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theup
971157171704430920
971157171704430920
TWEET | SPIT
Form in writing — essay, novel, poem, tweet— shapes thought so it aligns with its function to engage a reader. A tweet, as a form, is a mouthful, more or less one breath. Its forum, the twitterverse, is anyone on twitter. A tweet’s function is to gain a following through commenting. A tweet, with its 140 character limit and unfiltered … Read More
TO MY MOTHER, IN GRIEF & LOVE
Gwendolyn Carson (nee Martindale) June 19, 1926 – March 2, 2017 Dear Mum, Mum, you surely know, in dad’s eyes, and in his heart still, you are the beautiful young woman he married years ago. Many of us here know, all too well, marriage is not easy. But, through your years together, you both worked … Read More
THE CRAFT IN ALL ITS ELEMENTS
Rushed sloppy writing abounds in the current communications landscape. The cycling-process nature of the internet has increased demand for new information and near constant updates — exacerbating what was already a post-or-lose mentality. For some uses, sweating the small stuff is a self-defeating exercise but, as a proponent of good writing, reviewing the fundamentals of the craft is both heartening and instructive. With Thomas … Read More
THOMAS LUX: AMERICAN POET (1946-2017)
An Ode to the Unbroken World, which is coming Thomas Lux (1946-2017) It must be coming, mustn’t it? Churches and saloons are filled with decent humans. A mother wants to feed her daughter, fathers to buy their children things that break. People laugh, all over the world, people laugh. We were born to laugh, and we … Read More
11 TIPS FOR DIY COPY
1 Fresh Eyes Are Your Friend 2 Research… everything flows from your value/benefits proposition 3 Tell your story: Who, What, Where, When, Why & how. 4 Characterize the problem or need 5 Empathize with your reader 6 Anticipate your reader’s questions. Provide answers. Offer solutions 7 … Read More
WHAT’S IN A NAME
“…that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet” Romeo and Juliette. Our present day Branding metrics suggests a lot is in a name. The more pertinent question might be asked: What’s a thing but in some measure its name and our perception of it? Upfit, the name of my company, doesn’t seem like a … Read More
CONVERSATIONAL STYLE
Even major corporations are abandoning the use of businessy-bland style copy of yesteryear that used to inspire consumer confidence. The word inspires no longer inspires. Never mind the fine print, no one reads the large print… scanning is the new reading. Influenced by social media, “conversational style” is more than the mere use of informal language — … Read More
MESSAGE & MOBILE
Everyone is walking around with a smart phone point-of-sale delivery device in hand with instant access to goods and services from around the globe. Everyone is also jumping into ecommerce. In theory, an online business is a fingertip away from a sale a gazillion times a day. But, attracting eyeballs and sustaining interest in an increasingly noisy digital environment … Read More