The Writer Story Every writer has a story

She was an odd mix of soft skin and rowdy in the mouth. And by that, I mean she was bright, chirpy, and quick with the quirky jokes, ribbing it with the best of them, but prone to fits of sobbing at the first sign of disagreement. I needed to …

Creativity is a fickle mistress. Especially when creating content. Sometimes, the words flow as fast as the coffee. Other times, well, not so much. It’s easy to create boring content. (Many people do it quite effortlessly.) But if you don’t have a distinctive point of view, you’re just reporting. Feel stuck when it’s …

From a traditional marketing standpoint, the answer to the question in the headline above is simple. Content marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers — and customers into repeat buyers. Copywriting gets a reader to take a specific action. Sometimes that’s making a purchase, …

Shortly after the release of The Lego Movie (2014), more than one professional marketer went on record to say that it was the best piece of content marketing they’d seen in a long time. Well, I finally saw the movie, and I don’t buy that claim. Why? To be honest, I have a hunch …

How often do you shrug your shoulders and press delete after reading a marketing email? Many marketing messages make us cringe. They don’t sound like a human being wrote them. They don’t engage. They lack personality and feel cold-hearted. It’s not surprising. At school, we learned grammar rules. We learned …

At a TED conference in 2008, music conductor Benjamin Zander talks about the story of Shakespeare’s well-known play, Hamlet. In Act One, scene three, Hamlet finds out that his uncle killed his father. Now Hamlet must have his revenge. As the play progresses, Hamlet almost kills his uncle, but pulls himself …

Advertising. Bloodstained. Cold-blooded. Epileptic. Fashionable. Hobnob. Moonbeam. New-fangled. Puking. Swagger. Worthless. Zany. Those are just a sample of the many words William Shakespeare invented. In fact, some say he invented somewhere between 1,700 and 2,200 words — possibly more. It’s no surprise the English language owes a massive debt to Shakespeare. But Shakespeare doesn’t …

Who better? Many business people faced with the task of writing for marketing purposes are quick to say: “Hey, I’m no Hemingway!” But really, who better than Hemingway to emulate? Rather than embracing the flowery prose of the literati, he chose to eschew obfuscation at every turn and write simply and clearly. So, let’s …

Do you sound smarter when you use big words? According to a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, the answer is no. In fact, complex writing makes you sound small-minded. Just consider the title of the study: Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly. Wouldn’t …

All writing is made up of literary devices whether you realize it or not. But what if you could intentionally uplevel your writing, make it better, more impactful, and crafting it in a way to hook readers from the introduction? What would it mean for you if you were able to guide your …