Natalia M. Sylvester

One of my first jobs was at a magazine that basically had a typo for a name. Of course, it was done on purpose, you know..because it was so clever.

So clever, that at a meeting with a potential client last week, I was asked if that was a typo on my resume.

This happened a lot while I worked at the magazine. I usually had to spell out the name mind numbingly slow (a as in apple, n as in Nancy, for ten whole letters) every time I gave out my email address.

And the thing is, half the time people didn’t get the play on words the magazine was going for. The other half would hesistantly ask, “You know that’s not how it’s really spelled, right?” So then we’d have to explain it to them, and they’d just nod and smile.

The thing with good writing is that it’s like a joke—if you have to repeat it and explain why it’s good, it’s really not that good. Writing shouldn’t need to be read twice (though people should want to), shouldn’t need to be analyzed over and over to find meaning. The message needs to hit a reader the second their eyes register the words, because they won’t often give it more time than that.

Now I know it’s true that being clever is often what will catch a reader’s attention. I’ll never knock clever. Some of my favorite writing is witty and funny and sarcastic in all the right places. But it has to serve the message first.

Otherwise you’ve just got a bad joke (in print!). And you’ll find yourself wishing you could put an asterisk at the bottom of your resume—

*To whom it may concern: I realize that this word is misspelled, but I assure you that it was done on purpose, and, more importantly, I was not in any way involved with that decision.

Here’s a great, quick exercise in evaluating your marketing efforts to make sure they’re paying off. At a networking event I recently attended, Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting asked everyone to write down their Top 5 Clients. Then write down how you got those clients.

Was it through a networking event? A simple Google search leading to your website? Maybe it was through social media or a client referral? Chances are, it’s a mixture of all these things, but if there’s a pattern, that’s something to think about.

For me, two of my biggest clients I met at networking events, two I got through word of mouth, and another I got through my Freelance Marketplace listing on Mediabistro.

Which reinforces two things: networking pays off, and so does nurturing the business relationships you’ve already got. Now I know that when it’s time to ramp up my marketing efforts (and when isn’t it?), I can focus on the things that have worked best for me.

It’s not a bad idea to do this exercise every couple of months, to stay on top of what strategy is most effective, and let go of ones that just aren’t working. You might be surprised what you learn.

It’s funny the random things we learn from. Last night, while watching supplements for the first Harry Potter movie (I think I’m one of the few who watch supplements, thanks to my film-loving husband), one of the writers said something that got me thinking. While adapting the book to a screenplay, he was impressed by the wealth of information J.K. Rowlings had about the world she’d created. He said that the book was like a tree that only those above the ground got to see, while Rowlings knew every detail of every root.

What a great way to describe the relationship between research and writing of any capacity. After all, you’ll never get a tree without the roots. And, even though they’re essential to a tree’s growth, the majority of roots stay underground, where no one would ever suspect how far down they reach, or how much they ground the tree. My first thought was that this is how crafting a character works in fiction—authors should know details about their lives that readers might not ever learn, but they’re the details that shape them.

But then I realized everything we ever write starts with a seed (an idea) before it spreads its roots (the research) and then branches out into a tree (the writing). Read the rest of this entry »