Happy New Year: How to keep to one resolution

Being a week into January, I have already reached for the wine. I challenge any of you to deal with a room full of teenage mechanics without having some kind of crutch to lean on. And it's not as if I was drinking at work. I mean, sure my writing went up the board like sort of deranged ski and my spacial awareness was... limited. Hey, I didn't say anything about turning up to work still drunk from the night before, did I?

My point being, 'resolutions' signify something we can't stick to! Better to call them goals or challenges in my opinion.

Whatever you call them; many writers would like to write more in 2014.

Here's a quick guide to making sure this is the one resolution you do stick to.

Write

As inviting as a fresh field of snow, the blank page beckons creativity. It's just that the longer we stare at it, the more it seems to taunt us. Remember all those embarrassing love poems you wrote as a teenager? All the diaries describing the minutiae of what happened on the bus? They were needed! They were part of a process and they actually helped you to become a better writer. And the same is true for blank page syndrome. You can always go back and change the awkward beginning.

Start a blog

Whether its purpose is for increasing interest in your business, or just for fun; writing a blog encourages you to write frequently.This leads to connecting with other writers. Over time, you'll find you pick up habits in your writing that become ingrained. 

Save the ideas!

 Even if you only want to write for blogging and promotional purposes, inspiration strikes at inopportune moments. Collecting these ideas together can prevent writer's block. We need to campaign to save the hundreds of ideas that escape daily because they don't get written down! Save the ideas! Carry a notebook and write things down as they enter your head.

Connect with other writers

Be it through blogging, twitter, facebook , a local writing group; connect with other writers. Exchange ideas with them. Read each other's work. Make suggestions on how to improve and respond to suggestions. Writing is a process, and getting feedback assists that process. Who knows? You might even make some new friends!

Read

Easy as it sounds, this is the golden rule of becoming a better writer. Read. From following interesting blogs online to increasing your bookshelf at home; read. Allow words to consume you. Keep a book in the bathroom. Read on the bus or train. You will find reading more inspires you to write more, and widens your vocabulary. 

With all this advice, I realise I've neglected my book today, so I'm off to soak in the Spanish sun. 

Over to you: What are your tips for staying focused and writing? Comment below.

5 tried tips for writing believable copy

Writing believable copy

writing believable copy

It's that time of year again. Cloaked figures lurk in the shadows, scouring pavements for black cats and broken mirrors. The superstitious are twitching at the sight of ladders and hoping it won't rain; lest some sceptic soul provokes fate and opens an umbrella inside.

Personally, I find all this friggatriskaidekaphobia a bit unbelievable but I'm not superstitious. As a child, I grew up living next to a graveyard and that never spooked me either. Mind you, the perpetual threat of earthquake in Tokyo had me shaking on more than one occasion!

When writing copy; be it on blogs or leaflets, guides or website pages: the golden rule is to make your writing believable. Of course, this rule applies to the other kind of writing I do: writing for pleasure. In such an instance, the focus is on believable characters. Today, however, let's concentrate on writing believable copy.

1. You are a valuable resource

This is the most important lesson I learned as a teacher. When the technology fails, someone spilt black paint on the lesson plan and you have nothing but a wooden hut as a classroom; you are the only thing left. You make a difference to whether those people are learning.

This applies to your writing too. Believable writing speaks from experience. It speaks of things you know. Of course, you need to be careful not to overdo the personal stories. But as with all kinds of writing, the most convincing stuff comes from you and your experiences. Even better is if you show your weaknesses. This just makes you seem more human, and therefore easier to relate to.

2. Focus. Be specific

How many time have you read the following "Many people believe..."? 

Several times a day, I expect. This innocuous little intro really gets my goat! The reason being that it is totally vague. We don't know how many people. We don't know where these people are from or any context whatsoever. It could be (and quite often is) a total fabrication. As a reader, look at how much more effective the opening "People, from Duncan in Aberdeen, to Jennifer in Falmouth, believe..." is. It's hardly any extra work to have honed the information down and provided some specifics. These people now have names, and locations, which makes them more human.

Being specific also applies to using numbers. Quoting 95% as opposed to 94.7% actually makes it seem less believable. Using the more specific figure looks less perfect, which ultimately makes it more credible.

