Hey, friend — 

Happy Sunday, and happy new moon in Leo!

I'm enjoying a rare rainy day (like all-day kind of rain) with a tropical storm rolling through. Under a blankie with my laptop and a cup of cacao. During my second hurricane here, someone asked if we had "enough hurricane snacks."

"Ummm... my house is always stocked with what we need."

Funny thing, people here buy special snacks when there are storms. Usually extra junk food. I found this weird. So, when it storms here, you eat like shit? Okay. You do you 🤣 ... I'll be here using the time to read, write, and hang with my fam.

On Friday, I wrapped the 6th Finding Flow experience with the latest cohort. It's a different kind of writing experience (you could also call it a challenge), where we start on the new moon, because it's the optimal energy to start a new writing project (or recommit to one). Every day, I send a voice memo with a small writing tip based on the moon along with a few writing prompts. We also have live teaching and implementation calls and Q&A.

This 6th one was our "Summer Camp" edition, and it delivered. Some participants hit their goals, and everyone came out the 29 days with a more harmonious approach to writing. I think it's the ultimate NaNoWriMo alternative.

I decided to run it once more this year and it perfectly aligns with NaNoWriMo (a writing challenge where you write 50k words in 30 days... but we are NOT about that!). The new moon in November is on the 1st — it was totally meant to be. Fall is my favorite season for writing as I drafted my first two books during this season. I haven't told the public yet, and space is genuinely limited, so if you want to commit to getting your writing done this fall – hop in early.

Today, I'm sharing three of the EASIEST ways to make your writing more approachable. Now why on earth would you want to do that?

Because approachable writing feels easy to read. When your writing is easier on your reader, it's more likely to get read and then resonate or inspire — or whatever else you hope for your audience.

I can't think of many cases where you want your writing to be unapproachable. I'm guessing you wouldn't be reading this.

These tweaks are SO SIMPLE to make that you can scan your writing and implement these changes today. I love quick wins because they give us the momentum to create MORE wins.

Tweak #1. Go easy on negative language

Humans have a negativity bias — ever read a news headline lately? When you start to pay attention to the words you speak, hear, write, and see, you might start to notice patterns. Make a point to notice everyone's words (including yours) this week.

There are some common phrases you might be using that could be unconsciously planting an unfavorable vibe in your readers' minds.

These are common in blogs, emails, sales copy, and social posts. Here are two examples:

1. "You won't regret it!"
   When pairing words like "won't" (negative word) and "regret" (negative word) — our brain focuses on the idea of regret. I'm guessing you want your reader to be happy about their purchase. 
   Better option: "You'll be so happy you did it."

2. "Don't hesitate to reach out"
   This is probably the most common one. I spot this one at the bottom of emails all the time — and I cringe. "Don't" "hesitate" — guess what your reader hears? Hesitate. So you know what they'll do? They'll hesitate to reach out. 

   Better option: "Reach out. I'm happy to answer your questions."

Check your writing — search for words like "don't" "can't" and "won't" and see where you can swap them out for a positive word.

Tweak 2: Personality — how much until your message is unprofessional? 

Another common struggle I hear is business owners wondering what's"too friendly or personal." They want to preserve personality in their writing but wonder if it feels unprofessional. A lot depends on your audience. I say it's totally okay — in fact, I recommend it — to keep your essence and energy in your writing. Who decided that personality was unprofessional?

Keep this in mind — with every article, email, and sales page, there's a human reading on the other end. One person is reading your message. 

Now, if you include some punch in here, you might strike a balance. If an entire piece of writing had jokes and personal notes, it would be exhausting and distract the reader from the meaning of the message. A little injection of personality and lightness is totally appropriate — and if it's your voice, it's welcome.

This is where a lot of companies miss the mark and think they need to be boring and sterile. And guess what — no one wants to read their stuff. Chances are they don't even want to read their own writing. The measure for this – read your writing aloud. Does it sound like you? Is it engaging? Would you want to read this?

Tweak #3: Contractions for a conversational tone

I almost didn't include this one because I say it so often and figured you might be thinking, "🙄 Oh, there Jacq goes talking about contractions again." I will die on this hill (and the Oxford comma hill, too). Contractions support your message by sounding approachable. Most of us naturally speak using contractions, but corporate and academic training taught us that these were unprofessional. I call BS.

Contractions make your message shorter, and brevity is always in style. And it instantly gives your writing a more practical style. It's also the easiest switch you can make to your writing that takes a few minutes. Do it now: Open a piece of writing and start searching for and replacing some (or all) of the following: 

• Do not → don't

• I will → I'll

• They are → they're

• I have → I've

I recommend reviewing each swap one at a time because it won't always make sense. 

If these writing tips are making you question everything. That's common. Many of my students and clients unlearn a lot. And the good news is that once you unlearn all this (there's more — I share about these things constantly in the community and am combining them all into my copywriting school).

You might feel a little lost and thinking, "How do I find my writing voice?"

❌ I don't recommend looking for your writing voice. Instead, I recommend creating it. Creating your writing voice is so much better because you're in control. You get to choose everything. 

Here are 20 writing prompts for you to help you create your voice — enjoy!

Next week, I'm going to share something I created for a client that she estimates will save her business $12-24K a year PLUS countless hours.

If you have a love-hate relationship with Instagram, you'll love this. (notice, I didn't say "You don't want to miss this!")

❤️‍🔥 Jacq

P.S. Happy New Moon (today)! At a new moon, we might not be ready to jump into a huge writing marathon. It's a time to go inward, get quiet, and notice what intuitive nudges we're getting about what we'll create next.

P.P.S. Are you an author wanting to (re)build your author website? Sign up for this free class I'm hosting with Squarespace designer Christy Price happening on August 20 — Easy Author Websites.