Ad Writing Adrenaline

Painstaking research has taught me that staring at a blinking cursor for hours at a time gives you a headache, causes heavybutt, leaves you wanting to change professions and makes you want to drink and/or cry.

Sometimes, you just need a start – a line or lines that may not even make the final but get your writer’s blood flowing.

Here are three quick, simple tools I’ve used a million times to jumpstart my circulatory system:

1. Choose a Different Filter

The once-and-future Chris Maddock taught me this a few years back to not only get me unstuck but also to provide a different angle when necessary.

If John Cusack were writing your ad, how would it sound?

If William Faulkner were writing your ad, how would it sound? How about Ernest Hemingway?

What if that Randy guy from American Idol were writing? What about Ellen?

Pick a person or character with whom you’re easily and accessibly familiar – write through his or her lens. Then, pick someone else.

Another way to think about this – say you’re writing an ad for a car wash, write the ad from the perspective of your car.

Give your script a different voice than your own. Once you fictionalize it, you tend to get out of its way.

2. Write to the Rhythms

In honor of Seuss’ birthday yesterday …

Throw on some headphones, put one musical track on repeat. Write to the mood and pace of the music.

Just start writing – get your left-brain out of the way. Let your fingers move with the music.

Keep doing it with the music on repeat for five minutes before really looking at what you wrote. I promise you there’s at least one line on your page(s) that makes the final.

This works well when kinda-sorta marrying it with the first tip. First, try a piece of classical music, then jazz, then something hard and fast. Variation is the spice.

Need to write for a quiet place? Try something loud. Need to write a for a bangin’ nightclub? Try something soft and smokey.

Those of you with access to broadcast production music libraries have it extra easy because you’ve get ready-access to volumes of instrumental tracks. Use them. You’ll be done in no time.

3. Just Pick One

Go upstairs real quick and pick a book at random off your shelf. I’ll wait.

Okay, you happened to pick The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Now turn to any page. You choose page 129.

Excellent. Now – go to the fourth paragraph and type the first line into your word processor:

“I decided that I couldn’t go home again.”

No matter your client, couldn’t that line open your ad? Just write around that opening line. Make it bridge to your benefit. Find your way home.

It’s important to remember …

Again, it’s important to remember that what comes as a result of these jump-starts may or may not make the final. Each is only intended to jar your brain loose from its stasis.

Try them. They work. But, if rash develops, please discontinue use.

Oh, and P.S. – Good writing gets much easier when you commit – really commit – to good reading.

These tips are part of The Ad-Writer’s 18-Pack – a presentation and/or workshop Tim Miles has given to people across North America who want to write more powerfully.