Page 236 - Hypnotic Writing - How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words

At Last! The Joe Vitale Hypnotic Writing Formula
REWRITE
Rewrite means there are no great writers, there are only great rewriters.
While I urge you to write your first draft as fast as humanly pos- sible, without checking to correct anything or look up anything, I also urge you to review your work, later, in this rewriting stage.
This is where you polish your gem. This is where you change passive words to active words, lame sentences to hypnotic ones. Rewriting is where you become a word sculptor and redesign your copy, moving words, sentences, even entire paragraphs.
There are secrets to doing this, of course. Here are a few of my favorites:
• Use Stephen King’s advice. Make 10 copies of your sales letter. Hand them to 10 peers (not family members). When their feedback comes in, look for the majority votes.
• Whenever you see a comma, see if you can change it to a pe- riod. People often write sentences way too long. Rather than using commas to set off clauses in a sentence, try using a pe- riod and creating several shorter sentences. This will make your writing “move.”
• Write in active language. Passive language is boring. Active language is hypnotic. This is a major secret, even though it’s been written about by everyone from E.B. White in the fa- mous 1918 book The Elements of Style to me. For example: “The book was read by me” is passive, while “I read the book” is active. Here’s a tip: Look for the helping words were, is, was, are, or be as a way of spotting passive sentences.
• Pretend someone will pay you $1,000 for every word you take out of your letter. Edit ruthlessly.
• Rearrange paragraphs. Most great writers are word sculptors. They move paragraphs around like chess pieces on a game board. Pretend you are the Michelangelo of words. Rearrange your writing to make the most sense.
• Have a dialogue with your reader. This is one my greatest se- crets. I practice my psychic skills when I write copy. I am always
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