Macro, micro, sentence - Sharpen the speed of the read - Tweak

Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Macro, micro, sentence
Sharpen the speed of the read
Tweak

The Tweak phase has three steps.

Macro looks at the whole ride, and the emotion of your words. Look, your writing takes the reader on a ride, whether you control it or not. If lightning bolts aren’t popping out of your words regularly, you won’t hold those limited attention spans. In the Macro step, you control the overall impact of the ride. You feel the words themselves, and steer their impact.

Micro goes a step closer. It looks at the variety and placement of your words. Which pictures you’re using, and how those words land on the page. The clearer and sharper your images are, the more interest the reader will have. Command attention with your writing. In the Micro step, you control the details of the ride. You deliberately guide the twists and turns.

And Sentence looks at the individual sentences, to keep the reader moving. Each sentence has to give the reader a reason to continue. And we do that with careful attention to each line. This is where we get very picky. In the Sentence step, you fine-tune the dynamics of each sentence.

In each of these steps, keep an eye on the words. We want to know their exact effect. Because the effect determines the strength of the lightning bolt.

By separating Tweak into these three steps, we can focus on each aspect of your words. In practice, you’ll probably blend these three steps. That’s fine. As long as you pay attention to each of them. Whenever you struggle during the Tweak phase, divide it up. Make it step by step.

Remember, the FAST System is a guide, not a rule.

It simplifies writing by making it a step-by-step process.

The rest of this chapter is about the Macro step.