Tooth + Nail’s Linda Button took Station Summit attendees through a “kick-butt tasting menu,” giving them a few key tips to boost their writing in a short time frame.

In the beginning, said Button, go for the guts.

What that means is skip the intro. No need to provide explanation. Just get to the heart of the matter.

As an example of this, she showed a spot promoting James Bond night on a Hindi TV channel. The spot edited together action sequences from Bond films starring Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan. There were few words, no voiceover, just a whole lot of action, served up very quickly, and a card at the end telling viewers where they could find all this blood-tingling chaos.

“Just throw viewers into the deep end of your idea,” said Button. “The average human attention span is 8.7 seconds. Neuroscientists say we make our choices in 2.6 seconds.”

No need to spend a lot of time agonizing over what to say.

Other ways to cut to the case are to contrast one thing over another – play a sweet romantic song over a montage of hockey fights, as the National Hockey League did with a spot that played “Lovin’ You” while showing lots of hockey-based violence.

Or try something totally new and see what happens.

Once you’ve busted through the normal way of doing things, take ten minutes to write down every random idea that comes to your mind. It’s a ten-minute brainstorm and you never know what might come of it.

Next, shake things up, break the rules, do things differently.

For example, if creating 15- or 30-second promos is a typical constraint you are under, consider ignoring that constraint.

To illustrate this, Button showed the following Geico ad.

The ad is done within the first ten seconds, but viewers keep watching for the fun. Plus who can resist a huge St. Bernard?

Finally, kill ‘em.

And by that, Button means get rid of standard tropes that slow down your writing or leave it in the past. Use one beat – or one syllable—words to pick up the pace, and eradicate clichés – an exercise that is harder than it seems as an in-session workshop quickly demonstrated.

For more information and to get this full presentation, visit www.tooth-and-nail.com.

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