I agree to an extent Tom Gregg and a great deal of the adverb/adjective talk depends heavily on the type of writing. For this post I was talking about writing concise posts and that means cutting fat. Stephen King said adverbs are like dandilions — one looks beautiful, but a yard full is a headache and I agree. Almost like a good curse word. If you rarely swear, they better serve a point.

I was raised by an Air Force Colonel and the best piece of advice he was given in regards to both written and spoken communication was when he had to give a presentation in Vietnam and his boss told him to cut what he had from 45 minutes down to 3 minutes. My dad did and was commended for telling his superiors exactly what they needed to know and nothing more. He drilled into my head when writing a post or giving a pitch or presentation to stick to the rule: You have one minute to tell me why I am here and one minute to tell me why I should stay — and this frameword means getting straight to the point.

What is your best piece of advice for developing a distinctive voice?

Thanks for taking the time Tom and hope to hear from you again.

Take care — Michael