Thirty six rules to write with

This month I turned 36. To celebrate, I distilled everything I've learned about writing into these 36 points.

(Don't worry, I also celebrated with a dinner out like a normal person.)

1. Writers write. There's really no way around putting the work in.
2. Everyone and everything is inherently interesting.
3. Nobody’s reading your copy for the sake of it. You've got to deliver useful, relevant information.?
4. Your?brand should only be the loudest voice in the room if it owns the room. (And often not even then.)
5. Garbage in, garbage out.
6. If you try to smash out a project without all the necessary information to hand, it will drag on indefinitely.
7. Start with "What do you want these comms to accomplish?" Not with "What does my organisation want to say?"?
8. Process and distribution will eat creativity and quality for lunch.
9. Sign-off and revisions are the most time-consuming part of any copy project.
10. Accepting some inefficiency within a quality-driven production process is better than total efficiency and a volume-driven process.?
11. Your deadline is your responsibility. Nobody else will respect it.?
12. Recycling and repurposing is a totally legitimate strategy as long as you’re doing it with both eyes open.?
13. Take people on the journey with you. That means readers and internal stakeholders.
14. You have to commit to the bit. Don’t muck about trying to please everyone.
15. Misspelling a name is a quick way to make an enemy.
16. Everyone believes the way their name is styled and/or spelled is the only true way. They won't usually bother to elaborate on the specifics. Ask every time.
17. You have to ask the questions upfront when you’re interviewing. Yes, ALL the questions, even that scary one. You'll just have to go back and ask it later if you don't.
18. Explain as much as you concisely can. You can't just drop a fact and then walk away.
19. If an element of your?article isn't contributing to the task of building meaning, it needs to go.
20. The longer your article is, the fewer people will read it.
21. Most readers only skim the first paragraph and then move on.
22. Being concise takes confidence.
23. People only?use jargon because they think everyone else likes it.
24. Clarity is king.
25. Active voice beats passive voice.
26. Some types of copy are evergreen, and others are heavily time-dependent. Identify which type you're working on early and make sure if it's the latter, you publish before its window closes.?
27. If you do miss your copy's time-bound window of relevance, don't publish it.?
28. Nothing is a total waste of time. You're always learning something somewhere, and good ideas eventually get recycled.
29. Creation shouldn’t feel effortless. If it does, you’ve probably gone for low-hanging fruit.
30. If you leave a little texture showing, your copy will be more interesting than a flawless, polished product.
31. Your taste develops before your ability to execute. Don't worry if, in early career, you can't quite meet your own standards. Keep trying.
32. It’s fine to use AI tools, but keep in mind that they can only produce averaged amalgams of content that already exists in-market. If you want new, original ideas and style, these must come from your own unique brain.?
33. Same goes for “data-driven” content creation.?
34. Complex, valuable content with a unique point of view is harder to create than bad content.
35. Sometimes it feels bad to stand out from the crowd. That doesn't necessarily mean you've made a mistake, just that your creativity may be more developed than your appetite for risk.
36. Appealing to shared humanity isn't an angle or a point of view. It's the whole thing, the end goal of all communications activity. It should be present to some extent in everything you produce. (That said, don't cheapen the vibe by overtly reaching for it all the time.)

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