Say it, loud and proud

“I couldn’t write, I couldn’t type, I couldn’t spell.”

So says Jamie Oliver in the recent Chef’s Table documentary, talking about the challenges of writing a cookbook.

He’s wildly dyslexic, and completely uninterested in the written word. So he picked up a dictaphone and used his voice. 🗣️

If you feel really constricted about writing for ANY reason, saying things out loud is a great start. You can use any transcription tool to put it onto the page and then go from there.

So much of writing is really editing, anyway, even for people who have mountains of experience and love doing it. ⛰️⛰️

Once you’ve got the basics down, you might be tempted to use AI to wrangle it into coherence. I’m going to recommend that you NOT do that. We’ll talk more about AI and its uses, but this isn’t the place for it.

Theoretically, you can train AI to mimic your voice. But does ChatGPT remember that conversation you overheard yesterday that made you think about the way you’re approaching your craft or your coaching or whatever? Can it make intuitive leaps?

I think not. 🚫

And while you're editing your words you're going to make connections and think of new things and generally make the whole email so much better and more interesting.

AI can do a lot of things, but it tends to create bland copy. And that’s the last thing you want in your newsletter. You want your words to sound like you!

So write it like you’d say it. Ideally when someone reads your email they can hear your voice in their head. 😻