Well, they can. And this series is all about becoming a better improviser and a better write. Last time, I looked at the importance of a warm-up (in writing terms). Today, it’s all about focus.

Part 2 – Focusing on what you’re doing

Imagine you’re in a play. You turn up at the theatre five minutes before the curtain goes up, you greet your fellow actors and then you wander onto stage. Are you likely to put in your best performance? Probably not.

Had you arrived in plenty of time, been able to do a warm-up, re-read your lines and chatted to your co-stars, you’d have been much more likely to put in a showstopping performance.

Preparation and focusing on the job in hand are as important in writing as they are in improvised comedy, or, indeed, in any other form of performance art. Daniel Day-Lewis recently became the first man to win three acting Oscars and is famous for his meticulous preparation. Is that a coincidence?

When I take an improv class, doing a series of exercises that focus the mind are key to getting the best out of the participants. Some of the exercises can seem like children’s party games, but what they are doing is making sure everyone is concentrating, focused and in the right mindset for what comes next.

Focusing exercises also ensure that everyone is on the same wavelength, gets the creative juices flowing and psyches everyone up for a good performance.

While writing tends to be more of a solitary endeavour, it’s still vital that you’re in the right frame of mind to do your best work. Preparation is key.

Before you start, make sure you know what it is you want to achieve. Read through your brief so you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. Re-read some previous work to make sure you understand the tone of voice and style that you’re looking for. And make sure you fully understand what you want to write before you begin.

Passing a clap around a circle or trying to keep different imaginary coloured balls in the air might work for an improv class but not for you as a writer. But, the principles are the same. Before you start make sure you’re focused, in the right mindset and, most importantly, ready to perform.

Next time I’ll look at how a simple improv game can be the perfect way to write. In the meantime, please share your thoughts below.

The Improvisers’ Guide to Better Writing – Part 1

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Author: Nick Parkhouse, Published 28 February 2013

Since 2009, I’ve been involved with an improvised comedy group here in Nottingham. Despite being pretty ropey to begin with, I’ve attended countless workshops, shows and events over the last three and a bit years, to the point where I’ve reached of a standard where I can not only perform on stage but also teach the subject.

Of course, the instant reaction I get from telling someone that I teach improvised comedy is “How is that possible? Surely you make it up on the spot?” Of course, this is true. But, as with any other pastime, it is possible to learn skills and techniques that make you better.

Since September 2012, I’ve been teaching kids drama and comedy in Nottingham to a lovely bunch of 8-12 year olds. The Little Imps have come on leaps and bounds since the sessions began, culminating in a ‘mini show’ to their families just before Christmas. And, as well as teaching the basics of stagecraft and how to perform improvised comedy, it struck me that teaching improv has dozens of other positive benefits in other walks of life.

Many corporations use improve as a teambuilding exercise. Team GB’s women’s hockey team did a day of improvisation as part of their build up to London 2012. As one of the parents pointed out to me after a recent session, it’s obvious that improvisation offers other benefits than learning to be funny on stage. It develops skills from social interaction and confidence building to listening skills and teamwork.

And, the basic skills needed for improvisation also help us to write better. How? Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the skills that will make you both a better improviser and a better writer. Today, we’ll start with the warm-up.

Part 1 – The importance of a warm-up

Most of the people who attend our sessions don’t like the warm-up. To start with, I was the same. What is the point of spending the first 15 minutes of a session jogging on the spot or making weird noises?

Now, I don’t suggest that you do a hundred squat thrusts before you start to write a press release. Neither do I think it’s imperative that you make motorboat sounds with your lips or repeat a tongue twister before you start on that website rewrite.

However, warm-up games and exercises can really help improve the quality of your work. They are designed to get you in a cheery mood, focus your mind on what’s about to happen and sharpen concentration.

I’ll talk about some basic group exercises to focus the mind next time. However, the point is that a warm-up takes you from whatever mindset you were in before – stress from your work, the traffic you’ve just sat in, the row you’ve had with your partner – and moves you into a place where you are ready to perform.

I think that is a brilliant lesson for anyone who’s about to write. Emptying your mind of everything else that is going on in order to concentrate on the matter in hand makes for more focused, interesting improv. It also makes for better writing. Try it sometime. You don’t have to spend hours running around the block. Just do some simple breathing exercises, stretch your back and your arms out and try and shake off all the other things competing for your brain’s attention.

As I’ve learned along the way, warm-ups are absolutely essential to a decent performance, particularly on stage. Without it, you’re not in the mindset where you’re ready to perform. And, that can apply to practically anything.

Next time I’ll look at how basic improv games and exercises focus your mind and help you to get ‘in the zone’. In the meantime, please share your thoughts below.

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Author: Nick Parkhouse, Published 29 January 2013

Before Christmas, I set them an assignment which contributed towards their final degree grade. I asked them to identify the three factors that, in their opinion, were essential to great quality copy. They then had to critique a piece of copy against these criteria.

Having marked the 17 assignments, I thought it would be interesting to share the results with you, and for you to see what the students consider the three factors that make great copy. In order, the results were:

1. The copy should be clear, concise and easy to read

2. It should contain good ‘calls to action’

3. It should be focused on the reader

Other choices included ‘a good headline’, ‘the correct tone of voice’, ‘it should be reader focused’ and ‘it should be benefit driven’.

