Creative writing

Communicate, don’t decorate, for creative content marketing

Creative copy can attract or distract

“Prose is architecture. It’s not interior design.”

— Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize-winning novelist

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

Help people remember with acronyms

Create a mnemonic

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

Best practices for organizing magazine articles [Example!]

Romance meets finance in this feature

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

8 writing tips I’m thankful for

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

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

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