Cut the Fluff is a weekly newsletter that will help you become a more confident writer & editor. If this was sent to you, subscribe here so you don't miss the next lesson.

Hey Reader,

"It's just, I feel like, ugh — this is hard to say."

"Just tell me already!"

"I don't want this to come out wrong..."

"Honestly, just say what you mean."

"OK. I feel like you're...struggling around certain people in my life."

"HUH? What do you mean by that?"

"FINE. I'll just come out and say it. I feel like you don't like my friends."

👆This is an example of a conversation we've all been a part of in our lives.

Even if we're desperate to change something, we're scared to say what we really mean because it'll have consequences.

What does this have to do with content?

Well, we often don't say what we mean when we're writing.

But not because we're scared of the consequences (in most cases).

Instead...

We say the wrong thing because we don't know exactly what we want to say in the first place.

In the example above, person 1 was intentionally hedging when they said, "I feel like you're struggling around certain people in my life."

But you'd be shocked at how often we let sentences like that into our writing.

No wonder readers are like, "HUH?"

This is yet another reason why editing is so damn important.

Until you look at and analyze what you wrote, you won't know if it's aligned with your intention.

This is why, in Content Sparring 🥊 sessions, as well as every piece I've edited over my career, the most common question I ask is:

"What do you mean by this?"

Every single time, the answer clients give me is different than what they wrote down.

Why does this phenomenon happen?

The interpretation gap

Writing is thinking in real-time.

No wonder our first drafts are half-baked — we're still thinking through what we want to say as we say it.

Even with an outline, we don't yet know what claims we're going to make and how we'll support them. We're figuring it out as we go.

Our words are simply placeholders for unfinished thoughts.

This is why our first drafts often collapse under scrutiny.

(And why they deserved to be scrutinized in the first place, either by ourselves or by others.)

We think our sentences say what they are meant to say because we haven’t paid attention to what they actually say.

Let me give you an example

Original sentence: "Capture readers’ attention and inspire them in ways they didn’t know were possible.”

My questions: What do you mean by “in ways they didn’t know were possible”? What are the real outcomes here? The jobs to be done?

The first edit: "Capture readers' attention in a way that provokes thought, starts new conversations, and changes minds."

My thoughts: That's much better. You've gotten specific about the outcomes. But why do these outcomes matter? What's the point of provoking thought? Changing minds? What's the deeper point?

The final edit: "Capture readers' attention in a way that provokes thought, starts new conversations, and changes minds. When you create anti-generic content that's actually interesting to read, you build credibility and turn skeptical readers into loyal fans."

The result: We now have a sentence that's specific, says what we mean, and ties benefits to outcomes. Boom.

If you want to learn how to do this for yourself, go read my quick 4-step process to say what you actually mean.

My new Content Sparring 🥊 offer

Over the past month, I've been building my new offer in public on LinkedIn.

But I haven't talked much about it here. So, in case you missed it, I wanted to share this exciting revelation with you.

5 weeks ago, I realized my 1:1 positioning was all wrong. I've got low-ticket courses for all levels of writers and was trying to do the same thing with my 1:1 offer.

It didn't work. I tried to sell editing coaching, but people were like, "What's that?"
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My answer was longwinded and had a lot of conjunctions, i.e. "It's this AND that OR this AND this BUT could be that, SO, interested?"
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Flop.
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So, I tightened it up and niched down.

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​WHO IT’S FOR​
Content sparring is for seasoned solopreneurs and founders who've been writing for a while. They either already have an audience or have taken all the courses and cohorts and are ready for some 1:1 love to accelerate progress or reignite a creative spark.

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​THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES​
Most content resources are aimed at beginners (new writers and people learning how to market themselves). This group has endless courses, cohorts, and resources to choose from. (It's an art to sift through the BS to find the gold, but once you do, it's aplenty.) But there are barely any resources for solos farther along their journey.

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​THE DESIRED OUTCOMES​
They're ready to make a bigger impact, feel more fulfilled by their writing, are keen to influence more people, love the idea of dropping "meh" clients so they can get better ones (and charge more), and are genuinely curious if their content can be better.

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THE CONTENT TYPES

I'm helping people with their social posts, newsletters, email sequences, landing pages, and even course content. Anything I've got experience with myself is fair game. This means any paid stuff like ads is off the table (I've yet to dabble in paid).

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If you're reading this and thinking, "Hey, this fits who I am and where I'm at with my content" reply to this email with the boxing glove 🥊 and let's have a chat :)

If you're not there yet, I've got 3 courses you can check out below instead 👇

Just got this testimonial for Long to Short and it's freaking awesome. I mean, look at the metaphors!

"It's like looking at the sky through kaleidoscope eyes where possibilities are endless."

It's like a freaking Taylor Swift lyric. Beautiful.

Cheers,

Erica

Check out my 3 courses that 1600+ people have taken, loved, and gotten meaningful results from:

1. Long to Short: Turn one long-form piece into a month's worth of posts. A step-by-step system to repurpose, remix, and remaster your best ideas.

2. Hooked on Writing Hooks: Turn your ideas into content that actually gets consumed. Learn to write scroll-stopping hooks on social without resorting to clickbait nonsense that feels inauthentic.

3. Content Editing 101. Kill decision fatigue and build confidence as a writer and editor. A look inside a professional editor's workflow & best practices. Packed with lessons, examples, and a roadmap so you can stop second-guessing your writing & editing decisions.

Each course is AI-powered 🪄

You can go through them manually or use AI to play, get it done faster, and test your new skills in real time. My friend & prompt genius Rob Lennon wrote all the prompts and bots for the courses.

What'd you think of today's email? Reply and let me know.

Erica Schneider

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