One Little Word...

Yes, I know it's Sunday, but I'll be busy tomorrow, so I might not have time to post here. If I do, just think of this as a free bonus.

Anyway: do you know what I find most rewarding as a writer?

Not the hundreds of words that go to make a carefully-crafted sales letter. Not the thousands that go to make an ebook, or the tens of thousands that go into a book. Not even the fourteen lines of my most successful sonnet. And certainly not the hundreds of hours at the keyboard.

No, what makes my 'job' really rewarding is when one or maybe two little words transform an okay piece of writing into something special. Or, in advertising, when one little word transforms the success of a campaign.

Such as the example of a copywriter who, many years ago guaranteed a shampoo manufacturer that he could transform their sales by changing the wording on the bottles - for a percentage, of course. I seem to recall he desperately needed the money, but whether he did or not, his 'one word' was an act of genius. It was brilliantly simple.

Once they agreed his fee he set to work. For all of about five seconds. His genius single word?

'Repeat', as in 'rinse and repeat'.

Sales of the shampoo, not surprisingly, almost doubled and he did very nicely indeed from then on.

I haven't hit those heights yet, but ...

Recently, some business partners and I were discussing the critical wording on a specifically targeted piece. We needed to offer potential JV partners something more than just another 'opportunity'. I can't go into too much detail until we're ready to release the product, but suffice to say we had one line that 'kind of worked', but not quite.

By the way, I don't particularly recommend copywriting by committee, but that's for another day :)

So we had the line, which began something like 'Join with us...' but we didn't want them to actually join, so we batted round a few ideas before conversation began to move on, at which point I suggested 'Help us...' which I know sounds pretty simple, just as 'repeat' seems simple all these years and all that extra hair-washing later...

In context, though, it was exactly right and not as obvious as it seems, if not as revolutionary as the single word that almost doubled shampoo sales overnight.

One or two words can make that much difference to your copy, too. Always try to read your own work with a cold and analytical eye. Put it away for a day or two before reading it again and try not to 'fall in love' with your words.

Any line that seems superfluous needs removing, but you can often improve a line that now sounds a little flat just by changing a word or two. It's especially true of your most critical line, your headline, but in really great copy, every line 'sings'.

In that sense, good copy is like poetry, because every word has to work to justify its presence in the piece, adding its voice to the 'chorus'.

And when you find one word that transforms a line, a piece, a campaign, you might be singing too.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS As an example, I've just been back and edited this piece - changing a word here, two words there. It's not great copy and it's certainly not poetry, but it's much better for the second look!