates making decisions in the morning, this is a moment of genius.

Whether you believe you are a genius or, like me, prefer to have a genius, I have one wish for you today: May you be a glimpse of God.

_____________________

If you would like to read more about Odie Dorfmann, the baseball-playing, birdhouse-building lawman, as well as a whole town of people waiting for their geniuses, I invite you to check out Maud’s House.

I also invite you to watch the Elizabeth Gilbert video:

Tips to Make You a Better Writer

Business Writing, Editing, WriteTips, Writing No Responses »

Sep 092012

Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I believe anyone can be a better writer.

Maybe you are not the next Hemingway, and there’s not a classic fish tale in your future. But you can learn to write about the one that got away in a clear and understandable manner, in a way that makes people listen to what you have to say.

That’s why I wrote my book WriteTips. I wanted to give you hope and tools—whether you are writing that important business letter, new copy for your website, or an article for your club’s newsletter. You can improve your writing, in little ways that make a big difference.

I started out giving out writing skills tips to my clients, from business people to authors, then in business writing classes, until one day I got tired of repeating myself and threw together a little booklet called 11 Ways to Improve Your Writing and Your Business. After selling the booklet for a few years, I placed it on my website for free. That page gets more visitors than the Vatican (well, almost). So I began to think about turning this into a bigger project. Then I started offering editing tips on Twitter using the hashtag #WriteTip.

Eventually, I combined the two: I revised and expanded the original 11 Ways and added 20 WriteTips. Since I was no longer hemmed in by 140 characters, I dug deeper in the WriteTips. And so, WriteTips the book was born.

Extras, Extras, Extras

Since I love giving people more than they ask for (it’s fun and a karma thing), I have piled on the extras in this guide to improving your writing skills. In addition to all the tips about writing, grammar, and punctuation, here’s what else you get:

How to avoid business jargon that is holding your writing back
How to write effective e-mails (the dos and don’ts of e-mail etiquette)
How to adopt a plain writing style that will blow away your readers
Links and resources (lots of them)
Even some grammar humor

Stop the Rot

Will being a better writer make you a better human being? I don’t know. But it will make you stand out from the crowd. Good writers land the jobs and promotions, save time and money, and get support for their projects. I’ve been a professional writer and editor for thirty years; I’ve seen it happen.

Still not convinced you should put in some effort to improve your writing skills? What about saving the world? You heard me. One of the best reasons to work at being a better writer is to save civilization. Sounds dramatic? Already parents and teachers are worried about the impact of texting on writing skills. They say their text-happy children with the flying fingers tend to rush their writing, ignore grammar, and are prone to using abbreviations.

So this is “ur,” sorry, your chance to be a superhero. Work at being a better writer. The world needs you.

Note: This book does not come with a cape, a Batmobile, or any guarantee that you will become a superwriter. That, Grasshopper, is up to you.

_________________________

Get your copy of WriteTips today. It’s only 99 cents for the eBook and $2.99 for the PDF book—even one tip is worth that. It’s a small investment to save your writing day.

Everyday Creativity Can Keep You Healthy

Art, Cooking, Creativity, Maud's House, Writing No Responses »

Jun 282012

A creative idea a day keeps the doctor away. And it doesn’t even have to be a big idea. We don’t have to be the next Michelangelo or be a whiz at creating things with pipe cleaners. We just have to practice what psychology professor Ruth Richards calls “everyday creativity.”

Richards, one of the researchers at Harvard Medical School, says expressive writing has been shown to improve immune system functioning, for example, and older people who think more innovatively tend to cope better with aging and illness. In an article in Psychology Today, she maintains that engaging in creative behaviors makes us more dynamic, conscious, nondefensive, observant, collaborative, and brave.

Creativity “makes you more resilient, more vividly in the moment, and, at the same time, more connected to the world,” Richards says.

What is everyday creativity anyway? And what are some everyday things you can do to enhance your creativity and get some of those healthy benefits?

Everyday creativity, as defined by Richards, is simply an expression of originality and meaningfulness. It could be something as simple as wearing blue eye shadow when you always wear gray or taking a different route to work just for the heck of it. If these things suddenly put a smile on your face, give you a lift, and open your spirit a little wider to the world around you, you just tapped your everyday creativity. Here are some more ideas:

Try a new recipe. I am always amazed to hear Lynne Rossetto Kasper of The Splendid Table on public radio take three disparate ingredients and come up with a whole new dish—and it’s not because boiling water is a challenge for me.
Discover the joy of writing morning pages. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, encourages writers and nonwriters alike to start the day filling three pages of a notebook with their worries, joys, dreams, and thoughts. The idea is that once you take out the garbage, there is a ton of room for creativity. Who knows what you’ll think of?
Take a field trip. Go some place you’ve never been or do something you’ve never done. I personally find museums inspiring and calming, but I love to explore the unknown. I was at a Minnesota Twins baseball game recently and Rubbertoes (my husband) offered to arrange for me to run the bases. I’ve never stood on a major league baseball field before. If it hadn’t been 95 degrees and I hadn’t been frustrated with the team’s poor showing, I would have done it.
Turn your day upside down. That’s when you eat breakfast for dinner. I still get this feeling I’m pulling something over on someone when I have pancakes for supper. And if the pancakes are chocolate chip, I’m practically beaming. But this tip doesn’t have to be about food. Try looking at something one way and then flipping it around and looking at it another way. When Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Henry David Thoreau, who was in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax that supported slavery, Emerson said, “Henry, how did you come to be here?” Thoreau replied, “Ralph, how did you come to be out there?” Challenge your perceptions and energize your creativity.

Lost and found creativity is the topic of my novel Maud’s House. It has a postmistress who writes poetry, a minister who plays the sax, a dairy farmer who tap dances, and a sheriff who builds birdhouses modeled after historic residences. So what happens when the whole town loses its creativity? To celebrate creativity, I am giving away eBooks of Maud’s House from June 28-30. Go to Amazon and get one. Leave a review or comment here.

Book of Mercy Finalist in Midwest Book Awards

Book of Mercy, Censorship, Libraries, Parenting, Publishing Industry, Writing 5 Responses »

May 142012

Book of Mercy was a finalist in the 22nd Annual Midwest Book Awards, which were announced on May 9 in Bloomington, MN.

Is this a big deal?

I interviewed Antigone Brown, the main character in Book of Mercy, about her view of this momentous event. She is a mother-to-be who stands up to the book banners in her small North Carolina town, even though she can’t read.

Me: So Antigone how are you feeling about this nomination?

Antigone: They like me. They REALLY like me.

Me: Yeah, it was cool to be nominated. Publishers from 12 Midwestern states submitted 362 entries in 50 categories in this year’s competition.

Antigone: That many? Well, it’s validation. [Lowers voice.] After all, this was an indie (self-published) book.

Me: Why do you need validation?

Antigone: In the fiction world, as a female lead character, everybody is comparing you to either Scarlet O’Hara or Katniss Everdeen.

Me: Really? I had no idea.

Antigone: Yes. I only take on a group of highly influential women removing “undesirable” books from the school library . . .

Me: And don’t forget the pie thrower.

Antigone: How could I? I’m still washing that banana cream out of my clothes. But Scarlet in Gone with the Wind faced down the Union Army, and Katniss in The Hunger Games outmaneuvered mutant killer wasps. Tough competition.

Me: Personally, I hate contests.

Antigone: I’m with you. But we live in a world consumed by contests, from sports to American Idol and the Academy Awards.

Me: Still, I’m sorry I didn’t pit you against hordes of fighting men or an evil empire.

Antigone: Irene (the leader of the censors) was evil enough.

Me: Cheer up. You have a secret library. I doubt Scarlet ever read a book, and Katniss was too busy trying to feed her family.

Antigone: Yes. Bookhenge. Nice name for a library, by the way. But back to all these contests. I’m beginning to wonder what my child will be compared to.

Me: You’re always worrying about that baby.

Antigone: Of course. What’s a parent to do?

Me: You have many agonizing years ahead of you. There will be school recitals and pageants and spelling bees.

Antigone [shudders]: Kids called me a loser because I had trouble reading. I don’t want that for my child. I don’t see why we have to make comparisons at all.

Me: Because if you lose, it is supposed to make you try harder the next time.

Antigone: You mean, in the next book, you’ll try to write a better me?

Me: There is no better you. I will write a different you.

Antigone: Make her skinnier. She’ll like that.

The Midwest Book Awards are sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association.

________________

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog, make a comment, or check out Book of Mercy. It would make Antigone happy, but please don’t compare her to Scarlet or Katniss. She gets touchy about those folks.

