Mixing fairy dust, luck and a dash of genius for good writing

March 9th, 2010

fairyWhen I go to the library, I scan the new-book shelves for intriguing-looking titles. More often than not, I decide whether I’ll check them out by reading the first paragraph or two. If the writing is good, I’m instantly hooked.

I feel the same about blog, newspaper and magazine articles. If the content appeals to me from the start, I’ll keep going. If not, I’ll skim for anything useful. If I’m in a real hurry, I might skip them entirely. Of course, it’s all subjective – what’s good in my opinion wouldn’t necessarily appeal to someone else.

On top of their game

Some of the best writers are people I’ve worked with over the years, and they’re still producing outstanding work that makes me proud to know them. Consider an example from Dave Sibray, general manager of The West Virginia Explorer. Dave writes much more than Wikipedia-style content for his Web site. When I read the opening to his unfinished story about a lost rural town, I was awestruck. Like a caffeine addict who craves the next cup, I wanted more:

“Hundreds of communities in West Virginia might justifiably be termed ‘lost towns.’ Only the odd foundation or teetering chimney stands where their mills and mines once rumbled. Yet one is exceptional. It appears on no map. It surfaces on no common record. This is its story.”

Unfortunately, I can’t share the rest with you because one of Dave’s sources became ill. I hope he can finish it one day and that he’ll send it to me. It’s a brilliant beginning that deserves a middle and an ending.

Rachel Zallon David, another former colleague who is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote an outstanding piece about her quest to learn how to play the piano. But it was so much more than that. She did what the best writers do – Rachael tapped into her personal experience and shared it with readers:

“When I first stepped into Fred’s parlor for piano lessons six years ago, I was looking for a challenge. As it would turn out, I got much more. I wanted to learn piano. He was a piano teacher. I was 30. He was 88. … I admitted I couldn’t read a bass clef to save my life. I did not mention my unhappiness. One friend called it a mid-career crisis. Looking back on it six years later, I think I was disenchanted. So instead, I retuned Fred’s playful smile and told him I loved music. Not just listening to it, but playing it. I’m not sure I ever told anyone that before. He said loving music was beautiful. I believed him.”

I won’t tell you how the story ends, but you can read it in full here. Grab some tissues; you’ll need them.

More winners

I’m an avid reader of sailing books since that is one of my passions in life. I’m angling for a long-distance journey that takes me far away from the Chicago skyline, but that’s another story for another day. If you scan the book shelves in the adventure and sports sections of any library or bookstore, you’ll find an abundance of titles in which the authors share their tales of navigating the high seas.

One book, however, Alvah Simon’s North to the Night, stands out from the crowd because of the incredible story and exceptional writing. He set sail for the Arctic Circle and became trapped in ice on his boat 100 miles from the nearest settlement. He emerged several months later a changed man. The first paragraph grabbed me:

“Heavy winds howl off the Inussualuk Glacier, whipping Tay Bay into a winter tantrum, trying to huff and puff and blow my house down. How long has this blizzard blown – two, three days now? What does it matter? The sun vanished months ago, leaving this wasteland cloaked in blackness and life-sucking cold. An hour, a day, a week, they all feel the same to me, huddled in this sleeping bag, sealed in my solo tomb.”

More recently, I’m entranced with Neko Case’s work. Her song lyrics about love and wanting read like oblique poetry. “This Tornado Loves You” is a good example from her newest release, Middle Cyclone:

“Carved your name across three counties/And ground it in bloody hides/Broken necks will line the ditch/Till you stop it/Stop it/Stop this madness/I want you/I have waited with a glacier’s patience/Smashed every transformer with every trailer/Till nothing was standing/Sixty-five miles wide.”

The magic formula

So what’s the secret to writing in a way that entertains, inspires, engages, educates and elevates reading to a new level? Start with a bowl of fairy dust, add a few prayers and a dash of genius, and mix in a little luck and you’ve got the makings of a success story. The real secret is (drum roll, please) that there is no magic bullet. A number of strategies, however, can help writers improve their craft. I’ll cover some of these in a future post, so stay tuned.

