Exercise: Get specific

Specificity is not lame

Here is the article that accompanies this exercise:

Specificity, the key to originality

Go back to your lists, and if you haven’t done any - do the exercise here. Or you can run this exercise on any existing material you have.

The Power Of Lists

First here's a practical illustration of how you can integrate this concept into your own writing. Following that, you'll find a quick exercise you can dive into right away.

Using specificity in your own writing

This is the time where you can strike anything you have written that doesn’t make you feel anything. But don’t be too harsh too soon. Most of the time your mood can effect how you feel about your writing. Have a sandwich, perhaps a nap before you start culling.

Add specificity wherever you can. Look out for “filler words”. Filler words aren’t forbidden, but just flag them - they should say to you, “Would some specificity, and example or exaggeration be better here?” “Am I creating a clear picture in the audience's mind?”. Of course you still want what you’re saying to sound like natural speech, your natural speech.