Creative copywriting

And … action! Benefits vs features copywriting

Write in verbs, not other parts of speech

Talk about painting a picture. In City of Bohane, Kevin Barry brings the titular town to life in sentences like this:

“Amputee walnut sellers
croaked their prices
from tragic blankets
on the scarred tile floors …”

And:

“The tottering old chimneys were stacked in great deranged happiness
against the morning sky.”

… Read the full article

Writing for the web examples: One Smart site

PetSmartCharities.org reaches readers online

More than 400,000 dogs and cats find homes each year through PetSmart Charities’ in-store adoption programs and events. In fact, the organization grants more money to directly help pets in need than any other animal welfare group in North America.… Read the full article

More Wordoids

Readers make up words with this cool naming tool

Have you tried Wordoid? This cool tool is designed to help you find a catchy name for your business by auto-creating new words.… Read the full article

Use ‘narrative shorthand’

Squeeze a big life into a small space

How do you pack a large life into a tight space?

Try a “pocket profile.” That’s the technique Anjelica Huston used to describe her great-great-great grandfather in her new memoir, A Story Lately Told:

“… a prospector, John Gore, who started up several newspapers from Kansas to New York.… Read the full article

Google Poetics captures a refrain

Anaphora turns search phrases into verse

I’m a huge fan of found poetry.

Create poetry from the speeches of Donald Rumsfeld, the baseball play calls of Phil Rizzuto or the etiquette advice of Emily Post, and I’m a happy camper.… Read the full article

Break out the Metaphor Generator

Black Hills Power transforms press release with analogy

Hillary Dobbs, a PR pro at Black Hills Power in Rapid City, S.D., recently received this release to distribute to media contacts:

Black Hills Power Hosted New Reliability Center in Rapid City

June 20, 2013 – Rapid City, S.D.:… Read the full article

The (One-Page) Magazine

The New York Times goes brief

Talk about brief: The New York Times packs 13 stories onto its briefs page, called The (One-Page) Magazine.

Notice the combination of:

One-paragraph profiles, trend pieces and new nuggets
One-sentence reviews
Charts (History, in Kardashians)
Glossary items (This should be a word: Denigreet)
Timelines (This one’s running across the top and down the right side)
Infographics (This one’s running across the bottom of the page)

How brief are your briefs?… Read the full article

The Mighty Metaphor

Karen Brooks brings the Portland dining scene to life

The rumor that I moved to Portland, Ore., solely because of the restaurants is only slightly exaggerated.… Read the full article

‘Don’t light your clothing on fire’

WCB-Alberta teaches safety through ‘The Hunger Games’

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

Create local heroes

Hallmark Cards sees successes through its people

Are you communicating internally? Create local heroes.

That is, celebrate the people who are moving the company ahead. Let employees stand for the successes of organizational programs.… Read the full article