I Have Been Outsourced to a Computer?

Creativity, Writing 4 Responses »

Feb 212012

This post was crafted by a human being while eating chocolate chips straight from the bag and watching the snow fall. Not all stories have the luxury to be created in such a ridiculously unscientific manner.

Forbes is now using computer-generated stories created by Narrative Science software. Writers apparently are no longer needed for a long list of stories that can be written by algorithm, from sports stories to financial reports.

Personally, I have known some nice sportswriters and am sad to see them being sent to the junk pile. I always admired the depth of their verb vocabulary.

Who will be next? Bloggers, short story writers, novelists? Please no. I know humans are messy and can’t spell and like to be paid. What if I took fewer bathroom breaks and limited the use of “was” in chapter one? Would that save my job?

I can be creative. I know hundreds of words. Of course, you know thousands and can remember them. But I think people want to read more than stats with a few verbs sprinkled in, something a little more eloquent than a computer manual (no offense). I think they want to be swept away by the turn of a phrase or the essence of a character. They want to imagine themselves . . .

What? Yes, that could be melted chocolate on my keyboard.

I know. That would never happen to you.

Bet Hemingway Was a Whiz in the Kitchen

Cooking, Writing 2 Responses »

Jan 092012

The last cake I baked drifted out of the pan as if it were an angel descending, settled on the platter, and promptly split down the middle. The fissure was about the size of the Grand Canyon. Since it was a birthday cake and, thus, not expendable, I made repairs. It takes a lot of frosting to fill the Grand Canyon.

I am used to such misadventures; they do not faze me. My husband says these things would not happen if: 1) I read more in the kitchen (as in Julia Child or Betty Crocker), or 2) I didn’t read as much (as in Hemingway or Steinbeck).

But why should I read cookbooks when I am such a marvelous cook to begin with?

I can boil down sentences until there is only the essence left, the true flavor of the words. They cling delicately to the bone of meaning and taste full and round in the mouth. They form such vivid images you can almost bite into them and feel their juices running down your chin.

A good story takes some preparation. Call it marinating. True, there are a few storytellers, such as Garrison Keillor, who pop out stories like microwave ovens. But I, and probably most other writers, take a while to collect information and ideas. After I gather the ingredients, I throw them into a pan, cover them with sauce from the subconscious, and wait.

Sometimes, I wait for years. Good cooking cannot be rushed.

Even after I have made the story, I must wait, let it simmer, let it age. For a story made today has a different taste tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that. Good writing, work studied and hailed and read over and over again, never loses its taste, never goes sour.

Of course, errors do happen. I forget to add a thought. Or I beat an idea instead of folding it in with gentleness and patience. Or I sprinkle in too many adjectives, and the story becomes not only runny but run on.

The best cooks never follow the book as if it were a drill sergeant. They improvise, feeling their way by taste and touch and sound. With practice, you get to know what will work; you have a sense of what the story needs, when it is missing a pinch of this or a dash of that.

And, of course, I have burned things. Everyone does. Cooks on scaffolds building skyscrapers, cooks in operating rooms navigating jungles of tiny veins. Cooks speaking before juries, exploring the ocean deep, patrolling lonely city streets. They make mistakes, but they don’t give up. They go right back and beat that steel beam again, cut out that diseased organ, flambé their opponents’ arguments.

Nothing is more disheartening than to hear someone cry: “I can’t cook.” Nonsense, everyone can cook. We all have our specialties, and none is greater or less than others. We all have some dish inside us with our name on it. Sometimes, we just forget to look for it. We let people sidetrack us. Categorize us. We don’t listen to our hearts.

I say get out your pots and pans and descend into the Grand Canyon. I hear the view is stunning.

Meet Spider Whisperer and Writer Wren Andre

Writing 2 Responses »

Jan 062012

Writer Wren Andre, the winner of the Book of Mercy Giveaway last fall, recently received a contract to have one of her erotic romance stories published by Total E-Bound Books—or rather her alter-ego did. Congratulations to Wren’s writing doppelganger, and I hope 2012 brings her much more writing success. I chatted by e-mail with her about her work and her life.

What type of writing do you do?

As Wren Andre, I like character-driven stories that reveal something extraordinary about an ordinary person. I am also working on a two-part memoir that has been an alternately excruciating and fulfilling experience. Under another pen name, I explore paranormal and erotic romance themes.

