When I turned 64, I celebrated my birthday by lifting 205 pounds. When I turned 63, I celebrated my birthday by lifting a toothbrush, so that was quite an accomplishment.

How did I hit my personal best so quickly? I hired a coach to show me insider tricks, practiced with him regularly, took his feedback and got a little better every day.

Before I knew it, I was twice as good, then three times as good, then four times as good. And then, suddenly, I was picking up the combined weight of myself and all my roommates with my own personal biceps.

How can you hit your personal best?

I’ve used a similar approach to become a better business owner, teacher and writer, as well. Here’s how I’ve done it, and how you can do it too:

1. Train. Only the best writers come to writing workshops. The rest are busy doing things exactly as they have done for years. No train, no gain!
2. Practice. Practice makes perfect — but only if you’re practicing best practices. Reading a blog post doesn’t polish your skills. Learning, followed by action, does.
3. Get feedback. Work with a coach who can show you how to take the next step, continue to improve and get a little better every day.

One of my business coaches likes to say, “If you get 1% better every day, in 70 days, you’ll be twice as good.”

How good will you be by Feb. 27?

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’Tis the season for many of us to use what remains of our 2023 budget … or lose it altogether. Here are five ways to invest your budget dust this year to improve communications for years to come:

1. Build skills in a 2023 writing workshop. Help your team members tell better stories, write more concisely or move your audience members to act when you book one of our last remaining 2023 workshop dates.
2. Save on 2024 writing workshops. Lock in 2023 prices for 2024 events when you book today. Plus: Save 5% when you prepay my 2024 speaking fee.
3. Help individual team members level up their skills in writing with AI, boosting media coverage, getting emails opened or reaching readers online at one of our upcoming public Master Classes.
4. Learn a new writing technique every day with Rev Up Readership memberships for the whole team.

Need something else? Let me know how else I can help!

Want more details? Contact me directly.

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I’m a poor resolver. For many years, my New Year’s Resolution was “I resolve not to resolve,” which made me a bit of a Grinch at New Year’s Day parties.

But if you’ve resolved to become a better writer this year, here’s help — eight of my favorite 2023 writing resolutions to make today:

1. Make it a metaphor.

It’s tempting to call metaphor the magic wand of a writer’s repertoire, the Penn and Teller of the page.

Metaphor has the power to persuade far better than literal language. It lets you say in five words what would otherwise take five paragraphs to explain. It makes readers’ brains light up, helps them think more broadly about your message — even (ahem!) gives the illusion that the communicator is more attractive.

So yes, that simile does make your butt look better.

Learn to write better metaphors.

2. Do your homework.

“Without great reporting, a story is like one big comb-over,” says Ann Hull, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post. “You can see it from the third paragraph.”

Too many brand messages don’t even attempt to hide the bald spot.

Have you been relying on the subject-matter-expert’s deck, an email exchange or a 5-W’s interview to craft a compelling story? You probably need to make a date with your BFF and research assistant Google for some solid background research as well.

Get goods at getting the goods.

3. Think Outside the Pyramid.

The feature-style story structure has been proven in the lab to increase readership, understanding, memory and satisfaction. The inverted pyramid has been proven in the lab to reduce these things.

Let’s make 2023 the year we stop using this 178-year-old hierarchical blurtation of facts. OK? Please?

Learn a structure that outperforms the pyramid.

4. Stop writing about “us and our stuff.”

Call it selfish empathy. Or maybe narcissistic altruism.

The more you focus on the reader and the reader’s needs, the more you’ll draw readers into your message and move them to act.

The more you drone on and on about your organization and its products, services, programs and ideas, the less readers will read what you want them to read and do what you want them to do.

So what is the actual purpose of your message again?

Learn to write for the reader.

5. Don’t stop at the subject line.

The subject line is only one of four elements your recipients use to decide whether to open your email, delete without reading or put your message in the spam filter.

Are you crafting powerful preheaders, preview panes and from lines? Or are you ignoring the other 75% of elements that convince recipients to open?

Learn to “address the envelope.”

6. Steal a tip from The New York Times.

The most common length of a quote in the Times is seven words, plus attribution.

How long are your quotes? Would they be twice as good if they were half (or one-tenth) as long?

Turn lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites.

7. Hit return more often.

People skip long paragraphs. So if your paragraph is too long, you might as well stamp on it in red ink: “Don’t bother reading this.”

Want people to read your message? Write short paragraphs.

Find out how long is too long.

8. Reach readers on the small screen.

More than half of your audience members read your webpages, social content, emails and newsletters on their phones.

Problem is, there are more differences between writing for mobile vs. writing for laptops than there are for writing for the web vs. writing for print.

Learn how to reach readers on their smartphones.

Resolve to be a better writer this year …

Follow through on these resolutions, and you’ll soon be reaching more readers and moving them to act.

Happy New Year!

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Want to write better, easier and faster? Get clicked, read, liked and shared? Otherwise boost your writing skills?

As we plan our upcoming Master Classes, I’ve been creating a lot of new slides. Here’s a sneak peek at some of my favorites.

1. Make messages colorful with concrete details. Fun facts and juicy details might seem like the Cheez Doodles and Cronuts of communication: tempting, for sure, but a little childish and not particularly good for you.

But in fact they boost understanding, increase credibility, help people remember your message and move people to act. Add color to every piece you write with these nutritious elements.

2. Put your effort up top. Most writers spend very little time getting ready to write, more time writing and the most time fixing what they’ve written. But comma-jockeying ain’t writing, and the result is some pretty tepid prose. Write Better, Easier and Faster when you turn the writing process on its head.

3. Stop agonizing over the right length for your blog post. Over-the-counter tools like SEMRush analyze successful posts to let you know what Google will rank for your search term. Get word length, keywords to use, readability levels and more. Plus, find out how many words people really read on social media channels.

4. Lead with the benefits … substantiate with the features. Write about what readers can do with your products, services, programs and ideas — not about the products, services, programs and ideas themselves. The result: You’ll draw readers in and move them to act.

5. Are you addressing your email envelope? Recipients use four elements — the sender, subject line, preheader text and preview pane — to decide whether to open or delete your email or report it as spam. So if you’re just crafting your subject line, you’re ignoring 75% of the elements that readers use to determine whether to open.

To increase open rates, address all four elements of the envelope — not just the subject line.

6. Avoid the worst news release quote clichés. We know your VP is overcome with emotion over your latest Whatzit. But instead of quoting executives about how delighted, pleased, excited and thrilled they are, write how users are benefitting from your product, service, program or idea. The result: sound bites journalists will use and readers will read.

7. Reach readers where they are, not where you wish they were. Most Americans have basic or below-basic reading skills. That means that if you write at the 11th-grade reading level, you’ll miss 97% of Americans. Use readability statistics to make your message easier to read — for all of your audience members.

8. People spend half the time on your webpage when they’re using a smartphone. To get the message across on the small screen, write shorter paragraphs, sentences and words. Are you getting your message across on the mobile web?

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Want to boost your open rates? Get more media coverage? Otherwise boost your writing skills?

As we plan our upcoming Master Classes, I’ve been creating a lot of new slides. Here’s a sneak peek at some of my favorites.

1. It’s not fluff. Creative material boosts readership and more. So how can you write more stories, metaphor, wordplay and other creative content?

2. Master a better writing process.

Want to write better, easier and faster? You may need to unlearn the writing process you were taught in school. Most of us learned to think of what to write, write it down and get it right all at once. That’s too much to handle!

But if you’ll break that practice into three steps — 1) prewrite, 2) write and 3) rewrite — you’ll soon be writing better, easier and faster.

3. How long should your blog post be? SEMRush analyzes successful posts to let you know what Google will rank for your search term. Get word length, keywords to use, readability levels and more.

4. Cut Through the Clutter. In a world of information overload, how do you get readers to pay attention to, understand, remember and act on your message?

5. Write emails for the small screen. You never know where your email blasts and newsletters are getting read. As more of your recipients read your email newsletters and e-blasts on their smartphones, you need to write emails for reading on smartphones.

6. Are you quoting every VP in your news release? Stop that. Quote to communicate opinion, emotion or controversy, to give a human voice to your message and to change the pace of your release. Otherwise, paraphrase. Are you using best practices for news release sound bites?

7. Reach readers where they are, not where you wish they would be. Most Americans have basic or below-basic reading skills. That means that if you write at the 9th-grade level, you’ll miss 88% of U.S. adults. Reach real readers with the right readability levels.

8. Reach readers where their eyes are. Even highly educated European scientists read only 20% of the words on a webpage. But which words are they reading? Reach readers online with mobile-writing best practices.

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Want to write better stories? More persuasive messages? Otherwise boost your writing skills?

As we plan our upcoming Master Classes, I’ve been creating a lot of new slides. Here’s a sneak peek at some of my favorites:

1. Make the important interesting. It’s not enough that your message be important. To get attention, you need to make those important messages interesting. So use storytelling, metaphor, wordplay and other creative techniques.

2. Don’t forget to prewrite. Getting ready to write is the most important step in the writing process. But too many writers gloss over it — or worse, skip it altogether. So before you hit the keyboard, conduct research, develop your story angle and organize your piece. You’ll soon find yourself Writing Better, Easier and Faster.

3. Write content that’s relevant, valuable and interesting. That’s what people read and share. Are you writing content-marketing pieces that make readers laugh or that help them live their lives better? Or are you just blah-blahing about your latest widget?

4. Reach nonreaders with words. “Readers” read, on average, 20% of the words on a webpage, according to the Nielsen Norman Group. So how do you reach nonreaders with words?

