Making the World More Understandable

Category Archives: Writing

How to write, why to write, and why I write.

Great Writing Is Like Great Chocolate

Great Writing Is Like Great Chocolate

(NOTE: While this title did very well with the headline analyzer, once again, I’ve written a blog that is not likely to come up as the first answer to any Google search. So, I ask of you, if this installment of my crazy brain connects with you, please share it with your friends.)

Walking Down Memory Lane – Looking for a Topic

While I still have a list of blogs topics, I never look at it. Instead, I tend to write when the inspiration hits. And it did, hit. Sort of. I was thinking about how evergreen content isn’t actually evergreen because, unlike trees, society changes very quickly taking technology, processes, and opinions with it.

My first idea was to write something totally new, but that didn’t go anywhere. So I found myself looking at many of my old blogs to either repurpose or build off of. I realized a couple of things:

  1. I’ve written some fun blogs.
  2. I’m not sure if anyone reads my blogs.

Writing with Chocolate

One of my re-reads was Writing with Chocolate from 2021.

Side Note: Why does 2021 seem like both just the other day and AGES ago?

Anyway, that blog explains the birth of Tora Writing Services; it also opens the idea of how being “with chocolate” can make something better.

If you didn’t know, I spent a couple of years as a rep for Dove Chocolate Discoveries – later called The Cocoa Exchange – the now defunct direct sales arm of Dove chocolates. I was The Chocolate Lady. While interesting and educational, it was not really me.

For me, chocolate is GOOD in so many ways. From the cheap thrill of a hand full of M&M’s®, to the comfort of a mug of cocoa, to the decadent experience of an amazing dark chocolate desert, in my world chocolate fixes many things.

Another Side Note: Plug “decadent” into Adobe Stock and you will have the visual I’m trying to create.

If you’re not that much of a chocolate person, replace the name of your fix-all whenever I say something is “with chocolate.”

What Turns Writing into Writing with Chocolate?

Not everything I write would land in the “with chocolate” department. Rather, when I’ve got a client who is truly passionate about what they do and is eager to spread that passion, that’s “with chocolate.” Digging into what they do, learning about it, and catching some of their excitement makes the writing more enjoyable. More flavorful. There is a real buzz for me when the client and I are on the same page, letting their ideas just flow into content.

Let me dig around in your head for content ideas.

I have fun figuring my clients out: their who, what, when, where, and why. To then explain those things in a way that is true to them while connecting with their readers is key to making the writing “with chocolate.”

Writing with chocolate is when I’m in that place where I’m producing great content for great clients. It’s when I see something obvious to me that totally blows my client’s mind. (It’s even convincing someone to not hire me because I know I’m not the solution they need. And yes, I’ve done that.)

When all of that is going on, I’m having a “with chocolate” experience and it makes the writing almost as good as that decadent desert.

Do I Have a Point?

YES!

Maybe.

I realized that I haven’t had a “with chocolate” client in a while. I love my current clients, yet the work I’m doing for them doesn’t have that quality of digging into their brains and creating content. Rather, I’m more in “getting sh!t done taking care of my people” mode.

That mode isn’t bad. It is, however, how I tend to live life, so it’s missing that “with chocolate” aspect.

I’m Curious

Now I’ve got a couple of questions for you.

First, do you know anyone who needs me to dig around their brain to create content? I’d really like to meet them.

Second, what is the “with chocolate” aspect of what you do?

– Lorrie Nicoles

Subtlety and Words Like It

So, I’m a Word Nerd. This is different from a Grammar Nazi. I barely know the difference between an adverb and an adjective, do not ask me to diagram your sentence! As a Word Nerd, I get to love words – how they sound, how they came to be, the emotions they evoke, and their… Continue Reading

I Don’t Worry About Artificial Intelligence Because I Have a Brain

I Don’t Worry About Artificial Intelligence Because I Have a Brain

As a writer, people have been expressing concern for my business because of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) applications that are so popular. That’s not the writing I do. What ChatGPT Writes I am far from being an expert at ChatGPT, AI, and many other things. Here’s what I’ve learned about ChatGPT and other… Continue Reading

How to Learn to Love Your Language: Insult with Style

How to Learn to Love Your Language: Insult with Style

*** DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating being nasty or hurting people’s feelings.Just being creative when you are and might. *** One of the best reasons to have an expansive vocabulary is so that you can insult people with style. Crassly insulting someone/thing in public is generally frowned upon. For example, “you’re f-ing ugly” is a… Continue Reading