Writing workshops, communication consulting and writing services
Study after study shows that when you add interesting, concrete details to your message, people remember them — sometimes to the exclusion of less fascinating, more abstract ideas.… Read the full article
After I presented a Make Your Copy More Creative workshop recently, an attendee pulled me aside. “The speeches I write are just 20 minutes long,” he said.… Read the full article
My crotchety neighbor likes to quote his favorite philosopher, Anonymous:
How can scanning old news headlines, getting a quick education from Wikipedia or asking your BFF and research assistant Google a question or two save a boring story?… Read the full article
My grandma and namesake, Annie B. Vrana, was an Oklahoma farm woman and one of the most colorful people I’ve known.… Read the full article
The best stories show, then tell, then show, then tell, again and again and again. And the best pieces mix up their concrete details with stories, statistics, scenarios and more.… Read the full article
Some topics are hard to tackle. Brand guidelines, casual dress codes and safety, for instance, all come across as finger-wagging, nagging stories.… Read the full article
People remember concrete news stories 60% better than abstract ones, according to a study by a professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.… Read the full article
You could say that in Cleopatra’s time, women had few legal rights. Or you could say, as Stacy Schiff does in Cleopatra: A Life:
[I]n a city where women enjoyed the same legal rights as infants or chickens, the posting called upon a whole new set of skills.… Read the full articleThe other day, I was working with communicators at a financial services organization on their content marketing pieces. For a story on the organization’s financial camps for kids, they’d written:
