Stop reinventing the wheel, use story templates I once asked fiber artist Jason Pollen how he could be creative under the constraints of designing textiles on assignment for clients like Chanel and Donna Karan. "There's a whole universe to explore within the color yellow," he said. The most creative people see constraints, rules and guidelines as tools for … [Read more...] about Write by number
Archives for April 2015
Catch Your Readers in Chicago
Learn to move readers to act at this two-day Master Class Would you like to learn to write copy that moves people to act? Master a structure that's proven in the lab to work better than the inverted pyramid? Make every piece you write measurably easier to read and understand? If so, please join me at Catch Your Readers, a two-day writer's Master Class on April 21-22 in … [Read more...] about Catch Your Readers in Chicago
String readers along
Strings of quotes work when they're fascinating When does it make sense to load up your story with quotes? When the people you're quoting are incredibly quotable. That's why The New York Times devoted 23% of its word count to quotes in "David Garth, 84, Dies; Consultant Was an Innovator of Political TV Ads." On average, the Times devotes 12% of its word count to … [Read more...] about String readers along
Reframe the problem
Break an egg? Make an omelet Don't you love the way H&R Block reframed tax season as refund season this year? So do I. Take a tip from H&R Block: Got a negative story to tell? Reframe it. How P.T. Barnum reframed a truckload of white salmon Listen in as campaign advisor Bruno Gianelli schools White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler, on The West … [Read more...] about Reframe the problem
Length matters
In B2B emails, longer subject lines work better You've read it again and again: Subject lines of 50 characters or less outperform longer ones. Turns out that may be wrong, at least for business-to-business emails. Or so says Adestra, a U.K.-based email service provider. It recently analyzed a random sample of more than 1 billion emails to learn what works — and … [Read more...] about Length matters