The Copywriter Underground

It’s little secret I’m a fan of Garrison Keillor’s essays. Here’s one excellent reason why:

“This is what the obituaries leave out. The giants fall and we leave them behind but who is left to bless us? Nobody. As long as John was in the world, you could imagine him calling up one morning and saying, “That was good. I liked that.” And now the phone is dead. I feel bereft.”

Read the rest from Garrison Keillor on John Updike.

Only a minute or two for a little stream-of-consciousness here dear readers, but I wanted to welcome you to the new, pared-down theme surrounding the Copywriter Underground’s content.

Call it an overdue change of hairstyle – a new, minimalist look & feel reflecting my somewhat slimmed-down approach to work.

And yes, I’m suggesting it’s a trend.

After all, the words I generate these days spill out onto the screen of a simple text editor. I’m carefully managing my online time to waste less of it. And looking hard at a significant shift in my target markets.

It’s also a reflection of my admiration for the minimalist approach to copy (a result of “growing up” – at least in the advertising sense – during the Fallon/McElligot era of direct-but-smart print ads).

It might even reflect the difficult times, where those with the resources to engage in conspicuous consumption are finding themselves reticent to do so.

Satirizing the Recession

While I was forming this post in my head, I stumbled across a wonderful Garrison Keillor essay, and admit to having a soft spot for essayists in general.

Essayists and poets might tread the ground closest to copywriters in a purely stylistic sense (an assertion sure to generate disagreement among poets and essayists), but in this case, Keillor launches his work with a satirical poke at corporate bean counting, illuminating the wide gap between what companies do in recessions and what writers do:

I have bad news. In the midst of the worldwide economic meltdown we are experiencing these days, I have taken a hard look at revenue from this column and find that I am earning but a tiny fraction of the $6.5 million I had projected for 2008, which leaves me no choice but to impose aggressive cost reductions, including a 75 percent reduction in writing time and the elimination of editing. I apologize for the inconvenience. And I thank you for your patience.

Enjoy your day (remembering to slice away those parts of it that simply don’t serve you). I’ll be back soon with more from the slimmer, trimmer Underground.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

It’s easy to fire up a whole list of things we should be thankful for – our lives are easier by almost any measure than those who came before us – but this is a writing blog, so I’ll stay on topic.

The simple truth is I’m thankful I get to write for a living, and do so from a beautiful place on the side of a mountain – the kind of remote place you couldn’t really make a living from prior to the Internet.

Writing is not the glamorous existence that the media make it out to be, but neither is it digging ditches in 100 degree heat.

I’m lucky to enjoy the support of my wonderful, beautiful wife, who knows I could make more money writing projects that appeal a lot less to me, and wants me to write the good stuff anyway.

To all my readers, commentors and everyone who makes up the online writer’s community, enjoy your Thanksgiving, and revel in what you have.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Proving again the world’s gone completely mad, the editors of the New Writer’s Handbook – a collection of essays by writers for writers – asked to include a Copywriter Underground blog piece in their latest collection (Volume 2).

The piece spoke to the power of the parenthetical statement. English teachers largely hate it. Bad writers use it as a crutch. But – used properly – it creates a sense of intimacy with the reader.

In fact, it’s become a favorite tool – not in my “formal” copywriting efforts, but in my engagement marketing projects (which consume more of my time every day).

From my article:

In skilled hands, a parenthetical statement will help bridge the gap between writer and reader, puncturing the invisible barrier between the two. (See what I mean?)

They give you the ability to step out of the copy and into the reader’s space. You can even share what feels like a private joke (just don’t tell anyone else!), transforming your reader from skeptic to confidant.

I also described my five favorite uses of parentheses:

• The Reinforcer
• The Action Picture
• The Humorous Aside
• Personal Call to Action
• Emphasis

To read more about them, you’ll have to read the post itself.

Or buy the book.

Well, Should You Buy the Book?

I admit to some skepticism when first contacted by the book’s editor. After all, who would buy a collection of essays about writing, most of which can already be found on the Intertubes for free?

After reading the finished product, I’d have to say I’m wrong.

In an age of hyper-specialization – where niches are mercilessly targeted and “content producers” are urged to never set foot outside their Google-driven boundaries – an eclectic collection of essays about writing fires the imagination, and provides a respite from what I’ll cavalierly describe as the 140-character rat race.

