Award Winning Copy (is something I can say)

I've always wanted to say I write "award-winning" copy. Now I can! I've won the 2015 APAC Insider Business Award for Best Copywriting in Melbourne!

According to the mag, "It is the job of the 2015 APAC Insider Business Awards to seek out the very best firms, departments, individuals and initiatives from across the Asia Pacific region and to reward their innovation, client care and, it goes without saying, stellar performance over the past 12 months.

"[APAC Insider] takes rewarding the top performers in this region very seriously and each award programme and category has been meticulously tailored to provide a comprehensive overview of the very best each market, industry and sector has to offer."

A great Christmas present for I Sell Words copywriting, no?

Write a Book? You probably have already

I've been copywriting for one of my dearest clients, Savvy Finance, for over a year and a half. Like every business reliant on technology, I back up. Everything. Once to the cloud and again on an external hard drive. Looking all the content I've written for Savvy, I've chalked up 330 articles at the time of writing. Without giving too much away, that's 138,600 words. That's over ten times as long as my master's thesis. The U.S. National Novel Writing Month sets a 50,000 word benchmark - and that's an entire novel. In essence, I've written 2 and a bit books' worth for that great company, and I'm happy to have done it.

So why can't we all write that book? Or at least, something of equal or greater length. It seems that I've already written a few "books" since I started my business all those months ago. Speaking from my own perspective...well, it's all about perspective.

Writing isn't a "supertask" but it can sure feel like it

Writing a book or a long-form piece can feel like a task that will take the better part of your life to complete. It's a supertask - a task which takes infinite time to complete. Sort of like writing down the history of your life in pinpoint detail. It can't be done.

Writing a book can, especially if you break it down into chunks. Or, don't even think about it like a book. A book I'm currently reading, Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard.  It's based on his boyhood, growing up amid World War II in Shanghai. Delving deeper, it reads like a series of vignettes tied together by a common theme. Unconventional, but it works. It won him the James Tait Memorial Prize and a Man Booker Prize shortlisting for his efforts, too.

In your mind, talking is a form of action

Have you ever caught yourself thinking about sending a reply text to someone only to realise you haven't actually done it? Talking about doing things is a form of action in and of itself, although it produces nothing of value. Even subvocalising is a form of "action" for some people. A little less conversation and more action. In fact, this blog post is a product of that - I didn't just think about writing this blog post - I actually did it!

Writing long pieces is what other people do

What's the difference between you and a novel writer? The novel writer was once in your position, now they're published.

Writing isn't it's own reward

If you're writing for the celebrity and the riches, don't. Writing creatively is one of my "rewards" for a day's job well done. It's up there with exercising, cooking a tasty meal and hanging out with friends. Writing should be its own reward. Doing it for others seldom yields good results.

What is your experience with these sorts of writing tasks?

Authentic Authenticity

It's been a whirlwind few months at ISW, with plenty of new projects coming in. One aspect they all share in common is authenticity.

Authenticity is hard to come by in this day and age. The paragon of "authentic" media in the face of "stodgy old fossils" is the VICE brand. VICE was founded in Montreal in 1994. VICE was and still is printing a free "edgy" and in your face magazine, satirising and promoting new trends, music and underground culture. By the end of the decade, they had local editions in the US, UK, Australia.

In the late 2000s, they moved into new media, producing documentaries on topics the "old media" found unprofitable. Now they have a weekly documentary series screened on premium cable channel HBO. They're also launching a half-hour daily news bulletin. It was transformed from a locally funded zine into a $915 million (US) digital media empire. Though they've reined in their brash and often controversial style, they've made a killing by staying true to their authentic roots - even if their success is underpinned by commercialism.

Businesses, like individuals, believe they can achieve greatness by "faking it" until they make it. For VICE, being who they are without apology launched them to unsurpassed heights while comparable media companies fell.

Do you strive for authenticity? Do you know a business or company that might benefit from a dose of authenticity? Let me know! I'd love to have a conversation with them.

Meditations of a Copywriter

Ever since high school, I've turned to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius lived almost 2,000 years ago. He was a great Emperor, general and statesman of the Roman Empire.

Whether at governing home or locked in the horns of battle, he wrote little reminders to himself based on the stoic philosophy.

