Update: OhLife was discontinued Oct. 19, 2014.
Hello, fellow storytellers!
So last week, I sent out the first issue of the Tools for Reporters newsletter. And the response from you guys was… amazing. I was excited about this project, but after hearing from all of you, I’m even more pumped.
Together, we’re going to tell some really awesome stories.
A friend of the listserv, Lauren, shot me an email last week with a request. She’s looking for some writing help — especially when it comes to being a more concise writer. And so this week’s newsletter is all about that.
OhLife: Write More. Write Often.
For more than two years, I’ve been using a free service called OhLife. It’s a private online diary that you manage directly from your inbox.
Every night, the team at OhLife sends you an email with this question: How was your day? And you can write back with a few words or a few paragraphs or an entire novel’s worth of thoughts — whatever you want.
In that same email, OhLife sends you a copy of something you wrote a week or a month or a year earlier. Like I said: I’ve been using the service for two years, so sometimes, I’ll get an email from waaaaaaaaay back in time, and it’ll blow my mind.
What’s wonderful about OhLife is that it gives you an outlet to write something every single day. In two years, I’ve written more than 680 posts on OhLife — somewhere far north of 150,000 words. I’ve spent countless hours working on these posts.
Inadvertently, with OhLife, I’ve found an outlet to practice my writing each day.
I also like to set goals. Sometimes, I’ll tell myself that I need to keep my post under 100 words, or I’ll limit myself to two or three sentences. By giving myself restrictions, I teach myself how to self-edit.
So I highly recommend OhLife. Try it, and write a little something every day. Over time, you’ll get better. I promise you that.
As far as brevity goes, two more readings might help get you going, Lauren:
– From Copyblogger: ’10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer’
– From Lifehacker: ‘Write Less, Say More: The Power of Brevity’
Now get out there and tell some great stories today!