3. Use familiar places

Customers relate to proximity. There's no bona fide reason for this. I guess it kind of makes sense. I mean if Mavis from round the corner says it's good, it must be good, right? If you're using testimonials, then source them from various locations, and use place names. From west to east lacks credibility, where from Hay-on-Wye to Tonbridge instantly becomes more convincing. 

Wherever possible, use actual local knowledge to back you up. It's how we bond. Picture this:

Dorking? No, never been there. OR

Dorking? Oh yeah, you drive along the A25 and then there's that roundabout with the giant chicken. I used to spend Christmas near there at my Aunt's place!

Familiarity is believable and it breeds trust.

4. Customer testimonials

These are absolute gold. Of course, in themselves, testimonials need to follow believability rules. Name the customer; give them a location and present as much information as possible to make them seem more human. Do not edit testimonials. Write them exactly as they are. A tip for generating a credible testimonial is to push customers for measurable results. "Using social media has increased our sign-up by 36%" gives potential customers something to aim for.

And finally...

5. Believe it yourself

At about the age of 17, I got a job knocking on doors and selling windows. I had barely any knowledge of the company, was not a homeowner and had never lived in a house with double glazing. I totally sucked. I didn't care about the product, or the people, and I never got a lead. The best bit, for me, was driving around Cornwall in the van and chatting to colleagues about travel. 

Sure, since then I have had to write some copy about ideas, products or concepts I am not especially familiar with. But the one thing I have tried to do is put a good angle on it. For example, writing for a reputable insurance company sounds dull. However, writing an article on the geography of your favourite part of Spain, and advising buyers to pay for property insurance suddenly becomes much more interesting.

If you believe what you're writing; it's likely your readers will too.

What are your hard and fast rules for making copy believable? Do you use a guarantee or some other customer benefits? Let us know in the comments section.

Avoid blog disasters: top 7 mistakes

Awoken to the terrible news of typhoon Haiyan, I set about immediately contacting my Filipina cousin to check on her family. Thankfully, they are fine. But the plight of millions of other inhabitants of Cebu and its surrounding areas caught my attention. I'm a big fan of Shelter Box - and organisation from Cornwall who provide aid to the many people evacuated from their homes when natural disasters strike.

Writing disasters, fortunately, are more easily avoided. Particularly if you look at this simple top 7 mistakes list. Start eliminating these errors from your copy and you'll be delivering outstanding copy to clients as quickly as Shelterbox's quick-response team arrived on the scene in the Philippines.

We build our towns on our people

Disaster 1: Addressing the 'bots

Gone are the days when rankings were solely boosted by repetitive use of  keywords; liberating copywriters and words to create interesting narrative again! Hurrah! However, a hangover from this era is that many writers are still writing for Google. Writing, effectively, for robots! Remember your audience are people. Appeal to their humanity and you're instantly creating a connection.

Disaster 2: It's all about you

My earlier posts show I was guilty of this one. Whereas it's a nice idea to try and build a relationship with your audience; they are there for a reason. They want to read your pearls of wisdom. Be it confidence, tips or even entertainment, they want to gain something from reading your posts. A short anecdote may provide an interesting hook, but you need to always have your audience in mind. What do they take away from your posts? Keeping the audience in mind will make your writing instantly more interesting.

Disaster 3: Too much

Almost everyone who comes to your site will consider themselves a busy person. Whatever occupies us, we often feel that we don't have enough time. The thing that immediately puts people off is a dense labyrinth of writing, with no safety exits. Not only should posts remain within the 400(ish) words bracket; they should also be laid out accessibly. Which brings us to...

Disaster 4: Not breaking it down

Again, my early posts evidence this. Readers, like you and I, want to scan posts. We want to be active in our reading and sift through to choose which bits are relevant for us. If the post is just one monotonous paragraph, we can't see an escape route and lose interest. With the addition of subheadings, bullet points and lists; readers can select what to read. As a result, they engage more fully with the text.

