Let’ s say you’ re on deadline for a piece of writing. But you’ ve procrastinated. After all, your garden does look so much better without the weeds. Now you’ ve got a serious time crunch. Here’ s a sentence— OK, I admit, it’ s a long one— that will get you started fast and remove those writing weeds before they can tangle up your thinking.

We talked about this guide sentence in the June-July On the QT, but here I want to go into more detail about how it can help you. Years ago, I learned a version of this sentence in a GWA writing workshop with that fabulous editor and teacher, Barbara Boardman. I’ ve been using it ever since. It’ s a simple fill-in-the-blanks. Do it before you write anything, whether your style is to plan ahead or to plunge right in to find out what you’ re thinking.

Here goes:

In my ___________( writing category), about ___________( subject), I am saying that ___________( slant).

LET’ S LOOK AT THE BLANKS

• Writing category: Naming this helps you automatically focus on how you will write. A blog post’ s requirements are different than a visual presentation. A how-to differs from a long-form feature. A profile is not a Q & A. This blank defines your marching orders.

• Subject: This one’ s easy. Someone asks you,“ What’ re you writing about?” You answer,“ The Williams’ garden.” That’ s your subject. It could be how to prune kiwi vines, sharpen shovels or build a critter-proof chicken house. Or, diseases of potatoes. That’ s it.

• Slant: Your subject is not your slant. Sometimes the term slant carries a negative connotation about biased reporting, but here it simply means your take on the subject. A single subject could have many different ap-

proaches, or slants. Often the slant is your promise to the reader. One way to find it is to ask yourself,“ What’ s the most important thing I need to communicate?” The answer will give you your focus.

Some examples: In my feature about the Williams’ garden, I am saying that small trees define four livable outdoor spaces in an easy-care family garden.

In my how-to about building a critter-proof chicken house, I am saying that metal sheathing and rustproof steel wool will keep your flock safe. In my column about potato diseases, I am saying that there are five telltale signs, and here’ s what to do when you see them.

DOESN’ T HAVE TO BE PRETTY

These guides don’ t need to be sentences of great beauty. They simply have to work. You can slap the sentence like a banner at the top of your page before you start. Or, as one of my students suggested, put it under what you’ re writing. That way, whenever you stop and cast about for the next thing to say, there it is, reminding you where you’ re going.

In addition to pointing your way through a draft, your guide sentence can be a useful editing tool. Sometimes, after you’ ve written your piece, you’ ll find there’ s a gap between your sentence and what’ s on the page. Let’ s say you started out to profile a garden, but got caught up in the personalities of the gardeners. The piece turns out to be a funny thought-provoking portrait of the players. The plants are in the background. It happens.

YOU HAVE CHOICES You could rewrite closer to your original intention. You may need to if that’ s your agreement with your editor. Or, you could change the guide sentence to conform with what’ s already

there. Either way, once the sentence and the writing line up, the guide will help you discard anything that doesn’ t fit. Or, beef up what may be weak.

You might also pluck words from the guide sentence to create titles or subheads. Even if editors change them, it’ s one more succinct way you can focus on the main point of your writing.

This guide construction is for your eyes only. Unless you choose to share it with a writing group or coach, the hardworking guide sentence gets deleted before your piece goes out. Later, when you look at something you’ ve written, you might not even remember what your sentence was. But your writing will be clearer, your thoughts more orderly and your final draft delivered quicker because you took a moment to fill in the blanks.

This article is based on an excerpt from GWA member Mary-Kate Mackey’ s book, Write Better, Right Now: The Reluctant Writer’ s Guide to Confident Communication and Self-assured Style, to be published by Career Press at the end of 2016.

THINKSTOCKPHOTOS. COM / ANDREW _ RYBALKO

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