The trick is not becoming a writer.
The trick is staying a writer.

- Harlan Ellison, in the movie Dreams with Sharp Teeth.

I spotted that quote in this superb review of the movie.

Not because the entire film and TV industry in Hollywood has ground to a halt, and not because writers are striking instead of doing the work they love…

…but because they’re communicating their message in such entertaining ways.

Like this, and this.

Picketing doesn’t make much of a difference. Until the Producers get transparent and tell the same story to writers as to their shareholders, there’s no way forward. Without trust, further negotiations are pointless.

But in the meantime, at least there’s some entertaining viewing on hand.

I managed to score an invite to Seesmic, and recorded a video about why online video only makes what we do so much more important. Here it is:
This post is brought to you by the letters W G and A. Power to the writers!

Update: Shel Israel is thinking along the same lines.

It’s primarily for subcontractor writers to SimonYoungWriters, but also open to any experienced or aspiring writers. The idea is to make a place where writers can learn from each other – and sometimes we learn the most when we teach others. Already we have a search engine optimisationiser, a journalist, an ad creative and a religious entrepreneur! Sound like fun? It’s going to be!

Working contact email address. D’OH!

Sincere apologies to the seven people who have emailed hi [at] simonyoungwriters.com … the email address is now plugged in and working, and there is a real live person (me!) at the other end.

Sorry about that. Normal programming will now resume

But seriously, it’s never been easier to be under construction. The web makes communication much easier but there’s one thing that hasn’t yet been automated. That’s the ability to write well. It’s becoming a precious resource, although its value is not well recognised, as these alarming figures point out.

At SimonYoungWriters, we have three goals:

1. To give clients great writing
2.  To help writers connect with their passion and each other
3. To raise the awareness of how valuable good writing is

Those are all pretty big tasks, and we won’t do it alone. The next step – which is incredibly simple today – is finding like-minded people. Are you one? Leave a comment or contact us directly.

When you do stuff that breaks the mould of traditional thinking, it can be kind of difficult to describe.

That’s why Jake Pearce turned to SimonYoungWriters to put his powerful ideas into words that connected with his target audience.

“Having the right words not only helped get the website right, it clarified my thinking,” said Jake.

See the results for yourself. And contact us to see if we can help turn your ideas into powerful words.

(Read more success stories here)

Great to be part of the Engaging Brand Community, and I’m so glad we got this site up and running in time for the podcast being released.

Business 2.0 agrees with me:

The strategic marketing effect of IBM’s narrative-cum-humanistic techniques, Berndt says, is to show consumers that Big Blue — on some basic human level — understands their problems. “I don’t think CEOs or the guys leading the IT departments want to see an ad specifically about supply chain management,” he says. “They want something they can identify with that’s humanistic, funny, and witty. They want to see that IBM gets it.”

There’s a lot more in the full article. Thanks to Stuart for passing this info to me.

It’s brilliant. While most books on branding focus either on the visual aspect or the overall business aspect of branding, The Invisible Grail looks at the power of words to communicate a brand’s values and personalities.

Thankfully, John Simmons practices what he preaches, making this business textbook an easier-than-usual read. (I’ve read some business books where you end up reading the same paragraph three times… grrr!)

The book’s message is summed up in a pyramid diagram, looking at the stages of relationship achieved by writing alone.

At the bottom we have plain language – which should be a prerequisite in business but often isn’t. Being understood. Conveying trustworthiness.

But then a brand needs to stand apart from its fellows. So the language starts to show why this brand is authoritative and worthy of respect.

Stage three – the top of the pyramid – is what the book is all about: being likeable. “Here we encourage the brand to have fun with language,” says Simmons.

He then goes on to show just how fun language can be. Like Innocent, a British company that makes all-natural smoothies and adds character to every piece of marketing materials – right down the ingredients label!

The Invisible Grail also looks at the art of storytelling. Tell your story well, and you’ll build a bridge of affinity with your customers better than any CRM software.

Good quote here:

“Stories provide us with a means to understand the world better and to understand the personal role we can play in it. A story is not written about you but for you. Each one of us reads something of our own story in any story written about someone else.”

As well as being a pretty good marketing textbook, The Invisible Grail gets pretty deep and talks about sociology, cultures, art, poetry, and stuff like that. Stuff business people don’t usually take to work. Very interesting, even the bits I disagree with.

The Invisible Grail is a very helpful book, as well as an interesting read. Get it. You’ll enjoy it.