Disaster 5: Curbing creativity

Partly for the SEO bots and partly due to lack of confidence: one of the most common mistakes people make in writing is to hold back their creativity. As kids, we wouldn't dream of picking up a book with no pictures. As adults, relevant pictures used at the right time; attract us to blog pages. Add something in to get your readers' attention. They can't help but read on once they've been lured in by your excellent writing skills.

Disaster 6: You praise intricacy

So... you're a creative writer. You have an English degree. You've written a play. You've published a novel. Starting to make sense yet? No matter how wonderful your writing is capable of being, it's not about YOU! Of course, excellent writing will shine through even the most dense content, but a hard lesson I had to learn is the most complicated word is not always the best. Readers don't want to be reaching for a dictionary to tackle your posts. As Schopenhauer (see I went to University too!) put it "One should use common words to say uncommon things". Copy writing is often criticised for being childlike. Choose intentional simplicity, so your writing is accessible to everyone.

Disaster 7: You forget to end well

In a rush to release your carefully coiffed content into the wild abyss of terra internetica, you sign off with a flat conclusion. And the whole thing disappears into the ether, like a dropped ice cream on Brighton beach. Remember your elders bleating "all's well that ends well." at you? Me too. OK, I'm re-purposing its meaning here but sign off with a strong resolution; and your readers will remember your posts as long as we remember Shakespeare's sayings.

Have I told you the one about when I sent the bitchy email about my colleague to her? Or the time I wrote FLICKS on the board so quickly that the 'L' and the 'I' joined? Both writing disasters that could have been avoided if I'd taken my time. 

Share your writing disasters, or top mistakes below.

Time savers: Number one better writing tip.

Since I was a little girl, I have always spent too much time petting my cat. Recently, I have had to cut down on this particular form of procrastination, in favour of developing my writing.

If you're reading this, you're likely to be one of many people who want to know what you can do to make your writing better? In teaching and in copywriting; my advice is always going to be the same here: edit. Review, rewrite. Review, rewrite. And then do it again. Here, we explore 6 ways to save time on the little things, which will earn you some bonus time for an extra edit.

Social analysis

Use the features of facebook insights to gain a deeper understanding of what the target audience's interests are. This way, when you're posting blog posts or on social media, you will cut out some of the research time and have longer to spend on creating relevant, well edited content.

Know your shortcuts

In this technology-based world, less typing frees up more time. Modern software shortcuts reduce the number of keystrokes; giving you more time.  Programs such as Text Expander, autofill or autocomplete can simplify arduous tasks like adding signatures or writing standardised letters. They may take a while to set up, but will save you hours in the long run. In this bracket also: use email filters. Pre-sorting low importance communications will allow you to concentrate on the high priority stuff. Like editing.

Pick up the phone

And I don't mean to call your Mum! Well, if she's anything like mine, this is a sure way to lose several hours. However, with busy clients; waiting for an email response can take several hours when all you want is the answer to just one short question. Save yourself time and give them a quick call.

Double up on dinner

Well, again, not literally. Making extra of your favourite recipes, and freezing the leftovers will save you time on popping out to the shop to get lunch. This way, you will have a few extra minutes to look over yesterday's copy and spot those shining little gems you missed previously! And you get more home-cooked goodness to help you feel energised. Bonus!

Support local farming

Use a local box scheme to deliver your veg. There are a variety of large companies offering a box scheme delivery, but a more localised version can be discovered through the box scheme website. In addition to the selection of seasonal veg available, you can also order meat, dairy and sometimes fish; safe in the knowledge that it has been sourced responsibly. Failing that, use online shopping from your favourite supermarket, which will save you at least an hour every week.

Check the weather. All week

It sounds silly, right? Yes, you probably check the weather the night before. But just by having a glance at the week's forecast on a Sunday afternoon; you'll have some idea of the whole week. If, for example, it's going to be mostly drizzly, then you can save time on keeping an umbrella and wet weather boots handy. With foresight and preparation, you'll save yourself valuable minutes to have a quick recheck and edit of some of your work.

Implement these changes today, and you'll free up necessary time for proofing your copy work and delivering the highest quality.

What are your top time saving tips? If you can think of anything worth adding to this list, do so in the comments below.

Wrecking (B)all: Techniques to get your company noticed. (And no-one needs to take their clothes off!)

