Yeah me too. One simple word that you just cannot find that no matter how you try to move on and rework what you are writing, you always go back to the one word. It just will not leave you as you are convinced that the one word will have this magnificent power. While we know this not to be true there is still something about that one word. I recently found myself so stuck on the one word. I would write down different ways to say what I wanted to say but the one word was escaping me. I just could not get past that word no matter how hard I tried. It is like that one word is a winning lottery ticket.
The Power Of One Word
One word in the grand scheme does not always amount to much but it gnaws at us. We give so much weight to the one word that will make or break a headline or a sales page. Sometimes this is true as we know as bloggers when the headline is killer the article spreads faster than free beer on a college campus. One word can have the article shared with thousands that most are not the target market but yet if it gets in front of the one person that is your target market and they hire you that one word becomes the hero. The inner hero that we seek with every article we write. We all want that as bloggers as why else would we blog? There is passion to write but yet when we blog for business the words that we write have more weight. If we were free within ourselves to write our thoughts and ideas at any given time we think what would people think? Is this what the blog is all about? Will people judge me? So valid but at the same time we do not do that, we focus more on the one word.
Where We Find The One Word
The one word comes from somewhere, everywhere but yet an incredible talent to capture an audience. The words sometimes flow but other times we have the blank stare at the page and just try and find the one word that gets us started. Sometimes we find the words from a post we read, the walk in the park or an experience that gives us joy or infuriates us that we type so fast that there should be fire under our fingers. The words come always but the one word is the hanker that we dwell upon.
My best article ever (as far as traffic and sharing as it was featured on Guy Kawsaki’s AllTop) was when I was literally so pissed off that I wrote it so fast with such fury of customer service mistakes to avoid that in retrospect I am grateful I wrote it but really it was a venting moment to my mother and sister as they were sleeping (they are is eastern and I am pacific). If they were awake, the post never would have been written. For me in that post, one word never mattered, but reading it over, gah it is so awful and lacking but yet is was a real life experience as it unfolded over 3-4 hours.
Writing to An Audience
We write to an audience but the intended audience is not always who is reading. Sure we do our research and try and hone in on them but may times the audience is our peers. Does the one word matter? Yes it does as if they share they may have the one person in the audience that is listening. Listening. Listening is a big part of the one word. The one word is read but when they listen they react and continue to read. The one word that will get them to listen and react is not always known which becomes more maddening and complicates the one word. Maybe it is not the one word but the combination of words but really we know, it starts with one word. As parents we will never ever forget the first word of our child(ren). One word starts it all off and that one word is what captures the audience.
In the end, I have not found that one word but by calling the Library of Margie I was able to divert off the one word. While I will still wonder about that one word, I think I am on a good path until I write the post and still rack the brain for that winning lottery ticket of that one word that will rest the brain for just a little bit until I try and find the next one word.
Do you ever get stuck on one word? What do you do?
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