You may think you feel nothing right now, but if I had written one of the following…

• The written word wends itself into the emotional world of even the most stoic reader (or)
• Writing is received by its recipient not only as data to be decoded, but as an emotional instigator determining her attitude toward the text (or)
• Words have an emotional valence

…you would feel something different. Differently toward me and the paragraphs that follow.

Tone tells you about a writer’s attitude, a legal team’s worries, a publication’s bent. Tone drives syntax and structure. It figures in what we like or hate because it is a proxy for personality.

Kneading the analogy: Pieces of writing—emails, blog posts, resumes, books, the content on a web app—are like little people. We raise and then push them into the world, where they interact with real people. They make real people happy, sad, angry, bored, excited or stressed out.

There’s a difference between well-written sentences that “purvey the requisite information” and those that get the point across. That difference is relatability.

I would trade a bookful of perfectly constructed sentences for a few with well-defined personalities.

In fact, back in the olden days, copy was considered so integral to the creation of a campaign that teams of people spent quality time working through words and concepts before they designed anything or chose the project’s medium.

This, at least, is the story told by ad veterans like George Lois and Phyllis K. Robinson in Doug Pray’s film, Art & Copy.

Whatever we want to call it—copywriting, the tail-end of content strategy—the writing we do should start before design. Then the copywriter and designer should work together to make the idea visual.

I definitely fist-pumped a little when Design Sponge agreed to let me write an article about project management for them.

If you’re not familiar, Design Sponge is an online magazine that showcases beautiful design—from DIY projects and tours of amazing homes, to product guides and podcasts with letterpress gurus, interior decorators, fashion designers, and more.

My favorite section is Biz Ladies, where entrepreneurs (who are ladies) from different industries give advice on how to run a biz. In my article there, I talk about project management: dealing with deadlines, handling clients, and staying calm when you’re at the helm.

Hope you like it!

But copy alone is not enough.

Every once in a while, someone comes to me wanting a copy that will “completely fix their web page.” It’s definitely an exciting proposition (maybe they’ll let me get really creative, eee!), but it’s also a scary one.

Most outstanding, well-branded websites do indeed have great copy. It’s concise, funny, human, and on-brand. But what makes these sites really great is not copy alone—it’s the interplay between the design and the copy.

Copy and Branding.

I do content strategy, so it’s in my best interest to say “content comes first!” In some cases this is absolutely true: you have to have some idea of what kinds of content will populate your website before you build it, after all. But it isn’t true all the time.

When I wrote Second and Park I didn’t just do a bunch of research, write copy, decide where it should go, devise a page layout, and then have my designer implement it. The process was much more fluid, collaborative, and (dare I say it) “organic” than that.

Preparing to write copy is like preparing a marketing strategy document: the copywriter has to figure out who you are, where you want your business to go, etc. Copy is part of brand strategy.

Your copy should, therefore, harmonize with the cornerstone of your brand—your design. It should look good with your colors and match your design elements. Good copy is like the vintage Sperry Top-siders you bought to go with your striped wool leggings. It’s both necessary and accessory to the whole getup.

Write for Design.

Take my website as an example. How much would you like the copy if it were set in a different font, didn’t have the image of me looking through the hedges, or if we’d omitted the project manager monster? It would do it’s job (be clear, human, simple, etc), but it wouldn’t be compelling.

And how effective would the calls to action and services descriptions be if they’d been aligned or placed differently? They’d do their job but, again, wouldn’t be nearly as powerful.

The best web copy I’ve seen is very visual and, like the design itself, extends the metaphor and personality of your brand.

My point?

Be sure your copywriter has a good sense of your brand—and the opportunity, when possible, to look at a few comps, pictures, moodboards, wireframes—before you trust her or him to revolutionize your website. Your outfit will match better that way.

I keep going back to his famous essay, Politics and the English Language, every time I need solid writing advice. In the article he talks about what bad writing is (unclear), where it comes from (lack of thought, effort, or training at best; insincerity at worst), and how to fix it (work harder).

Below are his main points: 63 years old and relevant as ever.

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never us a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Common sense says that to be good writer, you just need to write—constantly. Good advice, but when it comes to publishing, it’s not smart to put every little thing you eek out on the web as a way of meeting your editorial or content strategy, or generating traffic.

The best writing comes when you’re actually interested in and committed to what you’re about to say.

Here’s an outtake from Zeldman’s post, pertinent especially for bloggers and non-staff writers:

You are not writing for Amazon, or to fit a staff proofreader’s vacation schedule, as important and real as those considerations may be. You are writing for readers, a duty as sacred, in its way, as parenting. If you don’t believe the previous sentence, if you think writing is mainly about getting paid, I’m sorry you wasted your time reading this page, and I hope you find another way to earn a living soon. The world is already choking on half-considered, squeezed-out shit. There’s no need to add to the pile.

What’s new?

* **Bye bye landing page**. We scrapped the temporary landing page, save for the basic color scheme and identity.
* **A real, live website**. After gathering some feedback from friends and accomplices, we fleshed out the site, making it easier to 1) understand what I do, 2) find the important stuff (like my blog, my twitter feed, and contact form), 3) learn more about me, and 4) see how I write.
* **Tone**. I went for a crisp, relaxed, and direct tone.
* **Targeting**. I like to work with agencies (check the agency page), so we adjusted the writing and layout of the site accordingly. We also created stronger messaging and callouts to clarify what I offer.
* **Design Collaboration**. Because Matt at [thingsthatarebrown](http://thingsthatarebrown.com) (the designer) and I worked collaboratively, we were able to “design” the writing as much as the look and feel of the of the site.

We feel good about it. We’re gonna let the site settle for a while, but please–if you’ve got suggestions we’d love to hear’em. Also, you can learn about the process Matt used on the redesign over at the the Brown Blog.

Web Writing

• Letting Go of the Words, by Ginny Redish
• Killer Web Content, by Gerry McGovern
• Content Strategy for the Web, by Kristina Halvorson

Copywriting

• The Copywriter’s Handbook, by Robert Bly
• Copyblogger, a blog full of copywriting tips
• Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy

Writing in General

• On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
• Reading Like a Writer…, by Francine Prose

Grammar

• The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White
• Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, by Mignon Fogarty
• When you Catch an Adjective, Kill It, by Ben Yagoda

Pump it!

I think this advice applies all kinds of story-telling–even writing for your website.

When I was a kid I had one of these Hot Wheels devices designed to look like a little gas station. Inside the gas station were two spinning rubber wheels. One’s little car would weakly approach the gas station, then be sent forth by the spinning rubber wheels to take another lap around the track, or more often, fly out and hit one’s sister in the face.

A story can be thought of as a series of these little gas stations. The main point is to get the reader around the track; that is, to the end of the story. Any other pleasures a story may offer (theme, character, moral uplift) are dependent on this…

So if the writer can put together enough gas stations, of sufficient power, distributed at just the right places around the track, he wins: the reader works his way through the full execution of the pattern, and is ready to receive the end of the story.