Like all talents, we assume that “being a good writer” is something gifted to few people. But I believe most of us are just a few tricks away from being much better at this skill.
First, we need to understand why bad writing happens:
Millions of teachers tell us how to be better with words, but very few address why we end up in the impossible writing trap to begin with.
It starts when your two brains can’t get along.Your left brain is the keeper of logic and details, while your right brain is always trying to stray off the beaten path and look for a new adventure, pattern, or story to follow.
According to Dr. R. Joseph in his book The Right Brain and the Unconscious:
“The creative process is perhaps made possible, at least in part, by the interpretation and guesswork that occur when the two different brains and regions of the mind tackle the same problem and then try to communicate with each other.”
When you are forced to write, the logical, detailed left side of your brain is naturally dominant because that’s where language lives. But the emotions, inflection, and adventure of entertainment live in the rightbrain!
In other words, writing becomes boring when you let your left brain be too descriptive, and you leave no pattern-connecting-candy for your audience’s right brain to find. When both sides of the brain aren’t satisfied, your audience loses interest.
This begins to explain why good storiesare more persuasive than facts.
If you feel your ads, emails, or social posts aren’t creative, or entertaining enough, that’s probably because you’re focusing too much on being accurate, describing the product, event or feature with too much face-value detail, and not enough provoking curiosity.
Fight the urge to steal all of the right brain’s candy. If you don’t, your stuff becomes the bland, spoon-fed oatmeal that your audience can see coming, like a bad sitcom, predictable country song, or over-preached sermon.
Remember, you never want them to see it coming!
Monday on Maven Monday I will share a list of tactics I’ve been working on that I believe ANYONE can use to immensely improve the entertainment level of ads, emails, and social media copy.
Until then, be aware of the bossy-big-kid of your left brain constantly punishing the curious toddler that is your right brain!
Have fun. Laugh while you write.
It’s really good for you.
Cheers,
BW
