One of the cornerstones of powerful writing is the use of concrete details that can tell your story for you. I don’t care if you’re writing a sales letter, a blog post or a short story for The New Yorker, you need details.
They have to be vivid.
They have to be compelling.
And they have to matter to your reader.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it. ~Alfred North Whitehead
A great quotation is gold to a perceptive writer. You can instantly boost reader engagement with the right bit of wisdom or wit. And when writing to persuade, you can bolster your arguments by pointing to the words of the well regarded.
One of the underlying themes from last weekend’s SOBCon was putting more you into your work. There are literally hundreds of millions of blogs out there, with more starting every day. In a sea of competition, you’ve got to capitalize on what makes you unlike anyone else.
Your unique point of view. Your writing style. Your own individual, personal stories and the way they shape your message.
There’s just one problem with all of that. It’s terrifying.
Care to play a little game?
Okay, think back to your days in high school for a moment. Try to remember some of the class clowns. You know, the people that never seemed to get any work done, preferring to either tick someone off or make everyone laugh.
Can you remember what they looked like? If I asked you to tell me a story about them, could you do it?
Do you ever feel like the world is starting to look at lot like Bladerunner? Or maybe Minority Report. Something by Philip K. Dick, anyway.
We’ve got ads on grocery receipts, ads on toys, ads on cars, ads on diapers, ads superimposed on top of other ads, ads that look like tv shows, ads that look like movies, ads in our email box, ads in our snail mail box, ads in church, ads at school, ads on airplanes, ads in restrooms. Of course, that’s in addition to the traditional ads on radio, television, magazines and newspapers.
There are even ads on Sesame Street. Nothing is sacred.
Good news for Copyblogger readers…
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Cool, huh? Well, there’s more.
