Writing: Frequently asked questions

 

Should I hire a writer familiar with my subject matter?

Clients often like to hire writers or copy writers who have had exposure to their type of business or the subject matter in which they are focused. A writer who can already speak (or quickly grasp) the language of the client will naturally work faster than someone unfamiliar with the client’s activity.

However a writer’s familiarity with the client's subject matter can be both an advantage and disadvantage. A new writer, unfamiliar with the process, may find another perspective or "angle" on the subject, and a new, fresh way to present it.

Writers are very adaptable people. They can very quickly accumulate a lot of knowledge about unfamiliar subjects. It's the experienced writer’s ability to extract structure from detail with which he or she is initially unfamiliar, organize it and present it in a logical and appealing manner, that makes him or her a unique and valuable professional.

 

How do I GET a writer TO deliver what I want?

A writer's work is only as good as the brief he or she gets. The more accurate and comprehensive the brief from the client, the better the outcome will be.

The professional writer may ask questions such as what is the scope of the article, how pictorial is it, what is the detail required, or how your subject matter, activity or process is differentiated from the competition? He or she may want to see previous written and pictorial material about the subject. The writer will certainly want to immerse him or herself in the detail of the subject and discuss the structure and style of the end result. The writer will want to know not just what is to be told but how it is to be told.

The quality of the writer's work is in fact more related to the quality of the brief than the writer's familiarity with subject. If both parties are clear on what is expected, they both have a common standard by which they can measure the end result.

 

How much do I pay a writer and how do I get value for money?

Copywriting fees vary enormously, depending upon the nature of the writing, the medium, the topic and its complexity, the amount of research and where it is located, and the length of the project.

Most experienced and professional freelance copywriters and writers work for between $40 per hour and $60 per hour.

Copywriters are often asked to quote from a verbal brief. However the more written information provided by the client, the lower the cost; because the writer has more material to start with and does not have to cover him or herself for unknown requirements.

Most copywriting assignments are easily done remotely with all communication by email. If there is a face-to-face brief, the writer may charge for this. Once the copywriter has the brief, he or she estimates the size and scope of the article, the number of drafts and the time required. The fee and terms of payment are then agreed upon. The writer may also quote with a range of minimum and maximum, and charge something within that.

Another method of quoting is per word, but again that depends on the type of writing and the quality of any existing material.

Often a client might like to get a treatment or approach from the writer, before engaging him. If this is simple, then there is usually no charge. If it takes a few hours then the writer will probably charge for this.

Some copywriters ask 50% of their fee up front and 50% on final delivery. Others bill in stages. For larger jobs, both clients and writers often find this approach the best way to work.

Please contact me for my daily rates

 

How do I write a company blog?

Blogs and their audience
Company blogs present unique marketing oppportunities for companies. As part of the escalating interest in digital marketing and networking, blogs can become a cost efficient means of quickly communicating with colleagues and customers. Their characteristic personal style can create a relationship with readers that previously would have taken years to develop. When readers find blogs personally or professionally useful or stimulating, they continually return to the site, often communicating with the author via the blog's Comments. Blogs have the potential to cultivate lasting connections with colleagues and customers.

Many independent blogs have little focus and no direction, however some still manage to become massively popular. Those that do are invariably insightful and entertaining, and touch the zeitgeist or trend in their subject. Some popular independent blogs draw such a huge readership they generate large amounts of advertising.

Corporate blogs
Well conceived corporate blogs can generate a huge amount of goodwill for businesses. There are, however, some differences between corporate and independent blogs. Like the independent blog, business blogs need to stimulate thinking. Unlike the independent blog, business blogs need to have a clear goal, a clear intention.

There are three types of corporate blogs:

• Internal blogs are designed for staff readership and circulate only within the company. They are informal and create a positive sense of community within the company.
• External blogs are written for both the industry in which the company works, and the customers it services; and they build loyalty from both.
• CEO blogs allow the CEO to become a voice within the industry.

A corporate blog can create employee and customer awareness of the company’s industry and market developments within it. It can announce events, and disseminate information (such as new product information, technical updates, and staff changes). It can invite customer comment, and cite customer case studies and success stories.

This cost-free, customer communication can provide invaluable insight about how the company and its products or services are viewed in the market place.

