Easy Copywriting: Develop a conversational style

Written by Angela Booth


*Article Use Guidelines*

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please includerepparttar resource box. If you could send a copy to me at email address: mailto:ab@digital-e.biz , I appreciate it. Many thanks. **

Summary: What makes writing copy for everything from sales letters to ads to your Web site easy? Developing a conversational style.

Total words: 600

Category: Small Business

Easy Copywriting: Develop a conversational style

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

What makes writing copy for everything from sales letters to ads to your Web site easy?

Developing a conversational style. Tryrepparttar 100964 tips I've outlined below if you're trying to write copy. (Or dialog for a script, or a novel, for that matter.)

If you initially find writing in a casual conversational style difficult, relax.

You can do it. It's just a matter of gettingrepparttar 100965 hang of it. Write as you speak, withrepparttar 100966 redundancies, which we all use in conversation, chopped out.

* It's vital that you learn to relax while you write*.

We all tend to tense up when we write. Writing, or any creative task, produces anxiety because ofrepparttar 100967 adrenaline pumping through our body. We need this adrenaline, it gives our words energy.

However, unless you're aware ofrepparttar 100968 problems that too much adrenaline can cause (anxiety, tense muscles leading to health concerns like RSI and tension headaches), your creative tasks will be more pain than pleasure.

If you have concerns about tension, do a relaxation course. You'll find books and tapes on relaxation in your local library, or at your bookstore.

The tips below will help you to build your conversational writing style. The transcribing exercise is especially helpful.

=> TIPS:

* Record a few minutes of TV commercials using audio-tape. Transcriberepparttar 100969 tape into your word processor. This lets you see what a conversational style looks like on your computer screen--- this is handy if you're trying to write an audiovisual script.

Note: please do this simple exercise, even if you have no intention of writing audiovisual scripts.

Eight Ideas for Coming Up with New Ideas. Imitating Einstein, Churchill and Other Great Thinkers.

Written by Walter Burek


The one thing that matters most in marketing communications forrepparttar Internet is coming up with new ideas. Yet so few of us are prolific at it. Oh sure, there arerepparttar 100963 lucky ones who were born with right-hemisphere brains and spew creativity like sheets off a printing press. Butrepparttar 100964 rest of us,repparttar 100965 8 out of 10 who are left-brain dominant (fewer than 20% of all people, throughout history, have been right-brain dominant), don't have to be completely without luck. We just have to learn to mimic some ofrepparttar 100966 thought patterns and techniques of those born to be inventive thinkers. Here's how...

1. SIMPLIFY. Boilrepparttar 100967 problem down to its bone. Toss out allrepparttar 100968 details that aren't germane. Tseng Tsao, a 12th century philosopher said, "The nice thing about simplicity is its useful wisdom. It's wisdom you can get at." And Albert Einstein who was at least as smart as any Chinese philosopher said, "Everything should be as simple as possible but not simpler.

2. ESCHEW PERFECTION. Winston Churchill said that "perfection is paralysis." Looking for perfection and executional detail while you're still looking for an idea is like countingrepparttar 100969 chickens beforerepparttar 100970 eggs have hatched. Incidentally, Churchill could have becomerepparttar 100971 greatest of all British copywriters. He had a portfolio full of great lines like "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat " and "The action of Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

3. STAY OUT OF JAIL. Edward DeBono,repparttar 100972 Cambridge educator and thinker, talks aboutrepparttar 100973 "concept prison." That's where you get locked up when you believe you have to do thingsrepparttar 100974 way they always been done. Try attackingrepparttar 100975 problem obliquely. Allow yourself to color outsiderepparttar 100976 lines. Try to think more playfully, less seriously. Be more serendipitous.

4. THINK RIGHT ABOUT "THE RIGHT ANSWER." No two ways about it, there's always more than one way to solve a problem. And as DeBono will tell you, "The purpose of thinking is not to be right but to be effective. Being right means being right allrepparttar 100977 time. Being effective means being right only atrepparttar 100978 end."

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