Lighten Up with Details

A Simple Way to Make Your Writing Lighter

“This doesn’t seem as light as the earlier chapters,” said my coaching client as she showed me the first draft of a chapter. She has a wise, witty voice that she captures well in her writing. But for this chapter, she wasn’t feeling the fun yet.

Being fun and light consistently is a challenge, especially when you’re writing about topics that aren’t inherently entertaining.

She’s not alone in craving a lighter tone. In a survey of over 250 writers about writing voice, nearly a third said that they wished their voice was “funnier or lighter.”

That’s my wish, too! So, how do we get there? How do we go from merely wishing to be funnier to actually making our readers smile, at least inwardly?

Here’s one idea that I share with her, and now you.

Delight in the details

You know the saying “the devil’s in the details?” Delight lives in the details as well.

Too often, we load up our writing with abstractions. Nonfiction and business writers struggle with abstractions, and even fiction writers can fall prey to over-generalizing. Too many abstract concepts lead to heavy, dull writing.