There are two ways to produce a corporate blog. A staffer, often in PR or advertising can take on the task, and, being already saturated in the company’s ethos and its industry, produce regular posts. Alternatively, freelance blog writers, working with a staff coordinator, can write the blog from information with which they are provided. One advantage of the freelance approach is that multiple authors can become specialists in particular areas and deliver different voices. (Both freelance writers and employees should be mindful of the legal and business risks in blogging and of the content becoming a permanent part of public debate.)

The corporate blog should be designed in a manner similar to the company’s main web site. Its address should be part of the company logo and information, and go out in all company emails. The blog should be kept personal, sincere and never adulterated with advertising. It should not overtly promote the company but contain thought provoking content for both staff and customers.

If well conceived and well written, the corporate blog, can produce more trust, faith and loyalty in a company than possibly any other means.

Read the full article How to Write Independent and Company Blogs

 

How does a writer use tone?

Tone refers to the writer's attitude toward the reader or the writer’s attitude towards the subject matter. It determines how the reader or viewer perceives the information presented to him or her. The tone of a written message affects a reader just as tone of dialogue affects a listener.

The skilled writer gives great consideration to tone before commencing writing.

The writer strives for an overall tone that is confident, courteous, and sincere. Sincerity is important because without it, politeness can sound condescending knowledgeable. The writer’s tone can also be appreciative, enthusiastic, positive, self assured, or matter of fact. Whatever the tone, if the writer is respectful and honest, the reader is more willing to accept the message, even if it is negative.

Tone in business writing is affected by familiarity, emphasis, passivity and perspective. Read Tone and Emphasis in Business Writing for more information and examples.

Tone in fiction is similar but not exactly the same. In fiction it is far more fluid. It is how the writer controls the subject matter when he or she creates a scene or sequence. The writer may work with a specific tone in mind at one point in the film story and another tone at another point. With this tone in mind the writer sets a mood that is affected by where the scene is set, the ambient sounds, the light, how the characters behave (and in film, the camera coverage and editing.) For example a scene between two squabbling lovers set at late night in the rain in a deserted street has a more final, less optimistic feel than one set early morning, in bright sunshine along a leafy path in the country.

Other examples of mood that the writer may strive for are gloomy, menacing, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, condescending etc.

The skilled fiction writer constantly considers the changing tone (and mood) in the emotional arc of the story.

 

The difference between writing, copywriting and technical writing?

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, (be it fiction or non-fiction, professionally or as an amateur), to portray ideas and/or images.

While a writer generally works in prose, there are also more specialized writers such as journalists, technical writers, screen writers, play writes, poets, or lyricists. A writer is sometimes an author, but the latter implies that he or she was the original creator of the ideas in the writing. Someone who researches a topic and then writes an article or story where completely new ideas are presented is an author. Authors generally work in fiction, however the writer of a thesis where new ideas are proposed is considered an author.

A copywriter writes words (generally in advertisements) to promote a person, business, opinion, idea, or communicates a product service or benefit. A copywriter also motivates the reader to action. He or she manipulates words according to a creative marketing strategy within the particular media. That media can be direct mail, web online ads, television radio commercials, billboards, brochures, sales letters, and any other marketing communications media. The copywriter usually works as part of a creative team a visual person, such as an art director.

To distinguish them from copy writers, writers often call themselves professional writers i.e. writers for professions. Professional writers tend to be very adaptable for they write for about a wide variety of topics, in a wide variety of professions, for a wide variety of readers.

Both professional writers and copywriters both work with rhetoric, the art of speaking or writing persuasively, however copywriters use an additional bag of both psychological and language tricks to get readers to act.

Professional writers give great attention to structure in their work to maintain flow. If the readership is not captive, they may use some psychology, but only to keep the reader interested.

The technical writer works on very detailed technical or specialized subjects. He or she usually (but not always) has some knowledge of the subject matter. In technical writing there is no persuasion necessary because the person reading the article is already interested in it. The professional and technical writer usually works alone.

If a writer writes an article about how television is used in the home, a copywriter might write an advertisement to sell the television, and a technical writer may write the operator's manual explaining how to use it.

 

How does a writer write for SEO?

As in all writing, the experienced SEO writer firstly ensures there is structure to the web pages. If the web site has not been already structured or defined, the writer needs to divide the content into logical parts according to product or service types. The keywords should also be classified as primary and secondary. Often this information must come from the client.

