Everybody Writes

ANN HANDLEY is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author focused on helping businesses worldwide escape marketing mediocrity to ignite tangible results. Her work has appeared in Entrepreneur, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Chicago Public Radio, and the Financial Times. IBM named her one of seven people shaping modern marketing. More than 50K people subscribe to her popular email newsletter. She is the world’s first Chief Content Officer, a principal at training and education company MarketingProfs, and a regular speaker at events globally. Ann is also a mom, dog person, and writer. Her favorite food is kale salad. But don’t hold that against her.

• Acknowledgments xviiStart Here 1Part I Writing Rules: How to Write Better (and How to Hate Writing Less) 151 Everybody Writes 192 Writing Is a Habit, Not an Art 213 How to Keep a Daily Writing Ritual When You Aren’t Feeling It 254 Shake Off School Rules 285 Publishing Is a Privilege 316 Why We Need a Writing Process 337 Introducing the Writing GPS Framework 358 Embrace the Ugly First Draft 449 Draft 2: Cross Out the Wrong Words 4810 Draft 3: Swap Places with Your Reader 5211 Draft 4: Humor Comes on the Rewrite 5512 Develop Pathological Empathy 5613 Think Before Ink 6114 Fifteen Ways to Organize 6515 Start with Dear Mom 6816 If You Take a Running Start, Cover Your Tracks 7017 Place the Most Important Words at the Beginning of Each Sentence 7418 Notice Where Words Appear in Relation to Others Around Them 7719 Leads and Kickers 7920 Show, Don’t Tell 8521 How to Write Funny 9222 Use Surprising Analogies, Meaty Metaphors 9723 Add Another Sense 10324 Add Obvious Structure to a List 10525 Approach Writing Like Teaching 10826 Keep It Simple— But Not Simplistic 11027 Find a Writing Partner 11328 Avoid Hot Dog Writing 11629 Hire a Human Editor 12030 Set a Goal Based on Word Count (Not Time) 12331 End on an I- Can’t- Wait- to- Get- Back- to- It Note 12532 Deadlines Are the WD- 40 of Writing 126Part II Writing Rules: Grammar and Usage 12933 Use Real Words 13134 Avoid Frankenwords and Words Pretending to Be Something They’re Not 13335 Don’t Use Weblish (Words You Wouldn’t Whisper to Your Sweetheart in the Dark) 13536 Default to the Present Tense 13637 Choose Active Voice Over Passive Voice 13938 Ditch Weakling Verbs 14139 Adverbs Aren’t Necessary (Usually) 14340 Use Clichés Only Once in a Blue Moon 14641 “Mistakes Were Made.” Avoiding These Simple Mistakes Will Make You Look and Feel Smarter Instantly 14942 Words We Always Get Wrong 15443 Grammar Rules Made to Be Broken 16444 Limit Moralizing 16845 Eggcorns and Mondegreens 170Part III Voice Rules 17346 Sweat the Smallest Stuff 17747 What’s Brand Voice? 18048 How to Develop Your Brand Voice 18249 Four Powerful Places to Apply Brand Voice 19050 Voice Doesn’t Change, Tone Does 192Part IV Story Rules 19551 The Six Elements of a Marketing Story 19752 Your Brand Story: Tell The Story Only You Can Tell 20153 Product Story: Make Your Customer the Hero 20654 The Rudolph Framework in Action 21455 Hermit Crab Content 21956 Innovation Is About Brains, Not Budget 221Part V Publishing Rules 22357 Share News That’s Really News 22758 Biased and Balanced 22959 Brands as Media Companies 23160 Should You Ungate Your Content? 23561 Memes, Trends, Newsjacking 23962 Better Interviews with These Nonobvious Tips 24763 Check Your Facts 25264 A Mind- Like- Water Mindset 25465 Seek Out the Best Sources 25666 Beware of Hidden Agendas 25767 Credible Data 25868 Cite as You Write 26069 Curate Ethically 26570 Seek Permission, Not Forgiveness 27071 The Basics of Copyright, Fair Use, and For Attribution 273Part VI 20 Things Marketers Write 27772 The New Ideal Length for Every Piece of Content 27973 Writing Direct Response Email 28274 Why You Need an Email Newsletter 28975 Writing an Email Newsletter 29276 Writing a Home Page 30477 Writing the About Us Page 31078 Writing Landing Pages 31279 Writing Headlines 31780 Writing Infographics 32381 Writing for Video 32782 Writing for Social Media 33083 Writing Image Captions 33884 Writing with Hashtags 34385 Writing Your LinkedIn Profile 34786 Writing for LinkedIn 35187 Writing About Hard Stuff 35788 Writing a Bolder Boilerplate 36289 Writing Speech Descriptions 36590 Writing a Sales Letter 36991 Ghostwriting 373Part VII Content Tools 377Acknowledgments for Tools 393Epilogue 395Notes 397Index 407

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