Gaining a wider audience

After this week's controversy about THAT video and what sells these days; we decide to look at the top tips for making sure your company gets noticed for the right reasons.

Get. Their. Attention.

Use an interesting title or refer to a recent event to make your post stand out. We are constantly exposed to text. To make yours appeal to potential customers, use a great headline.

What's in it for them?

Write from your customer's point of view. This means writing about how your product/service/company will benefit the customer. Don't go into lengthy detail about the features. This comes later. At first, you want to generate interest and reveal the details when they're hooked.

Jackanory. Wait... What?

Read it aloud. Does it sound natural? Does it flow well or are you waffling? Good copy needs to be carefully chosen to provide a simple and clear guide to your product or service. Which brings us to the next point.

Use subheadings

Don't make your topic seem too dense by suffocating the reader with huge blocks of text. Break it up into manageable chunks. Use headings and subheadings to organise different subjects.

Get personal

Address your audience as 'you'. This makes them believe you are talking to them personally. It makes the audience trust the writer if you write as if you are just talking to one person. It may help to imagine this is someone you actually know.

All hands on deck

Ask a colleague to read through your copy. Even better, ask a customer to read it. This is the best way to test how effective it is. Respond to feedback. If someone tells you it's too long, EDIT it. If someone says it's perfect, EDIT it. There is always room for improvement.

Be specific

The more specific you are, the better your customer will understand how they will benefit. For example saying "my clients have found my copy to be excellent." doesn't really tell the customer much. However, saying Mr. R. Bird - "Copywriterlaura provided excellent copy, which increased my web traffic by 27%" sounds more believable and much more specific.

Start using these seven tips today, and watch your copy gather more interest and get your company noticed.

What are you top tips for widening your web audience? Social media? Leaflet bombing? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

Death of a Lyricist: What Seamus Heaney tells us about copywriting

As obituaries go, The Independent wrote a moving piece about revered author and 1995 Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. On the day of his death, let's use this celebrated and world famous poet to show us lessons to create excellent copy.

Be believable.

One of the signs of good writing is the ability to create believable characters. From the voice of the non gender specific honeymooner in The Underground to the autobiographical young Heaney in Mid-Term Break; the characters are very human. Similarly, the copy you write has to be believable. This will prove to potential customers that your company, or your client's company is the right fit for the job. One way of doing this is by providing specific profiles for customer testimonies. This humanises the existing customers to potential customers.

Use appropriate language.

In his New York Time review, Brad Leithauser refers to Heaney's "gift of saying something extraordinary while [...] conveying a sense that this is something an ordinary person might actually say." This very skill is exactly one a strong copywriter must demonstrate. It begins with understanding your audience. Once you know who they are, select language that is accessible to them. If your target audience are gardening enthusiasts, metaphors about the changing of the seasons will be more relevant than molecular structure!

Contextualise.

Heaney lived and wrote throughout the troubled times of Ireland. In his writing, he addressed this conflict only through a wider historical lens. A good piece of copy will refer to something relevant in a natural and organic way. It's of high importance to engage the reader by using a hook. This hook could be a recent event that strikes a chord with the target audience. If your target audience are wedding planners; then a high-profile wedding would provide a decent hook for readers.

Innovate, ring the changes.

Even in his 70s, Heaney was diversifying and changing. He responded to recent discussions about the teaching of poetry in schools by proclaiming his love for language. In 2006, Heaney wrote his poignant Circle and District collection in response to the London bombings. The farming relics of his early works were replaced by a mobile phone, a CD. As writers, we need to keep our finger-on-the-pulse of changes both in content and SEO.

Like all great writers, Heaney was influenced by many of his predecessors. The key most important lesson for any copywriter to learn: read! Whilst your writing voice will always be your own, reading other people's copy provides examples for tackling your own.

Some excellent blogs about blogging and copywriting can be found at:

http://www.problogger.net/
http://creative-boom.com/
http://www.copyblogger.com/

Read them and see how your style improves.

Which writers influence you? Or are there terrible writers who've taught you what not to do? Comment below with your own writer stories.

Dreaming of Far Off Places...