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Style Guru

March 8th, 2010

Hand writingSolving off-duty grammar riddles

One of my marketing friends called me the other night with another grammar conundrum. It wouldn’t be the first time—I think he’s got me on speed dial. Other friends call to share entertaining news and highlights from their lives, but this one expects me to demystify the English language for him.

OK, so his most recent dilemma was whether to use “compared to” or “compared with” in a sentence. Contrary to popular opinion, these words are not interchangeable. When two or more items are in the same class or category, use “compared to.” She compared her work to save gorillas to Dian Fossey’s efforts to study gorillas in Rwanda.

Use “compared with” when juxtaposing two or more items to highlight similarities and/or differences. The inflation rate is 5.6 percent, compared with last year’s 12.3 percent.

Whether I’m on or off the clock, I don’t mind people call me with grammar, style and punctuation questions. It’s flattering, actually.  But don’t worry; I won’t do to you what one of my J-school professors used to do. She would walk up to students who were engaged in casual conversations and interrupt them to correct their grammar. I’m way more fun than that!

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Link roundup

March 5th, 2010

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

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Bringing print back from the grave

March 2nd, 2010

headstoneI was gratified to see three other people reading daily newspapers – yes printed newspapers – on the “L” this morning. Someone else besides me clearly does not depend on a mobile phone to catch up on world events. A little more than a quarter of American adults now read news on their cell phones, according to a Pew Research Center report released March 1.

The survey shows that people are changing how they get information. At the same time, however, five major magazine publishers are uniting to promote the power of print in a dramatic way. Surprisingly, they’re digging in their heels and pitching in on a multimillion-dollar national ad campaign that will make a case that print trumps the Internet. They maintain that the Web’s content is fleeting and is too much of a moving target.

This sea change is confusing because in the not-so-distant past, the magazine industry invested significant time and effort into trying to prove it could hold its own against digital publishers. They touted e-zines and other formats as being the wave of the future. Whether magazine publishers are abandoning these efforts in favor of trying to attract and retain niche audiences is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the Internet is expected to continue to drain more ad dollars from traditional media.

I don’t know how people can stand to read anything but the weather forecast and maybe the scores from last night’s games on a tiny cell phone screen, but more power to them. How do you get your news? Do you skim or read entire articles on your phone?

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Style Guru

March 1st, 2010

Hand writingIf wishes were horses: A lesson in hypotheticals

It’s Monday, again. Welcome to another week of earning a living. Hopefully, you’re in a good mood today. Me? I’m waxing subjunctive. It’s your lucky day that I’m willing to share.

Of course, if I were rich and famous, I wouldn’t be writing this blog every week. Alas, I’m not, and you’re stuck with another grammar lesson. Isn’t learning fun? Here comes the learning part: When expressing an improbable condition or a wish, desire or regret, use the subjunctive “were” instead of “was.”

If he were chairman of the Greenbrier County Historical Society, we would be able to preserve more buildings.

If I were to marry a millionaire, I wouldn’t have to worry about money.

If the commercial real estate industry were to collapse, the national economy would experience another significant downturn.

I wish it were possible for him to change his mind about leaving me.

If I were a grammar expert, I wouldn’t have to read the Style Guru every week!

Now, don’t you feel better?

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Link roundup

February 26th, 2010

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

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Customer-centric or just plain disconnected?

February 24th, 2010

616726_26242974Many companies say they are focused on customers, but they aren’t walking the walk, according to a 2009 study from Forrester Research. While 45 percent of marketers surveyed said their marketing activities are focused on customers, only one-third say they have strategic ways of delivering the right messages to the right customers. Even more telling: Only 11 percent said customer engagement was an important aspect of their marketing communications.

This, analysts say, leads them to believe that claims of customer centricity are mostly hot air.

Building trusting relationships with customers is especially important for b-to-b marketers, who deal with longer sales cycles, higher price points, corporate hierarchies and more specific audience niches. Here are some general tips for creating better connections with customers via marketing activities.

