Why ‘Helpful’ AI Tools Make Us Busier Still
Ann Handley answers some reader questions about AI tools: how to stay human, what to do about workload creep, and more.
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Dear Name Redacted: Why Typos Happen, Dammit [Questions from Readers]
This is an occasional series based on actual emails I receive, and my actual responses. Everybody Writes is just shy of its second birthday. Since its birth, I’ve heard frequently from readers who have highlighted the same few typos in the text. (Sometimes nicely. Sometimes less so.) The “few typos” sounds dismissive. But the truth is that those typos pain me. I’ve cleaned up (most) of them by now… but earlier copies of the book are still in the wild. So I still get letters like the one below, questioning the book’s credibility. That’s the thing about writing a book about writing: You set the bar pretty high. So you’d better be the kind of linguistic pole vaulter who’d qualify for Rio, if linguistic pole vaulting was actually an Olympic sport. (Side note: It should be.) So why do mistakes still happen, no matter how toned and buff we might
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A Writing GPS: The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Next Piece of Content [Infographic]
The writer Andre Dubus (House of Sand and Fog) has described writing as inching your way along a very dark, very long tunnel: you can make out the next few feet in front of you, but you’re not quite certain where you’ll end up or when you’ll get there. What helps with the uncertainty and enormity of the task is to start with some kind of process to guide the way. Process? Ew. I know. Process is one of those things that in many parts of life I consider hopelessly boring and mind-numbing. Like alphabetizing canned goods. Or peeling beets. But in writing, process is necessary, because you need a kind of road map to get you to where you need to be. So here’s an infographic based on the 12-step writing GPS I outline in more detail in Everybody Writes. This GPS gets you from one place to another:
50 Shades of Mediocrity: Does Content Have to Be Good, or Just Good Enough?
When a franchise like 50 Shades of Grey enjoys crazy success, is it a signal that content doesn’t have to be good to be crazy-successful? Popularity is only one measure of success, of course. And for most of us in the content marketing world, it’s not a very good one. Yet popularity is still very often the thing that persistently defines value. (Witness the popularity of popularity lists.) On the one hand I get it, and on the other, I think it’s weird. Is it the goal for your business to have the most followers on Twitter? Or is it to attract more customers than your competitor? “Best” is rarely the same as “popular,” as Seth Godin has pointed out. And “most-read” is rarely the same as “most-loved,” as I’ve talked about here. “If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work,” Hemingway famously said.
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Win a Free Copy of the New ‘Everybody Writes’ Audiobook
The Everybody Writes audiobook is fresh out of the recording studio! This means that you can now listen to all 8 hours and 44 minutes of the Wall Street Journal bestseller while you are in your car, working out, walking the dog… or raking, shoveling, wrapping, drinking, cooking, canoodling, prepping, pre-gaming, or whatever you might be doing when you might find yourself in need of some how-to content advice laced with a little humor. Ten of you auditory learners can listen to the EW audiobook for free, because I’m giving away 10 copies to 10 lucky winners (or for those winners to regift to the favorite auditory learner in their lives). I’m experimenting with an application called Gleam to manage the giveaway of 10 free copies. (Big thanks to the generous Dave Cutler for his help with it.) There are two ways to win: 1. Share the love on Twitter.
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10 Ways to Create a Culture of Writing
Many organizations have hired a content manager or director, or chief storyteller, or chief content officer. But how can content leaders champion a more content-oriented company culture so that everybody on their team writes? I got this question recently. Let me paraphrase what that question-asker was really asking: How can you get busy coworkers (or lazy slackers—ha!) to write for the company blog? But I think the question could be broader than that—or should be. Because creating a writing culture doesn’t mean simply producing more blog fodder. It also means creating a culture of more efficient and effective communication. And, ultimately, a writing culture develops more leaders. “Business leadership is a lot about communications. People really stand out if they are articulate, if they can actually write sentences and get them presented properly,” says Paul Danos, Dean of the Tuck School of Business. Becoming a better writer means becoming a
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High-Fiving a Million Angels: It’s Launch Day for ‘Everybody Writes’
The sound you hear is Tina Fey high-fiving a million angels… because it’s launch day for Everybody Writes! Good writing helps good marketers become great marketers. And today, the book is finally in stock at the bookseller of your choice. Which means the sound you might also hear is thousand book spines being cracked open for the first time. (I love that sound. Whether it’s my book or not.) Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, Nook, and the local bookseller of your choice. And I suppose you can also find it at your local library or bookmobile… as well as back-alley black market, bootleg site, or wherever books are available, traded, or sold. Not that I recommend black market or bootleggers. Everybody Writes is your practical go-to guide—your map to the most important and useful guideposts on the path toward better writing and non-mediocre content. And, more important,
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13 Writing Rules
Many hold a notion that the ability to write, or write well, is a gift bestowed on a chosen few. Writing well is considered a kind of art, linked murkily to muse and mysticism. That leaves us thinking there are two kinds of people: the writing haves—and the hapless, for whom writing well is a hopeless struggle, like trying to carve marble with a butter knife. But I don’t believe that, and neither should you. The truth is this: we are all capable of producing good writing. Or, at least, better writing. And we all should be producing better writing. Because in our content- and social media-driven world: Everybody writes. We are all capable of shedding mediocre writing to reveal something more inspired and reader-centric. The first step is to get into the right mindset. Here are 13 writing tips (or writing rules) to help you get started. 13 Writing
Introducing ‘Everybody Writes’ and a Free Gift for Anti-Mediocre Writers (This Means You)
This is the official announcement of my new book, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to finally be sharing some details with you. I’m also excited to talk about a fun freebie for those who buy the book in the next few weeks (more on that in a sec). Writing a book is like birthing a Volkswagen. The process is about as pretty as you’d imagine that to be: it’s long and arduous and you sweat a lot, and most of the work is done while crying. But as with actual childbirth, I’ve forgotten all of the painful parts already. Because today, it’s like the family is coming over to get the first glimpse of her, and I couldn’t be happier to show her off. The new website is up at EverybodyWrites.com. (You know who does good work? Nick Westergaard and Brand Driven Digital!) “Awesome” is one of those words