Most legendary artists are unknown in their own time. Many people regard that as ironic. I regard it as causal.
My point is that good art isn’t designed for an audience; it has inherent value. I believe copy is different - it’s (ultimately) for making money, and ought to be designed for a target audience - but I believe that if you want to write great copy, you can’t lose sight of the original point. To focus too much on audience is to forget about art… to forget about producing great writing that speaks to any reader, no matter their age group or interests.
Advice: speak naturally to humans, about your passion, and about your passion-induced product… and you’ll produce artful copy. It’ll work.
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note: or maybe it won’t work - maybe you’ll die broke, alone and depressed.
Those who know me, or are regular readers, know that I see the world in shades of grey; as far as I’m concerned, in writing or outside of it, there is no back and white. That’s why, even after I talked about perfection for 4 posts, I’m talking about imperfection in the next one. It might seem contradictory. And hell, if you want to look at it like that… go ahead. But I think making the case for imperfection is important.
I think it’s important because to be perfect, you have to accept imperfection. You need to work toward perfection, and you need to revise to get there. But there’s no rule that says you need to do it all at once. You can write something, come back to it, then come back to it again two months later. There’s great value in striving for perfect, but no rhythm in demanding it in every sentence, every time.
Let your writing flow. Let it go. Then come back to it, again and again. You’ll get there, but only if you allow your own creation to take you on its own path to there.
