Hints and tips for aspiring writers. These are my favourite little snippets from my notebook, collected over the years – while originally jotted down in the context of copy writing, they apply to bloggers, fiction writers and lyricists too. I thought I would share – hopefully they are of some use to you!
- Show people, seek opinions. If your “creative director” (editor or whatever, rename to suit your purpose) thinks it’s bad but 10 of your friends think its genuinely good, trust them. Who were you trying to talk to anyway?
- Connection is what tone of voice is about. You are the connection between the brand/people/story and the consumers/devourers.
- Look around before you write. What else is happening out there?
- Once you have looked around, write with your eyes – observe, ask what, ask why!
- Find a tone of voice anchored in a truth. You can handle the truth, so get to the core.
- Brands need to develop a consistent tone over time. If writing personally, in this day and age, you are a brand.
- Write about stuff that you know. Thankfully you can also learn about things.
- You don’t have to be Oscar Wilde to be a writer, you just have to articulate emotion. If you garner emotional involvement, you’re half way there. Try writing to a specific person, not a glob of demographic.
- If writing is hurting, write it down once, in full wrong. Then it’s down and you can edit, edit, edit.
- Utilise the gossip factor – what’s the one thing you’d tell people if you could only say one sentence?
- Are you executing your idea in a way that does it justice? Don’t let the execution let down the idea. Separating the average from the great is execution. Remember this, ALWAYS.
