The summer holidays are coming to an end. Your office will soon be full (once more) of staff and volunteers doing their utmost to make your charity the best it can be. For those with end of years in April, that annual report needs to be written so that accounts can be approved. Fundraisers work continuously – forever writing bids, thank yous (after begging letters), reports – words after words that matter. Then there are meeting minutes to write and respond to, alongside replying to the 100+ emails we all get daily (or instigate …), presentations to produce, social media to contribute to …. If only ….

 

If only we could all go to our nearest train station, find a pillar of brick and run head-first into it, to be transported to a Nirvana of writing perfection. After all, it soon will be the Autumn and students start school then, whether it is in the Highlands of somewhere like Scotland – or say a local college – to be taught in a castle or a room where the neon lights flicker too much and we've gone straight from work so we need to eat to get rid of a headache.

 

Well actually, over the past week or so, the Internet has been giving free lessons on writing, and the quality has been rather good (in my personal opinion).

 

You call over to your boss and say 'I've found the right place to write everything you want me to, in lots of different styles but with story-telling to the fore'.

 

They ask where this is.

 

You reply – 'There is a cafe round the corner. I have a special table and a wonderful old chair to sit in. Its the perfect place for inspiration.'

 

They reply 'Sounds like you're the next RK whatever her name is – she just got lucky. I have a training budget and it doesn't run to children's fiction.'

 

You are all so busy that training days (or just hours) are the 'jolly' you look forward to, as long as its not something horrendous like The Dark Arts of Health and Safety, so doing something off your 'own back' just isn't possible. You just don't have time.

 

Enough of the puns and legal ambush marketing (of a sort). If I haven't grabbed your attention yet, or created antipathy that is dripping off your office walls (from those who must be obeyed – let's have another go), then as a writer I've not done well. Writing this blog post is exposing my talent (or lack of it) to all of you who read this. I do my best, for my clients, but I know that I can/should/must get better.

 

Why? Because the competition is growing exponentially, day after day. There is less and less grant funding. There are more and more social media channels used badly far more often than brilliantly. There are fewer and fewer chances to write a press release or just a one-pager that a local councillor will read and respond to. If you want to have more Direct Giving (which we all should), you have to compete with the 'Giants' all through this Autumn, then hope that when it comes to Christmas and the New Year, you might just get lucky.

 

I've cemented the idea that I'm an idiot in some of your heads. JK Rowling has nothing to do with the writing needs of our sector. Our sector needs specialists to write funding bids. We have to be completely transparent and structured in our reporting … etc etc.

 

Well I've just pulled out my concrete chisel.

 

If you've got this far, or if you've re-read this after being prompted by someone else who has read the whole post and made a recommendation, you were enticed by the brand that is JK Rowling and the product that she produced. You may have read or given the books to young children, have sat in a cinema and shuddered at the young vocal reaction to key scenes across eight films, or, and you may have to admit this for the first time, you've sat with a fellow adult and watched each and every film as recently shown on TV. And inwardly cried or cheered (incredibly bad English but there for an effect).

 

You, me, we've all been hooked by not just one story but many intertwined plot lines and character developments that have made the heroine of this post a very very (very) wealthy woman. The books are not Shakespeare, or Wordsworth. They were children's literature written by someone in her mid 20s (the first germ of the idea) who then over 17 years produced a product that has reached everywhere and every age.

 

When the films were produced, JK Rowling retained an incredible amount of editorial control, to the extent that the movies are very close to the books. She has retained and further developed the fan base (and therefore the longevity of the product) through use of social media, then other individual projects.

 

So, maybe not with the best writing the world has ever seen, an author has produced and controlled the development of something much wider than just books, something that matters to many many people, crafting stories that resonate … and remunerate, and continue to do so.

 

You can micro develop every bit of writing that your charity does. You can go beyond the catch phrases that you have to write for some funding bids. You can all be story-tellers. You won't get to overnight stardom but then again JK Rowling took 17 years to produce seven books. You don't have that long though.

 

So what and where is this free advice and tuition?

