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“Let’s disrupt things,” says Tooth + Nail’s blonde, spiky-haired Linda Button, opening her session at The Conference 2014. “Let’s write dangerously, at least today.”
The above presentation (which is large and loads slowly, so bear with us) offers the accompanying visuals. Below are some guidelines for behaving a little badly while you create great copy.
As Hemingway once said: Write drunk, edit sober.
Spill every rambling half-baked idea on to the page.
When you are drunk, you say stupid things.
When you are drunk, people look sexier than they are.
When you are drunk, you simply don’t think. If there’s no thinking, there’s no judgment. It’s kind of like falling in love, and is it a bad thing to fall in love with your writing?
Steal. Then Transform.
The first lesson of stealing is ‘don’t look like your hero, see like your hero.’
So don’t copy your hero, use his perspective to transform his idea into something new.
Punch.
Whether it’s a jab, a right or a hook, they are all short and to the point.
Like a jab, use short words, strong verbs and one beat. Once in a while, throw in words witih two or more beats. You can’t cut out all the long words, but you can make the long words count.
Verbs punch through.
If your sentences start with There is or It is, your punch lacks power.
Fake Your Identity.
In Boston recently, a turnpike road sign appeared, with the phrase, “Use Yah Blinkah.” It quickly developed its own social-media following.
When writing copy, speak the language, cop the lingo, talk the talk, and if you can’t, fake it.
When you slip into someone else’s life, you bring your writing to life.
Murder.
Feel free to kill words.
There’s the sniper, who takes 80 words down to 70.
The serial killer says I have a 30-second spot and 80 words. Which are the 30 that are going to survive?
Networks are reducing their taglines to just one word. TNT goes boom. FX is fearless. NatGeo says unlock.
If performing criminal acts makes you uncomfortable, here’s another way of looking at it:
Open up.
Get inspired.
Use clear short words.
Talk to fans like they talk.
Let the best bits survive.
“Let’s let our words take leaps and write like we only live once, because we do,” Button concluded.
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