  • Know what customers want – Your customers know what they want, but are you listening, or even bothering to ask? Regular customer surveys can be an underrated yet valuable tool when you begin any marketing strategy. Thinking about writing a white paper? Ask your salespeople to gauge their customers’ reactions or send an e-mail with a quick survey asking which topics they would be most interested in. With surveys, it helps to offer a small incentive. Starbucks gift cards, anyone?
  • Hit the bull’s-eye – As mentioned in this post, aiming irrelevant messages at your customers (or aiming certain messages to the wrong ones) is not only ineffective – it can cost you business. Be wise before you send that next e-blast or mailer.
  • Get friendlier – Getting involved in social media can show your customers a friendlier, less formal, yet still properly branded, side of your company. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter also offer more opportunities for one-on-one, close interactions, not to mention a number of other benefits. Read more about those here, here, here, here and here.
  • Educate, then sell – Give customers news they can use and ask for nothing in return. Educate them about the latest business trends in their industry. Give them information that will make them look good in front of their bosses. Then segue into how your products/services can help them in those specific areas.
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Eyeball-grabbing headlines rake in readers

February 23rd, 2010

eyeballsRoot canals, dressage competitions and peeling paint excite me about as much as this headline: “New Search Tool at Our Company.” Not very compelling, is it?

Would you read the story if the headline were rewritten as, “Limitless Search Tool Transforms Top Managers’ Training?” It’s certainly catchier than the first headline. And it gets bonus points for having an action verb and alliteration.

Novice writers sometimes make the mistake of writing ho-hum label headlines such as the first one above. They tell readers little and put them to sleep. More examples of label headlines: “Excellence Awards,” “Presidential Tax Cut” and “Business Audits.” I’d like to buy a verb, please. Wait, make that three.

The good

Powerful headlines contain active verbs and grab readers from the get-go, drawing them in to stories. It makes no difference if you’re writing copy for a Web site, an e-newsletter, a printed brochure or any other marketing collateral – headlines can make or break your efforts.

Consider this example from The Wall Street Journal: “Slump in Tax Revenue Creates State of Siege.” I might not care a whit about high finance, but this headline grabs me. I instantly envision clashing swords, gnashing teeth and all manner of chaos. I want to know more about the battle that’s under way and who’s fighting. In other words, the headline makes me want to read the story.

As a general rule, avoid using distracting punctuation in headlines. But if you have a brilliant headline that breaks the rules, go ahead and use it. This one from The New York Times is outstanding: “Heel. Sit. Whisper. Good Dog.” The story explains debarking – cutting dogs’ vocal cords to appease complaining neighbors. The headline sets the overall mood for the story and clues readers in to the topic without hitting them over the head. “Whisper” makes me curious enough to stop and read.

Good headlines can also be clever without being too cute, such as this one from The Wall Street Journal: “Boat Makers Steer through Choppiness.” The story details how recreational watercraft manufacturers are navigating the rough waters of the economic downturn.

The bad

In addition to using label heads, writers sometimes resort to the fallback question mark technique. That is, they write a headline such as, “Why Are Many Newspapers Failing?” or “Can iPad Save Media?” It’s the lazy way, and yes, I will admit using this approach from time to time. A dull topic can really tax a headline writer. Even the brightest copydesk people I’ve worked with would struggle to craft a compelling headline for a story about changes in financial accounting rules or an article on the finer points of international copyright law.

Another faux pas is to state a negative in a headline. “Employees’ Picnic Not Held Because of Storm” should be rewritten. “Storm Forces Cancellation of Employees’ Picnic” would be acceptable. Now, let’s take it up a notch: “Employees’ Picnic a Washout Due to Storm.”

A common mistake is to split nouns and modifiers or verb forms and prepositional phrases over two lines. These are known as bad breaks. In other words, “California Considers Creating an Online Registry for Animal Abusers,” should get the following treatment: “California Considers Creating” (first line) “an Online Registry for Animal Abusers” (second line) when it won’t fit in a single line. Novices often leave the first line dangling with a preposition or an article.

The ugly

Headlines that don’t deliver what they promise cheat readers like cheap card tricks. If I kick off a story with, “The Simons Group Shares 10 Content Marketing Secrets,” and I write about our approach to charging for our services or I discuss only five marketing secrets, then I’ve scammed you. And you’ll be angry with me, as you should. Never ever lure readers in with a misleading premise – unless you just love hate mail.

