Craft Your Best Story. Then Craft It Again.
Earnest Hemingway said, “The only kind of writing is rewriting.”
EB White made a slight alteration to, “The best writing is rewriting.” And James Michener delivered his own take as, “Rewriting is the key to good writing.” The first step to crafting a powerful story is to get the story written; To make that story as pointed and valuable as possible, learn to embrace the rewrite.
This is where most stories tend to fall apart and lose their audience. The storyteller (speaker, leader, salesperson, marketer) starts with an idea they want to convey, something they believe in or are required to share as an aspect of their job role. Getting the initial content on screen or on paper is the easy part, often supported by copy-pasting from documentation, off the internet, or directly out of a survey, study, or data lake. And that's where most people stop; A few minor tweaks and rearranging, and their story is complete and ready for delivery. Only it's not. And the audience can tell.
The 200% Rework
Successful #CorporateStorytelling doesn't begin with working out or writing draft one of our content; Success begins with reworking the content and its impact for greater value, making the message and its outcome applicable, memorable, and personalized.
In industry, rework is seen as something to be avoided. On an office level, project reworks can add 20% to 50% to initial cost analyses. Most software averages 26% reworking before product release. For construction, some estimates suggest that rework can add up to 200% to the original project cost.
Messaging reworks are different because they're personal, creative, individual, and lead to improved results. While adding 200% cost to a building is painful, adding 200% time investment to better communication is the intelligent and responsible choice.
How can we make it better?
Last week, Entrepreneur published a piece highlighting how most companies' values are forgotten or disconnected from daily operations. By rethinking and co-creating revised, updated values with our teams, we can transform them into actionable tools that align behavior, build trust, and drive performance. This same strategy can and should be applied as we craft content for delivery in a keynote, breakout session, training, or client review. By revisiting, reassessing, and reworking our spoken content for value, our communication reaches higher and hits harder.
AI has made rewriting simple, but rarely better. By the time the user loads in enough prompts to clearly drive more value into their content, they've already worked out most of the improvement for themselves. Still, tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, Descript, Frase, and Quillbot are useful to get us thinking in new and different ways about the content we've already created. Genuine value comes from then adapting those calculated, automated AI rewrites into human, recognizable content that raises the bar and the message.
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A recent study out of Virginia Commonwealth University demonstrates higher consciousness through the act of rewriting and rethinking the content we create. Conversely, an outdated 1978 academic research paper out of Ball State University argues that Rewriting is a Waste of Time for students. Not surprisingly, little if any further data was published to back this up in the past 47 years.
On Friday, Medium shared the importance of adapting our communication to increase value for an intended audience. By understanding our listener, we can rewrite our content for their unique needs and expectations. Tailoring our message and its delivery to convey the most meaningful and impactful message ensures clarity about the project or directive, and each stakeholder’s role in it. Rewriting builds trust and engagement by helping our audience feel that their needs and preferences are understood and respected. And rewriting helps us overcome communication barriers like cultural differences, language misalignment, or even differing levels of technical understanding.
Bottom Line
As you approach your next speaking or team leading opportunity, think of how open you are to re-crafting your communication, either internal and external. How can a rework make it pack a bigger value punch? Rethinking and rewriting not only improve your odds for success, they also transform your intended audience into active allies, paving the way for better ratings, deeper investments, and greater outcomes.
