What would Kurt do?
As copywriters working in everything from shipping to pharmaceuticals, we’re always on the look-out for ideas or advice that can give us an edge when it comes to formulating hard-hitting, captivating text.
A writer – irrespective of the genre – should never rest on their laurels. You can always improve. Earlier today I came across some great words of advice from an author I greatly admired – Kurt Vonnegut.
You can read the full text here, but the one tip I’d really endorse is number three on his list – Keep It Simple! Whenever I approach a new text, I always start by trying to distil the message into a single, clear sentence before building the rest of the document around that thought.
And if I was to distil that garbled sentence into a more concise message it would probably be: Do whatever Kurt says!
May 10th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Agreed. Kurt is the perfect example of attention-grabbing simplicity. He doesn’t use an extra word, and yet the idea is so compelling that you can’t stop reading. “Cat’s Cradle” is a perfect example.
A personal note: I went to high school with his grandson - and as far as I remember, a word economy master he was not!