Please make every word count. Long headlines are a drag, especially when they include articles (a, an, the) for padding. Omit articles unless they’re needed for clarity and trim, trim, trim. “HP Wheels Out Year-long Traveling Exhibition of Truck-Mounted Homes Filled with Digital Photography, Computing and Entertainment Products” falls off a cliff. Where are my scissors? Here’s another excessive headline: “For Chip Makers, the Next Front in a Long and Costly War is Smartphones.”

Finally, write headlines in present tense and avoid abbreviations, jargon and technical terms. No one wants to read, “Government Monetizes Revenue Streams for Maximum Output.” Translate for readers. “The 7th Game was Won by the Red Sox” should be rewritten as, “Red Sox Win 7th Game.”

More tips and tricks for headline writing

  • Use alliteration to create interest. “Top Teachers Take 10 Trips,” “Some Students Study Steadily.”
  • Build around key words for search engine optimization. Incorporate information from the top of the story, but don’t repeat words you’ve already used.
  • Use a comma for the word “and” to save space. “Hollywood Grapples with Lost Clout, Negative Image.”
  • Make headlines as specific as possible. Don’t write, “Proposed Bill Raises Ire” because it doesn’t specify what the bill is about or who is angry about it.
  • Match the tone of the story. If the story will make readers cry, write a sad headline. If readers will laugh out loud, be funny in the headline. Just be careful not to overdo puns because too many dilute the effect.
  • If you pull part of a quote from a story, use single quote marks in the headline. In other words, if the story quotes President Obama as saying, “The health-care challenges we face today are greater than ever before,” the headline would read: Obama: ‘Health-care Challenges Greater Than Ever Before.’
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Style Guru

February 22nd, 2010

Hand writingGrammar grab bag grows

My favorite writing blogs have been letting me down. Their references to “high-impact writing” and “highly-inspired” copy are stacking up higher than the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Shame on them.

I know I sound crabbier than my 93-year-old grandma when she flunked her driver’s test, but why can’t they get it right? These guys are writing about writing for a living. Would you want to hire a contractor whose last building collapsed?

On to some other recent offenders. I changed the details so the guilty shall remain anonymous. Yes, these have crossed my desk at The Simons Group.

ABC Co. has appointed Susan McGrath as managing director of its Houston office. McGrath has worked in turnarounds for more than 10 years and brings extensive experience from several different industries and corporate environments.

The problem here is redundancy. It should say “several industries” because “different” isn’t needed.

Also in the redundancy category:

Henry Scarborough shines in both publicly traded and closely held corporations, as well as structured and entrepreneurial environments.

Ka-ching! “Both” is redundant.

The next example contains an incorrect word I featured in a recent Style Guru. Can you find it?

On Bill’s watch, management has proven unafraid to make bold calls, especially when it scouts prospects.

“Proven” is used with an adjective, as in “proven success.” The sentence should use “proved.”

The bill provides that when an insurance company makes payment of a total-loss claim on a motor vehicle, the insurance company also shall include payment for an amount equal to the applicable sales tax or use tax rate levied on the sale of such a motor vehicle applied to the value of the motor vehicle used by the insurance company for the purposes of determining the claim.

Where do I start? This one has bloated government-speak written all over it. I couldn’t even get through all that in one breath. I’ll translate for you:

The bill also provides that such a total-loss payment shall include payment for any license or registration fees paid by an insured when he acquired the motor vehicle.

And finally, here’s a test in personal pronouns. This sentence appeared in a local newspaper:

One of them was Lonneke Purucker of Chicago, a 28-year-old law student whose husband bought she and a good friend seats at the Chicago Theatre through a ticket broker.

Someone’s clutch is slipping. The correct usage is “her” rather than “she.” The husband bought her seats. The husband bought the friend seats. I’ll go back to collecting more for the grab bag. Heaven knows, I’ve got plenty of material to work with. Job security. Yes!

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Link roundup

February 19th, 2010

Losing your Friday focus? Ease into the weekend by catching up on the latest marketing and business news:

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