When I wrote my first two novels, I had a real problem with dialog. I audio-taped a couple of movies and transcribed them. It worked. For an investment of maybe eight hours, I've found dialog easy and fun to do ever since.

The bonus --- not only did it improve my dialog 1000 per cent, but it also improved all my performance writing as well. I formed a mental link between how words look on page, and how they sound.

* Write, then: read your words aloud. Or: talk. Start talking to yourself (it helps if you have your own office) about product you're writing copy for. Include sound-effects. Be outrageous. You'll create excellent copy.

* Think about sub-text. This is underlying meaning of our words. The better script (dialog) writer, simpler writing, because it relies almost completely on sub-text. This is difficult to do. However, don't let that stop you. The more practising you do, better you'll get. Look for examples of sub-text when you're watching movies and TV, and write examples down in a notebook.

* Listen to conversational styles of people you meet.

Unless they've made an effort to change it, their conversational style reflects their early family environment. So you'll find that someone who's grown up in a home where her parents are from another culture may not speak her parents' native language, but she nevertheless has some of that language structure in her conversational style --- in way she uses words.

You can use this knowledge to add veracity to your conversational style.

Try above approaches. For a small investment in time, you'll improve your copywriting skills.

***Resource box: if using, please include*** When your words sound good, you sound good. Author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts words for your business --- words to sell, educate or persuade. Get in touch today for a free quote:

mailto:ab@digital-e.biz

Free ezine: Creative Small Biz --- subscribe at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Creative_Small_Biz/

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5. FURNISH THE UPSTAIRS ROOM. The legendary ad man, James Webb Young, believed that in advertising, "an idea results from a new combination of specific knowledge about products, and people with general knowledge about life and events." That requires more than reading business memos, trade journals and The New York Times. It means doing things like getting out to movies and theater often. Visiting museums. Reading books on odd subjects just for fun of it. Re-reading classic novels. Listening to music, from classical to country to hip-hop. Do all of it or as much as you can. David Ogilvy encouraged his employees to be "relentlessly curious" about all knowledge that crossed their paths, so that they might "possess a well-furnished mind."

6. COLLECT WORDS. Words are ideas, too. The semanticist, S.I. Hayakawa, in his Language in Thought and Action referred to words as being symbols of ideas and, thus, "we can collect ideas by collecting words." James Webb Young, writing on this subject said, "The fellow who said he tried reading dictionary, but couldn't get hang of story, simply missed point: namely, that it is a collection of short stories."

7. SAY NO TO "YES, BUT..." Coming up with a new idea is almost always only half battle. Because just as sure as you are that your idea is different and unexpected, you can count on somebody being there to offer comfort and safety of "yes, but-land." Don't go there. Resist. Build a strategy and fight. And keep fighting. Remember words of wise, old Anonymous: "Every great oak was once a nut that stood its ground."

8. HAVE FUN. Even though, at one time or another, you have probably blamed it for everything from your bad habits and insomnia to your kid's need for braces, you still have to admit that marketing communications is toy department of business world. Enjoy.