RED ALLOWED
Thursday July 27, 2017
Describing wants, designing desired outcomes – as friend Simon says, ‘a dream without a plan is a nightmare’ – when that message feels right, we can/must make a well informed decision. And, as our friends at Nike say, ‘just do it’.
But first, drafting/rehearsing, free-flow thinking, feeling, letting it all come out, putting it all down.
Then, re-writing. Not ‘replacement writing’, not substituting new thoughts for discarded ones. Refining, polishing and re-stating. Some re-thinking, always, but mostly finding better ways to deliver meaning with fewer words, fewer stumbles, fewer awkward transitions, more power, more gravitas … and fewer commas. Read. Aloud.
And sometimes loud …
From thought to thought, idea to idea, feeling to feeling – rehearsing speeches aloud – alone, speaking to walls or drapes, feeling/hearing how sounds give ideas their voice, spilling passions.
Refinement of any piece is satisfying. Conveying ideas clearly is valuable – but most important of all, why we write or speak or express ourselves creatively, ever – to move that audience, of one or many, toward an action, a feeling, a change of viewpoint or a change of heart. Powerful feeling. I don’t always get it right/write, but when Ido, few things in life compare.
Congruence. Of ideas, messaging and style are useful when we market a product or service, but where congruence matters most is when having a strong feeling meshes seamlessly with how we express it – like finely machined gears separated only by a tiny oil-film of lubricant – moving smoothly without interruption, without stalling, without interference. Like walking a Hawaiian beach on a quiet morning, waves lapping shore like they’ve done for evermore, nothing wrong with this world anymore.