While it should be rich in the most important primary keywords, the home page and its headings should not be an overly promotional. The home page lets the reader know that he or she has landed on the right place and entices the searcher to go further into the web site. Other pages, also with succinct headings and primary keywords, should be between 300-500 words and contain other keywords.

There is a lot of competition for single keywords on the web. Unless the search words are unusual or very specific, the searcher may be exposed a large number of sites. The experienced SEO writer knows he or she must try and combine search words into meaningful 2 and 3 words search phrases. This makes the search more specific and therefore faster and more accurate. The SEO writer may also need to look for similar words to the keywords and words that are often used with the keywords.

In the body of the text, the SEO writer focuses on one or two keyword phrases for each page; rather than try and pack the page full of all keywords. The most important keywords are placed in the headings and, as much as possible, above the first “fold” (the point where the reader has to scroll up to see the rest of the page.) The first paragraph is the most important for content and keyword phrases. As in all web writing, the SEO writer writes for the reader, using the words "you" and "your" rather than "we" or "I".

While these search work considerations are important, if not vital, the SEO writer also has to have the lateral thinking necessary to find the ways to express the same subject matter with the keywords. That in fact is the SEO writer's art.

Writing for SEO is only one aspect of full website SEO. An SEO IT professional modifies or "tunes" the web site for the maximum response to search terms. Some of these IT professionals can work wonders with Google rankings. For more information on the technical side of SEO read: DIY SEO.

 

How does a copywriter make a corporate video engaging and memorable?

For audiences to remember the information in a corporate video they must be fully engaged with the content and the characters presenting it. The writer of corporate videos can maximize engagement by using the same devices that screenwriters use in dramatic films.

Engagement occurs when an audience feels they are witnessing a journey and they identify with those on the journey. The sense of journey comes from someone having a goal, and giving structure to its realization, such as a recognizable beginning, middle and end. The journey may start with an existing state of affairs that needs to be changed, enhanced or developed, and finishes with the goal realized and a new state of affairs with the ensuing changes or rewards.

In drama, the screenwriter creates clear conflicts, complications, and surprises to make the journey more difficult for the subject, but more engaging for the viewer. The dramatic writer also uses other devices such as turning points, realizations, reflections, and catalysts, to create story rhythm and keep the audience engaged. Corporate videos are, by nature, more linear and more conservative than entertainment films. However, the devices mentioned above may still be used to great effect, provided they are subtle and used discretely.

Often a “hook” launches the story in a corporate video. It grabs the audience’s attention and makes them want to watch more. The ‘hook” is usually followed with a summary statement about the content or its implication for the audience, and if possible some question.

In drama, the dramatic question is one of the most powerful devices for generating engagement. A dramatic question is created when something specific affects a person (or a product or process) and a change is necessary. The audience immediately wonders what the result would be and are immediately engaged. This is a very powerful device and is easily incorporated in corporate video scripts.

Just as the “hook” launches the story, the climax scene brings the story to a head, which is often what the audience is waiting for. This often-emotional scene answers any question/s (factual or emotional) previously suggested in the video. The climax also changes the viewer’s perception of the subject in some way.

Finally, the story rhythm changes again with a conclusion, that reflects on the climax and reinforces or provides whatever it is that the writer wants the viewers to take with them.

The corporate copywriter will also find a device or “thread” upon which to link all the information. Threads ground the viewer by introducing some logic into the way the information unfolds. The more grounded the viewer, they more they will absorb the content.

Often the most engaging storytellers for corporate videos are employees or customers. Because they are very familiar with the content, they speak with a familiarity and personal conviction which is hard (but not impossible) for an actor to reproduce. If an actor must be used, then he or she must not only look and sound like an employee or customer, but also have the manner of one. The writer can insert subtle details into a characters’ actions and dialogue to convey this.

The mood of a film is what the audience feels about the content. It too can create engagement. The writer needs to carefully create a mood that is in keeping with the client’s image, that facilitates communication of the content, and is palatable or attractive for the audience. The writer may sometimes be able to subtly shift the mood in a video, further creating story rhythm and increasing engagement.

The devices that create story rhythm are well known to dramatic screenwriters who use them often. These devices are just as relevant for corporate videos and when used well they significantly increase the engagement of the viewer, which in turn increases retention of the content.