From the publishers:

With new contributors, ranging from bestselling “queen of medical thrillers” Tess Gerritsen to Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry, the strength of Volume 2 lies with its eclecticism: articles move from collaborative advice to teaching writing in elementary schools — and even includes physical stretches for those spending too much time sitting in front of a screen.

The content features a preface by Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004-06, and appearances by literary bloggers, independent publishers, agents, journalists and a writer who—believe it or not—received nearly 500 rejection notices before finally striking success.

Here’s a quote from the editor:

The perfect Handbook user is the writer who wants to improve his or her writing skills, in small but practical ways. Not all at once, but in little chunks, with short readings, a couple of pages at a time.

While most is most useful to emerging writers, I picked pieces I thought would be thought-provoking, practical, and entertaining to experienced pros.

As a long-time editor of writing guides, I know that real learning happens in small bits, here and there.

Of course, every book of essays culled from the different sources would necessarily suffer a certain lack of continuity. The Writer’s Handbook is no exception.

And yes – without pointing a finger – I’d say blogging’s tendency to reward speed and quantity over quality sometimes rears its head in the essays found in this book, though most of the essays are excellent.

As someone who believes writing serves a purpose beyond driving SEO traffic, I think the New Writer’s Handbook is excellent nightstand material. Read “Diary of a Novel” by Will Weaver at night, and you’ll wake up the next morning with a stronger appreciation for what novel writers suffer for their craft. (No, I don’t have a financial interest in the book, and I’m not getting paid for this review).

It’s probable that young copywriters have never felt more pressure to produce words than they do today, yet an excessively narrow, nose-to-the-grindstone perspective is not a prescription for long-term survival. Widening our horizons a bit can’t hurt, and reading a book like this is one good way to accomplish that.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

new writers handbook, writing, copywriting, article writing, hey mom look

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Need a reason to turn off that “you’ve got mail” tab, ghost box or other notification?

Every time it pops up, it takes an average of 64 seconds to regain your train of thought.

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

It had been assumed that email doesn’t cause interruptions because the recipient chooses when to check for and respond to email (bit.ly/email3). But Dr Jackson found that people tend to respond to email as it arrives, taking an average of only one minute and 44 seconds to act upon a new email notification; 70% of alerts got a reaction within six seconds. That’s faster than letting the phone ring three times.

I’d add up the consequences of that 64 seconds of downtime by multiplying my daily email interruptions by 30 (days in a month), but frankly, I’d rather not know.

In truth, after years of doing things the same way – mostly because that’s the way I’d been doing them – I’ve been looking hard at alternatives.

Moving from Windows Vista to Linux is one result (I get more done).

Now – as I support a pair of ongoing online engagement marketing projects, and write more online copy than ever – I find I’m using my “main” word processor (OpenOffice) less than half the time, and taking advantage of the project management/html/speed features of a Linux programming editor (Bluefish).

It surprised me too.

I tell my students marketing’s changed more in the last five years than it did in the prior 50; I’m starting to see the same trend in my own work habits.

Is the same true for you?

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

writing, writing tools, editor, openoffice, open office, email, email interruption

The Writer’s Almanac tells us today is E.B. White’s birthday – an event worth a little celebration among the prose manufacturing set.

After all, White edited (and improved) Strunk’s Elements of Style, a book I still pull from the shelf and leaf through when writing seems like hard work.

I fly fish often, and I’m willing to say that fly fishing is a lot like writing; neither responds well to the application of brute force, and while there’s no shortage of advice about doing either, you pretty much have to find your own way in both.

Which is where the Elements of Style looms large.

If I’m struggling to write, it’s usually because I’m trying too hard. Reading the direct, spare text in the book almost always helps, and if it doesn’t, well, it’s time to go fly fishing.

E.B. White also wrote for the New Yorker from 1925 to well into the 1970s, wrote Charlotte’s Web, and just generally filled the role of writer’s writer for decades.

In 1978, he received a Pulitzer Prize for the work he’d produced over the years, and once said “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Courtesy the inspiring Writer’s Almanac, served daily by Garrison Keillor and American Public Media:

Larry Brown said, “There’s no such thing as a born writer. It’s a skill you’ve got to learn, just like learning how to be a bricklayer or a carpenter.”

You become a better writer by reading great writers, and putting a lot of (carefully considered) words on paper. Blogging satisfies both.

Musicians practice. Artists practice. Athletes train.

