Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to
Speaker 1: write for the ear. If you assume that whatever you
Speaker 1: write will be read out loud, and you structure your
Speaker 1: writing to make that possible, your writing will be more
Speaker 1: compelling and clear. This week, I'm sharing several of my
Speaker 1: favorite writing tips. Whether you write for a living or not,
Speaker 1: you may have to write reports or emails or articles
Speaker 1: for industry publications. Certain tactics can make all writing better.
Speaker 1: When I write these podcast scripts, I am obviously writing
Speaker 1: them to be read out loud. That is the whole
Speaker 1: point of a podcast script. But even writing that isn't
Speaker 1: designed to be recorded benefits from approaching it as if
Speaker 1: it would be. That's because of how people actually process
Speaker 1: written language. Many years ago, an editor told me almost
Speaker 1: in passing, that when people read things silently, they are
Speaker 1: actually saying them in their heads. As a result, writing
Speaker 1: that sounds better to the ear reads better even if
Speaker 1: you never actually hear it. When I write these scripts,
Speaker 1: I practice reading them out loud. When I do, I
Speaker 1: immediately see things that need to be edited. Sometimes sentences
Speaker 1: are too long, they need to be broken up so
Speaker 1: I can get through them without gasping for breath. Sometimes
Speaker 1: sentences are all the same length, too many long sentences,
Speaker 1: or for that matter, too many short sentences in.
Speaker 2: A row boring. Finally, certain words and sentence structures sound
Speaker 2: stronger than others. It turns out that ending a sentence
Speaker 2: on a solid one syllable word generally feels more satisfying
Speaker 2: than ending it on a long one. So rather than
Speaker 2: writing being clear and compelling, you want it to be
Speaker 2: compelling and clear. Some of this becomes habit over time.
Speaker 2: If you want an example of what good spoken language
Speaker 2: sounds like, try listening to a really good preacher. These
Speaker 2: people often have it down because they're talking to crowds
Speaker 2: many times a week. But even in the absence of that,
Speaker 2: if you simply commit to reading your own writing out
Speaker 2: loud before you publish it or hit send, you will
Speaker 2: likely spot problems. You will see that some words sound
Speaker 2: better than others, you will see where you are gasping
Speaker 2: from breath, and you'll break things up that will help
Speaker 2: readers be able to make it through your writing too. Now,
Speaker 2: I know that most of us don't do this with
Speaker 2: casual writings such as emails. But imagine if we did
Speaker 2: reading email would feel more pleasurable, and thus we'd be
Speaker 2: able to get our points across and maybe we'd send
Speaker 2: fewer emails. That wouldn't be a bad thing at all.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 2: here's to making the most of our time.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can
Speaker 3: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just
Speaker 3: connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at before
Speaker 3: Breakfast pod. That's b the number four than Breakfast pod.
Speaker 3: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 3: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 3: out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 3: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 3: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 3: to your favorite shows.