How long have you been writing and what is your writing habit—when you write, where you write, what gets you going?

I began writing around the age of 12, and I took myself very seriously! Then I became sidetracked by rock ’n’ roll for about 20 years. I was a singer/songwriter for many years and then was co-owner of the independent record label Cave Poodle Records. I’ve been back to writing for about a decade now and have finally gotten into a workable routine. My writing habits revolve around my day gig. I also have a family, and my time with them is very important, too. So it can be a challenge! I write almost every day, typically a few hours after dinner, and I will also take an entire day of one of my days off to write. Then I save the other day for family. It’s all about balance.

Who are you favorite writers?

I enjoy and gain inspiration from writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver, Augusten Burroughs, Phillip K. Dick, and Margaret Atwood. But I’m also an old school Stephen King fan, and I love memoirs or a good paranormal romance to shake things up. (Wren, shared a peek at her personal library.)

What writing resources do you find useful?

I follow the Writer’s Digest newsletter and subscribe to the magazine, but honestly, I get so much out of other writer’s blogs (such as yours!). There’s something magical about the writing community; I have such a sense of camaraderie that I never had when I was in the music business. I love hearing other writers’ “in the trenches” stories.

Wren is a self-proclaimed spider whisperer. What does someone in that line of work do actually?

Spider whisperers protect poor innocent spiders from those who would heartlessly smash them. My husband and everyone I work with know to come to me when a spider is in need of rescue—as in “come get this spider before I squish it with my shoe.” The next time a fly lands on your hamburger, remember that the spider is our friend.

Wren lives in Oregon. I love to hike and bike. In fact, I spent a great week in Oregon visiting Crater Lake and parks up and down the Oregon coast. Tell me what you like about the outdoors.

You should come back! I could show you some great areas to hike. The outdoors for me is a direct connection to the life spirit. Back when I lived in L.A. (shudders), I would escape to the mountains on the weekend and regain a sense of peace. Inevitably, I would become inspired to write a new song, or have one forming in my head on the way home. I would say nature is my ultimate muse. Hey, maybe that’s why I’m such a writing fool since I moved here! I think you’re on to something there, Sherry.

I’m a big X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. What do you, a paranormal junkie, read and watch?

I love Charlaine Harris and, of course, the True Blood series. I’m also a hardcore X-filer and really got hooked on Lost (however, the ending . . . hmmmm). I also think Karen Marie Moning is a fantastic writer, and I first got converted to paranormal romance through Christine Feehan. Oh, and did I mention Stephen King? He will always be my first love.

Please visit Wren’s blog, Writing in the Real World, and say hello: http://wrenandre.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/in-the-zone/

The College that Censored Firefly

Art, Censorship, Reading, Writing No Responses »

Dec 292011

I entered the Best Tweet About the College that Censored Firefly contest today. My chances of winning are looking about as good as my chances of using my new snowshoes in Minnesota this brown winter. I never win anything, which is fine by me. I am the Rodney Dangerfield of contest winners. So don’t vote for me and ruin my record.

I put my silly tweet in the pot just for fun, but also because I really hated what the University of Wisconsin in Stout tried to pull on theater professor James Miller. In September, Miller posted a quote from the television show, Firefly, outside his office door: ”You don’t know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.” The sentiment is about standing for a certain set of values, of being straightforward and honest with your fellow humankind. No threat was intended.

But campus police were having none of it. On September 16, they removed the “unacceptable” poster because it referred to killing. In response to this censorship, Miller launched a second salvo poster, which read: “Warning: Fascism” and included a cartoon image of a silhouetted police officer striking a civilian. The poster warned, “Fascism can cause blunt head trauma and/or violent death. Keep fascism away from children and pets.”

Again, the university responded by removing the poster. Quickly, the incident blew up into a public relations nightmare for the university, fueled by tweets, blog posts, and articles by Firefly fans, free speech advocates, the media, celebrities such as Adam Baldwin and Nathan Fillon, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). On October 4, the university put out the publicity wildfire by reversing its decision to censor Miller.

This may sound like old news, but a similar incident will likely surface somewhere in the world tomorrow or the next day. Censorship seems to never go out of style. And so, FIRE is sponsoring the tweet contest to draw attention to a new video on censorship featuring author Neil Gaiman.

