“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

In my last post on context, I quoted Elmore Leonard: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

While I’m 96.7% sure I get what he means, I now realise I filed Leonard’s words under ‘Useful Writing Advice’ without really considering it. Something we do far too often with pithy wisdoms. Which is how less wisdomous ones get a run on.

Honestly, up until I wrote this, if you’d asked me what writing ‘sounds like’, or how you’d fix that, I’d have had a lot of trouble getting past “Umm…”.

So, just in case it’s one of those dumb questions we’ve all been secretly hoping someone would ask, I’m asking.

The line in question sums up Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, an essay he penned for The New York Times. Just a few things he “picked up along the way” as he turned out no less than 46 novels, some of which were later adapted for the screen. We’re talking the likes of Get Shorty, Be Cool and Tarantino classic, Jackie Brown. That’s street cred.

At its core, Leonard is saying that writing is an exercise in restraint; the mastery lies in knowing what to leave out. Which is why he, like most of us, revered Hemingway. Although Leonard had his complaints:

“I started out of course with Hemingway when I learned how to write. Until I realized Hemingway doesn't have a sense of humor. He never has anything funny in his stories.”

(True enough. He does take himself a little seriously.)

As applicable as Leonard’s rules are to more creative works, not showing up in your writing is, arguably, even more important for copywriters. Because we’re selling something. Usually for somebody else.

Ever noticed how catwalk models never smile? Their job is to be an elegant, personality-free coat hanger, lest they steal the limelight from the couture. Similarly, writing that likes the sound of its own voice distracts from the real star of the show; the product.

That said, there’s a balance to strike. I’m certainly not suggesting your copy be a personality-free zone. So, how do you walk that line?

Simple don’t mean stupid

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”

Ernest Hemingway may have been humourless, but he’s right. Keep your sesquipedalian words for Scrabble.

Explaining complex ideas using simple language actually makes you sound smarter. And it makes your reader walk away feeling positively Einsteinly.

Write like people talk

I’ve hung out my shingle as a conversational copywriter but, honestly, all copy should be conversational.

Grammar police can go stick it. I’m writing this for a normal person, not my year 10 English teacher. Real people will start a sentence with “and”, “but” or “because”. And they’ll even finish on a preposition if they want to.

(Check it out, the world didn’t end.)

The best advice is always going to be “read it aloud”. Better yet, have someone else read it to you. If they trip, kick the roadblocks out of the way.

Don’t lean on jokes, puns or cultural references

Not saying don’t use them, just not in every line. Humour relies on tension and puns and references are tiny mysteries. Copy that keeps you tense and demands you decode every message is exhausting. The reader will forget why they came and wander off to have a lie down.

Avoid oversplaining

There’s some classic advice from Robert Fleege: “An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove.”

This is true of any piece of copy. If you’ve clearly communicated the idea, you can trust your reader to get it. It’s fine to leave out that one last piece of the puzzle for them to slot into place. In fact, anything else is infantilising.

Make sure you have an idea

When someone hires a copywriter, they aren’t paying them to write. They’re paying them to think. It’s the ideas that matter.

If you don’t have one, you’ll find yourself ‘writing’ to plaster over the gaping hole where the idea should be. Your copy will be nothing more than a Faberge egg; all fancy and stuff on the surface, but ultimately hollow.

If you can’t work up a big idea, you’re not done thinking. You’re probably not even done researching. Big ideas demand you take a ton of data points and allow yourself enough time to find where they all intersect.

The keyword here is time.

Side rant: I’ve heard of clients saying, “It doesn’t have to be good. Just done.” I’ve also heard other copywriters utter the words “There isn’t time for a big idea. They just want some engaging copy.”

Well, make time. Take time. And clients – allow for and pay for that time. If copy without a big idea sells anything, it'll be by accident. Not my kind of odds.

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So, there you have it. Elmore Leonard demonstrates his skill by folding my 900-odd words of explanation into one stylish line. I’ve gotta learn to pack light.

There are likely other ways to make sure you let your ideas speak for themselves, but these are the obvious ones. If you think of any I haven’t mentioned, feel free to drop them in the comments.

We’re all learning here.

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