Awoken by the intrusive skreigh of seagulls as I often am on a cloudy Bristol morning, I would be forgiven for mistaking Thursday as regular. Until the sound is met with caustic echoes of waves cascading down far off crags and I rouse to the realisation that I’m nowhere near the sea in my suburban attic. I’d drifted off; listening to the mellifluous, shipping forecast-esque tones of Sian Fiddimore reading out DJ Mac’s story At Yesnaby. Set in Orkney, this short story, featured in Issue II of new literary magazine Far Off Places had sprung back to life on my laptop and stirred me from slumber.

The Back of Beyond

Editor-in-chief, Annie Rutherford, proudly sent me the promo copy of the magazine’s second issue The Back of Beyond for review, with links to the site’s podcast section. To date, two podcasts, featuring five spoken-word versions of poems from this new issue, have been released onto the website. Certainly the Scottish lilt of Fiddimore lends well to the encapsulating faraway-ness of Yesnaby. Indeed, we are transported to the back of beyond with the imagery of Orcadian winter as Mac describes “a netherworld of silver-grey gloom with the sky stooping to kiss the waves.”

Ends of the Earth

The team at Far Off Places, indubitably lives up to its name. With submissions from the extremities of Cornwall and Scotland being only the tip of the iceberg of this intercontinental issue. Writers hail from different parts of Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia; although many have the common denominator of a connection with Scotland. Words have been collected from the ends of the earth to create this polyvocal gem of a literary magazine.

Varied Voices

As well as representing a global glut of vicinities, the writing within Far Off Places embodies converging characters, through its many voices. Simon French’s procrastinating protagonist, who knows there’s dusting to be done in Dust of 1000 Scratchcards is a far cry from the adventurous companion of Eve in Kate Blackadder’s Oldshoremore. They, nameless, who wants “to swim with wildbrown trout in their icy, Ice Age pools; race red deer and chase red admirals;”, who travels through intrepid weather conditions and sees “mountains rise and crumble to dust” on the road to Oldshoremore. Different again from Pallavi Rao’s character, like a pedantic Pi (from Life of Pi), who lists details like the contents of their pockets. Who knows how we should treat big cats. Whilst the characters portray the changing hues of humanity, there is a homogeneity to their sentiment: We are dreamers.

Within Dreams

Fitting that this magazine, whose podcasts should pervade my sleep, contains discourses of dreams. Jenny’s wishes in Unicorns! by Adam Barnett are an explicit homage to the human hankering for dreams. But the disposition for desire is echoed throughout the collection. From the reverie of Primmie Scott summoned by DJ Mac’s unnamed character, to Niall Foley’s chancer in The Hustle, each character longs for something. Be it “a place where the travails of reality didn’t intrude, and where extraordinary things were the norm.” or Foley’s Armani suits and cars, they’re all there. This collection of work from some twenty-six people depicts throughout it, the dichotomy of travel dreams; the individual needs for belonging and solitude.

Exploration

Nicole Strachan’s character in The Day the Aliens Visited immediately expresses a very British regret: to have neglected to offer the aliens tea. This poem comments on the ever-changing face of nationality in a way that is reminiscent of Holly McNish’s Mathematics. The aliens aren’t here for long enough for us to be certain where they come from. But they do leave cake. One can’t help but wonder if California-born Strachan’s own displaced nationality here in the UK is in part responsible for this work, which comments on the impact we have on earth, as a whole. This unification of humans - picking the flowers to give to each other - reminds us we are all part of the same species. Gives us that sense of belonging the traveller requires.


But what of that other type of traveller? They, who seeks solitude. Who’ll go to the back of beyond to find it? They’re here too. In Emma Cook’s How to Steal Light from the Stars and in “the sound of your
voice echoing for miles” in Samuel Best’s short prose, the solitary traveller watches. From the leagues of fissures scored in the North Pacific waters surrounding Orkney to the the top of Samuel Best’s Tennessee mountains, wilderness and nature are present in Far Off Places, as they are in the many locations the works have come from.


This literary collection, subtly focuses its eye on many themes, and reminds me that as Sarah Miles puts it “There is always something extraordinary to be found in the least promising of places, if you look. And if you can’t see it: make it. To live that way is an act of will.”