Writing Workshop at the Information Development World Conference

Hemingway, master minimalist writerLearn My Fast, Pain-Free Technique for Creating Concise, Compelling, Less-Costly Copy

“Write when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after.” These wise words come to us from Ernest Hemingway, master of minimalism.

Wait. Did he minimize here? Consider this tighter version:

Write when you know something; and not before; and not too damned much after.

Fewer words. Same meaning. More impact.

Who cares? Maybe no one. If you’re writing an email to your mom, the odd unnecessary word doesn’t cause anyone heartburn. It doesn’t interfere with comprehension. It doesn’t break anyone’s budget.

But if you’re writing a novel, or if you’re part of a team creating content for a company—especially if that content gets translated—your text-tightening skills matter. You need to know how to make your writing concise, compelling, and less costly.

Register Today

I give writing workshops that help you strengthen this skill. I love giving these workshops, and attendees claim that they have a blast and get a lot of value from attending.

Register for my “Rock Your Readers” workshop—9 to 5, Wed., Oct. 22, San Jose, CA, at Information Development World. Workshop fee $500. Conference registration not required, but I recommend attending. Check out their program!

What You’ll Learn

In my workshop, I introduce you to a technique that you can use to eliminate filler words—and sentences and paragraphs—from any text. This technique takes the guesswork out of concise writing by showing you what to look for.

After you’ve got this technique down, you’ve got it forever, and you know how to do these things:

  • Increase keyword density.
  • Cut translation costs.
  • Bring your writing to a 24-carat, attention-getting luster.

How You Can Save Your Company Millions

If your company pays to translate the content you create, this workshop delivers ROI in a big way—and gives you a tool to show how your department can save your company staggering amounts of money.

For example, the type of tightening I did on Hemingway’s sentence would cut the cost of translating a typical novel into twenty-five languages by nearly $200,000. At companies that deliver lots of content in lots of languages, even a ten-percent word-count reduction would save millions, or tens of millions, every year.

tight writing spreadsheet

In case you wonder, I chose a typical Harry Potter novel as benchmark for three reasons (guess which three):

  • You’re writing one.
  • Most people know how much text that amounts to.
  • Those novels weigh in at roughly 10,000 sentences (easy math).
  • Most people whose text gets translated have at least this much text to deal with.

Related article on the NaNonFiWriMo (Write Nonfiction in November) site: A Fast, Pain-Free Way to Create Concise, Compelling, Less-Costly Copy