Occam’s Razor is a principle from philosophy which can be applied to writing – all writing, including your first most important story. In Latin Occam’s Razor is sometimes called lex parsimoniae, or “the law of briefness”. This Latin roughly translates as “more things should not be use than are necessary.” For example, if there’s two … Continue reading Applying Occam’s Razor to your writing
Category Archives: one central truth
The truth won’t kill your business, but a non-truth my well push it down that path. Having a value proposition which doesn’t resonate with who you are, or who people think you are is extremely counterproductive. You’re not only trying to fool your customers, you’re trying to fool yourself. As an example, for a few … Continue reading Why you should tell the truth when naming your baby
Adding more words to a message is easy. It usually adds up to simply being more noise. The ability to remove unnecessary, extraneous words, which add nothing to a narrative, is the main trick we need in our writing. What we leave out, the stuff that’s superfluous to the story, is how we demonstrate clarity … Continue reading Musicians play the notes, maestros play the pauses
The goal of any story is to have a reader, view or listener get the point…quickly and easily. It doesn’t matter whether the story is the reason why we’re late for a meeting or the moral behind an Aesop Fable. Someone is telling someone else what happened. The core idea of your said or read … Continue reading Why One Central Truth is vital for your key message
Unless you’re a psychopath it’s very likely you carry some ‘imposter syndrome’ on at least one of your shoulders. We all live with the secret fear one day we’ll be exposed as not so clever or competent as we pretend to be. The weight of our (self-imposed) expectations of ourselves forces us to be complicated. … Continue reading Why we’re afraid to be simple
Describing ‘who’ you are means unearthing your ‘what and why’ Telling someone you’re a lawyer or dentist tells me a little bit about your business. It is who, with a very small ‘w’. Such a generic description doesn’t reveal your heart and soul however. Using a broad descriptor for your who doesn’t provide an opportunity … Continue reading Finding ‘who’ means unearthing your ‘what and why’
The new, improved (irony intended) Metlink bus service relaunched in Wellington in early July. With it they gave us a new slogan come value proposition. “On our way”. At first blush it is OK. But, if it is their customers, including me quite often, who are the important people – the addition of one simple … Continue reading One letter change’s Metlink’s value proposition
The start of your website story is directly equivalent to a headline. And while the first words a stranger reads may not be news as such, this is how we should treat them for a visitor. It is the statement that encourages them (or not) to find out more. It is the encapsulating summary of … Continue reading It’s a headline…shouldering lots of heavy lifting
So, if you’re looking to create your first, most important story, how do you go about it? Or, you’re looking for the name of a project or report, what process should you use? Alternatively, you’re wanting to give yourself a dynamic campaign title, and need a way to nail the caption. Many people adopt a … Continue reading Brainstorming is the wrong answer to the right question
What makes a slogan, tagline or value proposition valuable? Simple…it only requires two components. Those two are – what makes you distinctive and what makes you desirable? It needs to be as succinct and poetic as possible, expressing why you’re just that little bit special, in words which are novel yet familiar. And if you … Continue reading Your value proposition only needs two things