Writers should write.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

While they’re only paying $10/hour, this MediaBistro ad tells us Mahalo’s looking for writers who:

Candidates must be excellent writers capable of writing perfect copy at a fast pace. Familiarity with online research, journalism, and wiki markup language are all definite pluses.

It’s always heartwarming to see an American tech company attempting to pay offshore prices for onshore work, but then again, this is hardly new.

To some, “Web 2.0″ is about interactivity and connectedness. To others, it’s a license to profit from the intellectual work product of others, and those leading the rush to trample intellectual property rights are often technology companies.

Will this intellectual property land rush subside? Obviously, not as long as “writers” are willing to work for poverty level wages, or even worse, trading work for “exposure” when that exposure can’t really be translated to a living wage.

There have always been the Users and the Used. Don’t be one of the latter.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

(hat tip to Valleywag)

[Update: Amusingly, Twitter's been very unhappy since I posted this, and suggesting it's in the midst of a meltdown wouldn't be out of line...]

You can’t help but hear the drumbeats about Twitter. Depending on who’s talking, it’s either a colossal waste of time, or humanity’s last, greatest hope.

I’ve used Twitter for months now as a simple micro-blogging sidebar on my Trout Underground fly fishing blog. In that relatively undemanding capacity (and helped along by Alex King’s excellent Twitter Tools), it worked fine, though hardly perfectly.

Recently I tumbled for a personal Twitter account to see about all the fuss.

Well, I tried to see.

Seems like the service is down a lot. In fact, as I write this — having just shipped a messaging platform advocating a radical repositioning of a client’s product (something I was willing to crow about) — I can’t log on.

Can’t tweet. Can’t do anything. (I wrote this yesterday. Today — right now — we seem to be experiencing another temporary outage).

While not everything about Twitter is trivial, it’s clear that most tweets aren’t exactly life-changing, which is precisely why the service needs to work flawlessly.

The Experiment Continues

Still, I’m going to continue the Twitter experiment.

You can find me there hiding behind a ChandlerWrites address.

I invite you to follow along, and I promise not to clog the pipelines with “shorts or sweatpants?” subject matter.

After all, I initially “followed” a lot of people in an attempt to quickly gain perspective. And the noise level was… high. Too high.

I find Twitter an interesting idea. Perhaps once I’m following the right people, the light bulb will come on. And regardless of of whether it sticks, you have to do these things to speak about them with your clients.

Still, Twitter feels more like a proof of concept — a proving ground for something better that has yet to evolve.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: twitter,tweets,copywriting

The human brain can track up to four complex thoughts simultaneously, and yet — just before lunchtime today — I counted the open windows on my new 17″ laptop.

Six OpenOffice windows (five text, one spreadsheet), four Live Writer windows (my blog editor), three draft e-mails, a still warm-to-the-touch Google Talk window, and yes — two Copywriter windows (perfect when line and character counts are important).

By my count, that’s 16 writer-driven windows , and in that environment — one running at 4x my brain’s rated capacity (no jokes, please) — how much room am I creating to think?

Multitasking With a Mono-Brain

You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. A story of alien abduction would cover my tracks in the most traffic-friendly way, but the reality is different; I’ve started a book-length personal project.

For a writer who’s spent the last two decades hammering out 300-word pieces centered around single-sentence headlines, it’s a change.

A big change.

Almost immediately, I ran into a hitch. It wasn’t writer’s block.

It was the sheer number of writer-facing media channels calling for my attention.

At the risk of sounding like a codger, it wasn’t always this way. And yes, it’s interesting how the addition of a “deep thought” personal project finally exposed the problem, which kinda snuck up on me.

Still, this isn’t a plea for time management tips; I’m figuring out what works, and yes, it’s overdue.

The Hard Part

Fitting a couple hours of personal writing into a day already crammed with dangling participles and caffeine isn’t without its difficulties.

But neither does it lack in satisfaction.

I’m not going to bore you with detailed summaries of writer’s angst.

I do aim to interest you in the juicy bits. After all, this book project came to life at the intersection of blogging and what others have called the online world’s “empowerment of the individual.”

In less stuffy terms, it means I wouldn’t be writing the book if it wasn’t for a blog, and I wouldn’t have written the business plan if it wasn’t for the Internet.

The Value Added Author

I talk often of the Value-Added Copywriter. It’s a laudable concept — the idea that someone knows how to do things beyond their narrow specialty.

Equally laudable is the idea that we’d leverage that value-added knowledge for our own benefit.

Stay tuned. And keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: writing,book,writing a book,brain function