Now, I have a few disclaimers: 1) I am a Firefly addict and take umbrage at people messing with this rag-tag crew; 2) I am a free speech nut; and 3) I have written a novel about a town that censors books called Book of Mercy. Even if you are or have done none of these things, please watch the video.

Oh, and my tweet? Here it is:

Son, if you don’t know #censorship is wrong, you just don’t get it. #Firefly in a jar w/no walls. http://bit.ly/tGzd0o

My way-too-literal friend complained, “How can a jar have no walls?”

“It’s about freedom,” I explained.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

This is why I will not win this contest. I suck at jingles.

Feel free to RT in the name of Browncoats, TV shows cancelled before their time, and the way fireflies make you feel on a summer night.

5 Ways Plain Writing Helps You, Your Book and Your Business

Business Writing, Editing, On Writing, Writing 2 Responses »

Nov 132011

Plain language is the law. And it’s not a moment too soon. For years, I have been preaching clarity in writing to author clients and in business writing classes. Now, someone finally gets it, and that’s President Barack Obama.

In 2010, President Obama signed the Plain Writing Act requiring that federal agencies use “clear government communication that the public can understand and use.” In January 2011, he issued an executive order, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, which states that “[our regulatory system] must ensure that regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.”

Minnesota, where I live, has had a state Plain Language Contract Act since 1981 to mandate that consumer contracts are written in a clear and coherent manner. Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, is one of the first counties in the country to develop a comprehensive program to tackle government jargon (others include Los Angeles County in California and Miami-Dade County in Florida). For a year now, Hennepin County has been simplifying syntax and deflating bloated verbiage on county websites and documents to make it easier for residents to understand what their county is doing.

Plain Is Beautiful

Training people to write clearly, as Hennepin County does, impacts us all, every day and in many ways. It is not dumbing down our language. It is illuminating, instead of obfuscating. Here are just five ways plain language could help you:

Maybe you won’t sign away the farm—accidentally. The plain language movement will help simplify all the documents you routinely sign at the doctor’s office, the bank, credit card companies, and other entities requiring your John or Jane Hancock. If you don’t understand what you are signing, how do you know you are not signing away your rights?
Maybe plain language will keep you out of jail. The courts are filled with people who simply didn’t understand the state or federal regulations they were violating. Plain language helps us know what is expected of us and keeps us on the right side of the law. Here’s an example of a confusing federal regulation translated into plain language.
Before: When the process of freeing a vehicle that has been stuck results in ruts or holes, the operator will fill the rut or hole created by such activity before removing the vehicle from the immediate area.
After: If you make a hole while freeing a stuck vehicle, you must fill the hole before you drive away.
You’ll be able to find the information you need faster. Plain language saves time for you and everyone else. How many times have you had to reread instructions over and over (and don’t even get me started on the sorry, no-language, step-by-step illustrated guides to assembling an Ikea desk)? If all the instructions in your life were written more clearly, you might have time to buy more stuff and do more things. That should be a no-brainer for all marketers.
If you’re a writer, learning to write simply and with clarity will enhance all areas of your writing—from that love scene you spread over three chapters to the tense moment when the heroine explores a noise in the dark and scary basement (don’t do it!). Whether you’re writing the great American novel or a newsletter for your kid’s school, your job is still to communicate. I’m not trying to stifle creativity here, but be aware that the more flowery the prose, the less understandable it can be and the harder the reader has to work. You are taking a chance; many readers will just give up. Personally, I don’t like losing readers.
Plain language will improve your business. No one buys what they do not understand—except maybe insurance and technology. Anyway, you get the idea. If you want to be persuasive, write clearly and succinctly; use plain, jargon-free language and influence customers, co-workers, even your boss. Everyone in the office knows who the “good writers” are—they’re the folks who draft clean, easy-to-understand, and to-the-point documents.

It is still early so we can’t gauge the impact of plain writing laws on either the federal, state, or local level. However, several Hennepin County departments report they’ve been getting fewer questions about information and processes since websites and documents have been rewritten, according to the Star Tribune.

More on Using Plain Language
Biz Speak Not Spoken Here
11 Ways to Improve Your Writing and Your Business
Technical Terms in Plain English
Center for Plain Language
EPA’s Plain Writing Tips: “Clear air . . . clear water . . . . it all depends on clear writing.”

Comments: Tell me about your encounters with crazy, indecipherable language. How would you rewrite?

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Bonus writing tip: Find more invaluable tips for putting zing in your writing at WriteTips.