Check out these new techniques I’ve learned this year
This year, I’m most thankful for my family, my friends, my health — and you, my clients, customers and readers.… Read the full article
Creative writing
When to use adverbs and adjectives
‘Applewood-smoked bacon’ just tastes better
Turns out a Southwestern Tex-Mex salad by any other name would not taste as good.
Vivid menu descriptions — “applewood-smoked bacon,” “Maytag blue cheese” and “buttery plump pasta,” for instance — can increase restaurant sales up to 27 percent, according to research by Brian Wansink.… Read the full article
How to write in detail
Steal tips from these holiday messages
Hey, we know. Thanksgiving was so November 2015. But we couldn’t resist sharing these delicious holiday messages from two of our brilliant clients.… Read the full article
Communicate, don’t decorate
Creative copy can attract or distract
“Prose is architecture. It’s not interior design.”
— Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize-winning novelist
But the power to attract may also distract readers from your main idea.… Read the full article
Alphabet scoop
Create memorable acronyms
First there was FUBAR: F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. Now, thanks to the Urban Dictionary, we also have PHOBAR: PHOtoshopped Beyond All Recognition.… Read the full article
Alliterate a little list
‘A spoonful of alliteration helps the medicine go down’
I’m a sucker for an alliterative list.
When a client asked me to write a piece on the 28 languages now available on her company’s technology, I wrote this lead:
Got a list?… Read the full article
Romance meets finance in this feature
Northern Trust goes beyond the pyramid
How do you organize a compelling feature?
Model this piece, which Loring Leifer wrote for Northern Funds’ marketing magazine, Northern Update.… Read the full article
Neologisms: Find half-and-half words
Gain inspiration for portmanteau from WordSpy
Tracy Ousdahl and Paul Pinney have traveled the globe. But sometimes, instead of venturing out to a cool destination, they use their time off to visit their families.… Read the full article
Creative process: Get to Aha!
Write better, easier & faster with this 5-step system
Have you ever come up with a brilliant idea — on the way home from the brainstorming meeting?… Read the full article
Incubation in action
If all else fails, run out of gas
When George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum had worked at the White House for about a week, he got an assignment to write a speech alerting the country that a serious recession was about to begin.… Read the full article