Pass The Skim Test. Make sure readers can get the gist of your message without reading a single paragraph. That means embedding key messages in headlines, decks, subheads, links, lists, bold-faced lead-ins and other display copy.

5. Tailor, don’t just personalize, subject lines. For higher open rates, go beyond, “Hey, Ann.” So add a second data point to your subject line. That will multiply your campaign success by 10 times, according to Eloqua.

6. Make sound bites sound better. One-quarter of journalists rank quotes the least important element in a news release — after the boilerplate and the dateline. Make your sound bites more compelling by focusing on the end user.

7. Half of your audience members can’t read at the 8th-grade level. Write at that level, and you’ll miss 50% of your readers. To reach all of your readers, however well they read, hit Flesch Reading Ease of 60 to 70.

8. Front-load your web heads. On search engine results pages, newsrooms and other story lists, people read only the first couple of words of your headline. If they don’t get your key message, chances are, they won’t click.

So draw readers in by front-loading your web headlines. Move the topic to the top of your headline so readers get the gist of your message in the first 11 characters.

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Want to write more readable messages? Increase engagement on your webpages? Otherwise boost your writing skills?

As we plan our upcoming Master Classes, I’ve been creating a lot of new slides. Here’s a sneak peek at some of my favorites.

1. Stop boring them to death. Reach more readers — and sell more products, services, programs and ideas — with storytelling, metaphor and other creative elements. The boss thinks that’s fluff? We’ve got the data to prove it works.

2. Knock out brilliant drafts with less effort. Use a writing process that works with — not against — your brain. Prewrite, write, then rewrite.

3. Engage readers with social posts. “Our readers don’t want to read stories,” writes Brian J. O’Conner, editor of bankrate.com. “What they want is a big button they can push that says, ‘Solve my problem.’ It’s up to us to be that button.”

Write posts that solve their problems. Don’t write about us and our stuff.

4. Use the bait your readers like. That’s my grandfather, George Wylie, serving his famous catfish to Doc Severinsen, the band leader for the “Tonight” show. Grandpa said, “If you want to catch a fish, you need to think like a fish. Then you need to use the bait the fish like, not the bait you like.” So what bait are you using on your readers?

5. Go beyond the subject line. Email recipients consider four elements — aka “the envelope” — when deciding whether to open or delete your message. If you’re not writing them, MailChimp is, and not too well. Increase open rates by addressing all four elements of the envelope.

6. Journalists rank PR quotes as the least valuable thing in a release — below the boilerplate and dateline. So how can you transform lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites? To write quotes that journalists want to run and that readers want to read, take the Wah-wah out.

7. “This is too easy to read.” Said nobody ever. Nobody wants it to be harder. Use free online tools like HemingwayApp to measure, monitor, manage and improve readability. For all of your audiences. Because readability helps everyone.

8. Write better bulleted lists. Web visitors look at 70% of the bulleted lists they encounter … but only if you do a few things right. So show the parts, show the whole and make lists parallel.

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My favorite writing quote? Ever?

“For 40-odd years in this noble profession,
I’ve harbored a guilt and my conscience is smitten.
So here is my slightly embarrassed confession —
I don’t like to write, but I love to have written.”

— Michael Kanin, screenwriter of “Woman of the Year” and other movies

I like it so much, I had it engraved on my iPad.

Here are eight other awesome quotes about writing:

1. People spend, on average, 11 seconds on an email blast. So how long should your email be? Your email newsletter? Your subject line? Your links? Get Ann’s email-writing best practices.

2. The more you say, the less they read. The more you say, the less they buy. The more you say, the worse decisions they make. Stop the data dumping. Don’t tell people everything you know: Tell them exactly what they need to know. Get Ann’s readability best practices.

3. And there’s a great big I in TwItter. Don’t let your social media efforts become one big selfie stick. Instead, focus on your friends, fans and followers. There’s a reason You is the most retweeted word in the English language. Get Ann’s content marketing-writing best practices.

4. Want to grab people’s attention and move them to act? The secret of persuasive writing is to position your information in the readers’ best interest. Instead of yammering on about Us and our stuff, focus on the reader’s needs. Get Ann’s persuasive-writing best practices.

5. Humans are wired for story. Storytelling is “the most powerful form of human communication,” according to Peg C. Neuhauser, author of Corporate Legends and Lore. So … how do your storytelling superpowers stack up? Get Ann’s storytelling best practices.

6. Me, too, Mr. Liebling. What tricks do you have to help you write better, easier and faster? Get Ann’s best practices for the writing process.

7. Journalists rank PR quotes as the least valuable thing in a release — below the boilerplate and dateline. So how can you transform lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites? Get Ann’s PR-writing best practices.

8. More than half of your visitors look at your web pages on their smartphones, not their laptops. Problem is, it’s 48% harder to understand information on mobile. People read more slowly, spend less time on, and click less often on the small screen. So … how do you get your message across? Get Ann’s best practices for writing for mobile.

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