 

From the Business to Community web site you can find two features. One is 'Every Smart Business Person Should Learn to Write Well'. It's actually based on a memo from David Ogilvy, widely considered the father of advertising, a memo which is 10 tips for writing well. It takes about 3-4 minutes to read the post.

 

The second feature is '5 Writing Tricks That Will Keep Readers With Short Attention Spans Interested' by Heather K Morgan (no relation!). Again 3-4 minutes of a read and an article I've obviously completely ignored as I am now writing word 1054 of this post.

 

I really like both articles.

 

A bit more substantial (45 minutes of webinar that is now on YouTube) is 'The ABCs of Persuasive Copy' by Nancy Harhut. This is an A-Z run through (A is for Apple through to Z is for Zebra etc) of everything you need to know about writing, and from my perspective there were no dodgy letter references.

 

Now to the denouement of this story. Marketing Profs is a free to join on-line community that produces daily newsletters which refer you directly to their blog, a web site which day on day publicises excellent content about all things marketing (and quite a lot of management advice and research as well).

 

When I say 'free', to join the basic services you have to give up some contact details (to receive the newsletter). This is all really relationship marketing, building your trust with the best advice they can find so that you will consider the 'Pro' version – a subscription service allowing access to a huge library of webinars, e-books, white-papers, guides etc that really will make you a marketing expert – or that you will come along to one of their physical conferences (for a fee), or attend a series of master-class workshops. Then there are regular free virtual conferences such as the one held two weeks ago entitled 'Marketing Writing'.

 

On the day, there were three presentations held over a period of three hours but now on-demand, until November 10th 2017, you can watch the presentations at your leisure, a total of just over 90 minutes viewing. One is called 'One Page Says It All' and is just that, lots of advice about that key document for all that we do.

 

The middle presentation was about 'Writing for SEO: How to Get Out of the SEO Weeds and Give Customers (and Google) What They Want'

 

The key-note was by Eric Deckers, a presentation called 'A Novel (Writing) Approach to Content Marketing'. I would thoroughly recommend it. It's lots of clues and ideas about how story-telling works.

 

There are UK Versions of Marketing Profs, and other 'global' competitors. They all have pretty similar costs (if you decide to use these extra services).

 

So, a total of around 150 minutes to turn you into the next … the next you! You won't become a brilliant writer overnight. You may have brand guidelines and policies to work to so that creativity is limited. These need to be revised. What you will find – in each of the four bits of content – is some sound advice about the 'detail' that will make the words you produce more effective.

 

Just as Harry Potter intertwines stories and context with mythology and values, so your printed words need to do the same with what is on your web site and social media. The digital world has to be a full member of your communications family. There should be little repetition because of your story is going to work, you are going to take people on a journey, whether they be clients or supporters.

 

Whilst these are four examples of free writing advice that all came along at the same time, if you could see my inbox, you'd be shocked at how many companies are trying to give me advice on holiday shopping (Christmas). This is because Christmas is a campaign. What 2017 has been more consistently about is looking at, understanding then mapping Customer Journeys.

 

When you want to look at Impact Measurement, knowing these journeys inside and out is extremely valuable. When you look at what GDPR means, to measure impact you need data and what you know you'll now be completely responsible for.

 

The Customer Journey shows all the signs of being a technique that many will embrace and find invaluable; not the 'trend' (or even the fad) of say Employee Advocacy that was pushed (heavily) for the first six months of 2017. In terms of story-telling, mapping a journey is very different than 'cajoling' more people to shout louder.

 

This isn't examples of regulated on-line courses so getting 'Boss Buy In' will be more difficult. It is advice coming from the Commercial Sector (so again far less chance of BBI) but if you do watch the 'Novel Writing' presentation, you'll be reminded of the adage that there are only a couple of handfuls of actual stories (formats) and story-tellers just adapt one of the formats and insert character names to create their own version. You can take some 'commercial' advice and swap words for those we use – to produce support we can and need to use. Getting BBI needs to perhaps start with one of your team (even if its tiny!) doing a trial and then reporting back. Some people don't believe in magic.

 

Good luck! May the Force be with your Wand …. I really hope my own writing has at least been respectable … that you've enjoyed this post!