So profound were these aphorisms they were bound up into twelve books known as the Meditations. I recently "upgraded" my dog-eared floppy of the Meditations for a hardbound book.

It's been the companion of many high-flyers since their wider publication centuries ago. I too have some meditations on copywriting i've inked over the past year and a bit, and I'd like to post them here for my own and others' reference.

Meditations of a Copywriter

1. This isn't God's work. You're not a "word wizard," a "verb herder," or anything remotely like it. You're a copywriter and you seek to improve your craft every day. There is no end to your apprenticeship. Total mastery is sailing on a ship of fools.

2. Passion sells. I find myself enlivened talking about my work unlike ever before. I talk for hours about it with clients and colleagues. This is your advantage. Use it.

3. If you can't help, add or improve, walk away. Some people turn to me for advice and new words when they don't need them. It is not my place to sell people words they don't need.

4. Cut always. There's rarely a good piece of work that could be great with a few choice edits. Edit always; cruelly and judiciously.

5. Best is the enemy of truly good. If you find you could've phrased something better or wittier months after the fact, let it be. If you didn't slouch about with the time allowed and did the best you could do, take comfort.

6. Let things settle. Words don't improve with age, but an editor's eye does. Take the time to embrace the process. Draft, draft again and finish the journey.

7. Improve yourself when distracted. Sometimes the mental tank will empty. That's fine. Don't read rehashed listicles, faff about on twitter or endlessly scroll Tumblr. If you need a distraction, read or do something of substance.

8. Rhetoric is eternal. Rhetoric and persuasion has been around since the time of Marcus Aurelius himself, even before. Don't be fooled by newfangled "silver bullets," and "super sales words," because they aren't. You and your clients will be left wanting.

9. Miracles don't happen behind a desk. Get out of the house and expand your route. You'll be surprised at what you can find. The world will enrich you in one way or another.

10. Simplicity is key. No one cares if you rattle off $10 words in $100 lots. People aren't impressed. People are impressed when you flip the mundane into something profound.

11. Look at the bright side. You're doing what you love, every day. When things get tough, push harder. Persistence will pay.

Do you have meditations? What are they?

Brevity: The soul of what (where, why, who, how...)

I've a confession to make. I have an addiction. I'm not at all ashamed, despite the dramatic opening. I'm finding myself engrossed by brain training apps.

Many of them are heinously expensive. Paying three figures for glorified Tetris isn't quite worth it. Though I make do with what I have. One app that's made the grade (once I'd exhausted all others) was Elevate. Simple and stimulating. That's not to say they're completely effective, as science suggests.

What struck me immediately was the breadth and depth of the "writing" portion of the "course." One of the portions fortifying the mind was brevity, or omitting needless words. Old Strunk and White may recommended judicious grammatical choices in their masterwork The Elements of Style. Were they actually improving our brainpower?

Perhaps not. The inverse may be true. They could be conserving others' brainpower. In my view, half the battle's won if you're aiming for clear, concise and effective communication.

One side-effect of the academic experience is contracting superfluis verbis; using too many words.

Those privy to the humanities may (fondly?) remember writing essays of pre-determined length. 2,000w, 4,000w, and so on. Why these arbitrary limits? Moreover, why must students learn habits of ineffective communication in preparation for the wider world?

In my view, the academy seeks to conflate "intelligence" with length. If one's professor has trouble navigating Byzantine sentences and concepts, then surely the student has promise. Peppering one's speech with $10 words must indicate a person of higher learning. What nonsense!

Once the student approaches the marketplace, they soon find their unruly and overgrown sentences are in dire need of pruning. It takes many years to unlearn what our student has imbibed.  Co-workers, clients and people in general needn't exert mental effort deciphering your prose. It should flow into them as a river does the ocean. Books I find too clumsy or unwieldy seldom go read. Perhaps you do, too.

My best way to counteract bloated prose? Keep writing. If people have trouble understanding your writing, keeping it simple is best. It's one of my (many) philosophies on copywriting.

Enter the Internet to keep one honest - Hemingway App is a free app to help achieve brevity and clarity in your writing. You can mess around with your settings in Microsoft Word, but Hemingway app is so austere and novel I feel our dear Earnest could settle for it over his old Corona No. 4.

What's your take? Is brevity the soul of good writing?