Everybody Writes

Acknowledgments xvii Start Here 1 Part I Writing Rules: How to Write Better (and How to Hate Writing Less) 15 1 Everybody Writes 19 2 Writing Is a Habit, Not an Art 21 3 How to Keep a Daily Writing Ritual When You Aren't Feeling It 25 4 Shake Off School Rules 28 5 Publishing Is a Privilege 31 6 Why We Need a Writing Process 33 7 Introducing the Writing GPS Framework 35 8 Embrace the Ugly First Draft 44 9 Draft 2: Cross Out the Wrong Words 48 10 Draft 3: Swap Places with Your Reader 52 11 Draft 4: Humor Comes on the Rewrite 55 12 Develop Pathological Empathy 56 13 Think Before Ink 61 14 Fifteen Ways to Organize 65 15 Start with Dear Mom 68 16 If You Take a Running Start, Cover Your Tracks 70 17 Place the Most Important Words at the Beginning of Each Sentence 74 18 Notice Where Words Appear in Relation to Others Around Them 77 19 Leads and Kickers 79 20 Show, Don't Tell 85 21 How to Write Funny 92 22 Use Surprising Analogies, Meaty Metaphors 97 23 Add Another Sense 103 24 Add Obvious Structure to a List 105 25 Approach Writing Like Teaching 108 26 Keep It Simple-- But Not Simplistic 110 27 Find a Writing Partner 113 28 Avoid Hot Dog Writing 116 29 Hire a Human Editor 120 30 Set a Goal Based on Word Count (Not Time) 123 31 End on an I- Can't- Wait- to- Get- Back- to- It Note 125 32 Deadlines Are the WD- 40 of Writing 126 Part II Writing Rules: Grammar and Usage 129 33 Use Real Words 131 34 Avoid Frankenwords and Words Pretending to Be Something They're Not 133 35 Don't Use Weblish (Words You Wouldn't Whisper to Your Sweetheart in the Dark) 135 36 Default to the Present Tense 136 37 Choose Active Voice Over Passive Voice 139 38 Ditch Weakling Verbs 141 39 Adverbs Aren't Necessary (Usually) 143 40 Use Clichés Only Once in a Blue Moon 146 41 "Mistakes Were Made." Avoiding These Simple Mistakes Will Make You Look and Feel Smarter Instantly 149 42 Words We Always Get Wrong 154 43 Grammar Rules Made to Be Broken 164 44 Limit Moralizing 168 45 Eggcorns and Mondegreens 170

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.