My current ghostwriting client and I are getting to the end of his project, and we had a call last week to go over his final edits.
One of the first things he said on the call was, “Laura, there are no typos! I’m very impressed.”
It kinda cracked me up. It was very endearing that he was excited about something that I do on autopilot, but it got me thinking too.
I consider it part of the job to make sure the draft is as good as I can possibly get it before the client sees it.
I want their first read-through to be an amazing experience. I don’t want them to have a shred of fear or disappointment. Nor do I want there to be any scope for misunderstandings, and so I go over the material a few times before I send it, clarifying and strengthening anything that’s not up to scratch.
I also consider it part of the job in the rest of my life.
Having bumbled along for many years not clarifying my communication, my standard procedure now for any big decision or important conversation is to write it all out first.
It’s too easy to stumble into those interactions hoping the other person will understand what we’re getting at, or assuming they’ll give us the benefit of the doubt…
But this, unsurprisingly, usually doesn’t go very well. Sometimes it goes disastrously, and hot damn, I am getting too old for those kinds of cortisol spikes.
Writing stuff out is the best way I know to pinpoint where your thinking is weak or unclear. You can’t avoid seeing the gaps in your logic or the contradictions in your argument when it’s all written down in front of you.
It’s also a safe environment for figuring all that out. There’s no time pressure, no one is staring at you, and you can chop and change what you’re putting out as much as you like.
Sometimes you’ll get The Thing figured out in just a few minutes. Sometimes it might take a few sessions. Either way, once you get that clarity in your own mind, you can start to express it to others in a way that’s not going to give anyone a heart attack.
Writing out your thoughts means that you can you move forward confidently, and you’re showing care and respect for the experience of the other people involved.
You can never guarantee the outcome, but you can rest assured that you’ve done everything within your power to make it a win for everyone. And no one ever regretted choosing their words more carefully.
Is there something you can practice this on today? A conversation or decision where you need more clarity, or where you really don’t want to have any misunderstanding?