Damn Your Eyes, Anna: Let the Dead Rest In Peace

Damn Your Eyes, Anna: Let the Dead Rest In Peace

Watching Anna Paquin cavort with various types of undead in “True Blood” gives us a shiver of guilty pleasure as much as anyone, but her misadventures show us there are times where everyone should keep their pants on and let the dead moulder in their graves.

I think writers face a similar quandary when facing dead space in marketing materials. It can be a real joy to take a lifeless piece of paper or nascent website and fill it full of words, glorious words.  But at what cost? Fooling around with the dead often leads Ms. Paquin to a love triangle, square or dodecahedron (I’m behind by a season, so I don’t know how many undead lovers she currently claims.) WRITERS fooling with dead space often leads to long-winded, pompous copy and – yes, this is coming from a writer – too much text.

It’s all too easy to forget that the overall goal isn’t to fill your website with copy or have enough words to fill a brochure. The goal is to SELL, to PERSUADE, to INSPIRE ACTION. If that takes just 50 words, that’s just fine. In fact, it’s great! I’m convinced it is more difficult (and arguably more important) to know when to STOP saying anything as it is know what to say.

Do you find yourself struggling to fill space in your marketing materials? If so, remember that you can always reduce the size of your materials, use graphics to support your position, or (better still) hire a capable marketing professional who can help you craft a powerful message that gets the job done.

Keeping with the undead theme, a friend sent us this great NY Times blog post about nominalizations – another sign you’re simply trying to hard in your copy. Enjoy: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/zombie-nouns/?src=me&ref=general