Copywriting With Borders
It’s strange how you begin to appreciate the finer things in life when a lot of the freedoms you are used are stripped away by conventions. I’m speaking of course of creative writing within the confines of a specific number of characters. Working in content development and creative writing has really tought me to wear a couple of different hats at all times. On one hand I’ve got to look at things like SEO, find ability, ease of read and the scan ability with pretty much everything. Rope all of that in with a low character limit and you might be able to understand why I’m trying to adjust my own vocabulary to include nothing but 2-syllable words of late.
On the other hand I’ve got a sense of creative pride and integrity that will stop at nothing to write most creative and engaging piece of copy anyone will ever read (alright, maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but I’ve got lofty goals just like anyone else). I want to generate interest on an intellectual level for niche audiences that stay with readers / viewers at all times. This of course hardly ever takes anything else into account and I’ve appropriately named this stage of the interactive writing process as “The Selfish Draft Stage.” Basically what I mean is I create the most engaging version of what I want to write first. Sometimes it’s as short as a paragraph, while other times I go on to write a 500 dissertation about the ideals of what a campaign can accomplish (again, lofty goals 
). Once that’s all sorted out I put on my lumberjack plaid shirt and just start hacking.
I strip away everything that doesn’t necessarily draw the attention of the masses. Then I strip away more, and more and more. Finally by the end I’ve got something I’m happy with presenting, but its really just a shell of what I had originally written. But why do I do this? Why do I strip and hack away the wonderful supportive words that keep me at bay? Because the creative brief always says, “Be as unique as possible, draw in as much attention as you can, don’t hold back. Please keep in mind that each line can be no longer than 45 characters with spaces.” It’s like reading the fine print – the tiny bit of extremely important information that is spoken of matter-of-fact-ly. It’s rough sometimes, but it has to be done and by the end of the project I’m usually drained of most brain matter.
K, I’m gonna get back to writing some amazingly engaging content that prompts readers to want to know more, interact and eventually spend money in some capacity – all within 45 characters including spaces…