It starts out innocently enough....
"Hey, do you have a few minutes, maybe half an hour to check out something and edit it? You know, check for spelling errors and stuff.... Of course I gotta have it finished in the next day or so."
In reality, most of the folks who ask me this, their stuff would be fine untouched. Sure, anyone can catch a few things... spacing, spelling, word choice, a spare correctly spelled oops word or two. Honestly, some folks get their knickers in a twist about that, though will they really lose a serious sale as a result? Guessing not.
What's often needed is something more... honing the purpose. Ask quite simply...
- Who am I trying to reach?
- What do I want to have happen as a result of their reading?
- Is it too much in one fell swoop? (can they read it in single screen and still get something useful out of it?)
We often try to leap tall buildings in a single bound. And since most us don't have those superpowers, it just doesn't quite work.
A less ambitious and often more effective approach is to scale back. In covering less ground, we create the space to embrace our objectives more completely. Convert one long 3-part blog that leaves out the juicy parts, into three shorter, more complete posts.
Doing that one post really well also queues up the other two parts for later, with room for a teaser inviting satisfied readers return.
Next time you find yourself in a rush, trying to quickly hack something down to size and see if it still makes sense... reconsider. Begin with the end in mind. Simply. Focus. And save some goodies for the next round.
