Ok, so this is a little bit of a cheat. I didn’t do much new writing in the book last night, and chose to spend my livestream time to do a little formating cleanup instead. Rather than not post something from the book today, I’m posting something the introduction to the book I wrote something like 70 livestreams ago. -dp
“I am not a fiction writer.”
A long time ago, at the very start of my copywriting career, I worked at a certain ad agency in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not that hard to figure out which one (just look on LinkedIn), but for let’s maintain the fig leaf of anonymity for a moment. Where I worked in not important. What I learned there is.
It all started one ordinary day when I received a creative brief for a print ad. A creative brief is a a multi-page document, labored over by an earnest, diligent account manager that has worked out what the details of a given project with the client. And in general, the creative brief is something frequently ignored by the Creatives assigned to the project.
I, as the designated copywriter, did exactly that: ignore the vast majority of the creative brief, but focused with hawk-like intensity on the copy points it contained. Again, for those fortunate enough never to have cracked the seal on a creative brief, copy points were the ‘rubber hits the road’ facts, specifications, and messages the client wished to convey via the selected advertising channel.
And in this case, the copy points were very terse, simple—and unsatisfactory.
“Write some stuff.”
That’s the only copy point I saw. And I was pissed.
So I grabbed my copy of the creative brief, marched down the hall to the moron, err… account manager who scribbled the brief to have a….conversation about the brief’s lack of specificity and clarity.
The first words out of my mouth: “Dude, what that @#$% is this?” They were immediately followed by the words making up the title of this section of the book. Why? Because when it comes to writing advertising and marketing copy, I have absolutely no problem with buffing a turd to a high sheen. But said turd needs to be based on an inalterable foundation: the truth.
Cutting to the chase, everything turned out fine. I did indeed ‘write some stuff.’ The client signed off on the ad with no great problem or concern. And all were happy. Except me.
“I am not a fiction writer.” That’s not to say I couldn’t write fiction, if I wanted (which thank the stars you do not have to be exposed to), but if I’m writing ad copy, it’s got to at least have a whiff of truth about it. But this incident really got me thinking—for something like 22 years.
If I’m not a fiction writer, what am I?
That’s a good question, one worth a couple of decades of pondering. And so I have. What I realized is that I am, in fact, a non-fiction writer.
But my internal realization didn’t stop there. It began extending itself to the larger topic of branding, eventually leading to the writing of the book you’re holding right now. If] learned one thing over my career that I will take to my grave, and scream out all the way there: Branding is all about simplicity. And simplicity is hard.
Ah, but worry not, gentle brander. I’m going to walk you through this thicket of complexity, sharing what little I’ve learned over the years in such away that you’ll fling this book down when finished and yell, “Well, that’s pretty darn obvious!” because that’s the way truth works. Initially obscure, then immediately recognizable when illuminated even by the weakest of light sources. That’s the way non-fiction works—and the way NonFiction Branding does too.
…and there’s much more to come.
BOOKWARD BOUND / Daily Build is just what it says: the writing I did today in order to get my book a little bit closer to its publication. Posted the next day, it is presented here exactly as written and complete with all the misspellings and grammatical errors you’d expect of a rough draft. Don’t worry, it’ll be edited later. The above was written during a livestream video of BOOKWARD BOUND that you can find on my YouTube BOOKWARD BOUND playlist any time you’d like. – DP Knudten
@2020 DP Knudten LLC – all rights reserved.
