One Thing at a Time

A recent article from one of my favorite e-newsletters, Wylie's Writing Tips, talks about performing "message triage" -- the act of whittling your message down to one, single, focused point. The less your readers have to remember, the more likely they'll remember what you have to say.

According to Wylie, "political strategist James Carville preaches the gospel of 'exclusivity.' That is, to come up with a single message -- not two, not three -- for your campaign. Carville famously chose 'It's the economy, stupid,' for Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign. Less famously, he had to convince Clinton not to dilute that message by also talking about eliminating the national debt. Carville says the communicators' toughest job is to convince the client to stick to one message or theme. 'People say I fill empty vessels,' he says. 'But I empty full vessels.' "