Free Mini-Lesson: How to Seduce Reader With Your Words
This is a free mini-lesson about seducing your readers with your words. Today I want to
explain a simple two-step process for editing your own content so you can engage your
readers.
The first step of editing is chiseling. And the reason for chiseling is that you need to chop
away all redundant words.
Some words have meaning; and other words are almost meaningless.
To engage your reader, you want to chisel away all meaningless words. That’s your first
step. Let’s look at three examples.
 Writing is just really difficult. You can probably immediately see that the words
just and really can be deleted without changing the meaning of this sentence.
Writing is difficult is much cleaner and shorter.
 Let’s look at another example: I’m feeling totally overwhelmed. Taking out the
word totally is an easy decision, but you also don’t need to say I am feeling, why
not simply say: I feel overwhelmed.
 Here’s the last example: It’s hard to write a good sentence. This one is a little
trickier, but in this sentence the word it doesn’t have any meaning; it doesn’t
refer back to something. But to take the word it out, you have to rewrite the
whole sentence. Writing a good sentence is hard. This is not much shorter, but
you start immediately with a word with meaning, rather than with the nondescript it. That’s why this version is better.
Now, let’s have a look at step 2, which is painting. In this step, you choose more precise
words or sensory words or emotional words. You try to paint a picture or make your
reader feel something.
Let’s go back to the same three examples and see how we can paint a clearer picture with
our words.

Writing is difficult is a perfectly fine sentence. It’s to the point and short, but
it doesn’t paint a clear picture in your reader’s head. What does it mean that
writing is difficult? You could for instance say Writing is mind-blowingly
difficult – this adds more stress to how difficult writing is, and it becomes a
little easier to picture a person struggling with his writing. Another way to
write this is Writing saps your energy, leaving you exhausted. There’s not
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one answer—you can rewrite this sentence in many different ways. But what’s
important is to paint a picture.

Let’s look at the second example. I feel overwhelmed is fine. It’s a short and
clear message. But if you want to draw your reader’s attention to how
overwhelmed you feel, you can make the picture more vivid, and more
emotional. For instance: I’m buried up to my eyeballs in work, and I don’t
know where to start.
Again, this is just one way to rewrite this sentence. You don’t have to rewrite
it, but if you want to make a stronger impression, you have to create a more
precise picture in your reader’s eyes.

Okay, the last example: Writing a good sentence is hard. The problem with
this sentence is that good is a difficult word, because it has so many meanings.
What does good mean? Do you mean persuasive, or engaging, or short?
Words like good, bad, nice, or effective are difficult because they only give a
hint of what you mean. You can almost always find better words to express
your meaning. And that’s what editing is about—to communicate your
meaning in a more vivid and more precise way. So your reader knows exactly
what you mean. You want your reader to be able to visualize your words.
You might be surprised that in this second step, a sentence often becomes longer. Didn’t
I tell you that you should chisel away unnecessary words so your sentences become
shorter?
Well, this is about the words you use. You don’t want to use meaningless words. But if
you need a few extra words to paint a vivid image, then that’s fine.
How can you improve your word choice?
1. One way is using a thesaurus. I often use an online thesaurus to find more
words.
2. The other option is the create a swipe file or a list of favorite words. Even
when you read a newspaper, you might find words or phrases that captivate
you. Add these words to your list, and read through your list from time to
time.
So here’s your checklist for choosing words: First you chisel away unnecessary words,
and then you make sure you’ve selected precise, emotional, and sensory words.
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Editing your draft text is an important skill for any writer, for anyone who wants to
communicate in written form, for any business owner.
Today’s lesson was a short lesson. In the Enchanting Business Blogging Course we
spend two whole weeks on the various aspects of editing. You get 6 different
assignments to learn editing step-by-step, and I provide personal feedback on all your
assignments. Interested in learning more? Sign up to the Early Bird list.
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