‘Being a good author is a disappearing act’
David Rosam on Mar 20 2006 at 6:21 pm | Filed under: The Power of Words
Crime writer Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing… is subtitled ‘Being a good author is a disappearing act’.
Read the piece. It’s good. Not good in detail about marketing writing (SEO copywriting, direct marketing or any of those things I do), but the thrust of Leonard’s article is absolutely spot on.
Why? Because 95% or more of the time the material I write for clients has no writer’s voice, and 100% of that material does not have my voice. At its best, copywriting is ego-less, transparent and doesn’t draw attention to itself - it will draw attention to the product, service or even the client, but never to itself.
It should be a painless, compelling and straightforward read, for many of the reasons Leonard applies to fiction writing.
Being a good marketing writer is also a disappearing act.