Now, clearly these are all important factors and a good piece of copy will no doubt satisfy all of these criteria and more. However, it got me thinking as to what my choice of three factors would have been. After some deliberation, I think I’d have chosen:

1. Good copy should be benefit driven

2. It should focus on the reader

3. It should have a good call to action

Some of the students had an excellent grasp of copywriting ‘theory’ (such as it is) and produced some excellent work, justifying their choices with research and examples. But, if you had been asked to complete a similar assignment, what would you have chosen? Do you agree with the students’ choices? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Author: Nick Parkhouse, Published 18 January 2013

For a long period, our lead time for orders was around 3 weeks. This was clearly marked on the product pages and in the confirmation e-mail when customers placed an order. For most people that was fine but, as you would expect, a handful of people got in touch to ask if they could receive their order a bit sooner.

This is typical of the emails I was receiving from clients:

Hi there

I recently ordered a personalised necklace for my mum’s Christmas present. I note from the email that the estimated date of dispatch for this is 17 December which will be after I last see her before Christmas. Is there any possible way of a quicker dispatch?

Kind regards

On the face of it, this seems like a perfectly polite request. But look closer. Nowhere does the customer use a small but important word: ‘please’.

For a few weeks I was receiving several of these emails every day. Clearly we couldn’t prioritise everyone’s order, so I developed a simple rule. If the customer said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, I’d prioritise it. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t.

Now. I appreciate that this may seem a bit picky and a bit arrogant. However, it actually got me thinking about how easy it is for manners to go out of the window when you write. Had any of these people spoken to me about their order, I expect all of them would automatically have said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

I then began to notice that I wasn’t saying ‘please’ in my own emails and correspondence either, even when I was asking quite a favour. This is something that I’ve immediately tried to remedy.

As copywriters, we spend days asking people to ‘call us now’ or ‘get in touch today’ without ever saying ‘please’. I appreciate that it’s not relevant (or indeed appropriate) in all cases, but wouldn’t your copy be a little bit warmer and more polite if you just said the magic word once in a while?

Have you had any success with using the word ‘please’? Do you automatically include it? And does your copywriting mind its manners? Please share your thoughts below.

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Author: Nick Parkhouse, Published 11 January 2013

I’m in the process of researching a new book about how you spot a bonkers partner and I could really use your help. I’m looking for any stories about bonkers ‘partner behaviour’. It can be you, your current hubbie, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend or something related to an ex. Or, it could be stories your friends and family have told you, stories you’ve read about in the paper or online or links to odd or disturbing articles.

I’m after everything from ironing bedsheets in a certain way to slicing clothes, stealing money, refusing to let you see your friends right up to Bobbit-esque dismemberment. I don’t even really care if they’re true or not, as long as they’re good stories!

If you can spread the word as widely as possible and get people to send me as many links and stories as possible, I’d be really grateful. Of course, every story will be used in the strictest confidence and I won’t use anyone’s real names.

People can tweet me @nickparkhouse, write them on my Facebook page or e-mail me at info@nickparkhouse.com now.

Thanks in advance for your help. Please spread the word!

Thanks

Nick

The reason I ask is that one of my current clients is a major local motor retailer. And, you’ve probably worked for companies and had this same issue yourself.  Let’s call them Sandicliffe (as that’s their name).

When writing a press release for them the other week, I found myself totally confused as to which of these phrases was correct:

Sandicliffe have launched a new initiative
Sandicliffe has launched a new initiative

I’ve also encountered this problem when writing things like “Chelsea have a great away record this season” (clearly not true, but bear with me) and “England have a tricky away trip in France.”

Technically, I suppose that as a sports team or a company is one entity then the correct grammar would be to say that “Scotland has a great record” in the same way that “Madonna has a great voice”. But, it just doesn’t sound right.

So, which is it? Sandicliffe have a great range of used card? Or Sandicliffe has a great range of used cars? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

This month I was focusing on his range of patisserie platters.  Portuguese custard tarts, croissants, fruit tartlettes and chocolate éclairs are amongst the delicious snacks that are offered as are those French pastries with the chocolate in the middle.

Now, I know that it’s called a pain au chocolat.  And I did French ‘A’ level (admittedly *many* years ago) and so I should probably have known that more than one of them would be ‘pains au chocolat’.  But it got me thinking: sometimes plurals aren’t quite what we expect, are they?

So, here are some plural oddities, just in case you’re ever writing about more than one formula or Attorney General.

Plural oddities

One of the most common mistakes that writers make is to simply add an ‘s’ to the end of a noun to pluralise it.  While that may work with a cat, a key or a football, it won’t necessarily work in all cases.

Jobs are a common source of confusion as, quite often, they don’t follow a pattern.  For example, you might have several brigadier generals, judge advocates or lieutenant colonels.  However, there may be a different group of attorneys general, sergeants major, paymasters general and notaries public.

You see the problem?

And it’s not just jobs that can cause confusion.  If you’re dealing with more than one pelvis, it’ll be pelves.  More than one bandit?  Banditti.  And more than one cannon?  Cannon.

Here’s a list of a few unusual pluralised words, just in case you’re ever writing for a company that sells piccolos or oxen.

Daughter-in-law             Daughters-in-law

Potato                                 Potatoes (that’s for Dan Quayle, that one)

Opus                                    Opera

Teaspoonful                     Teaspoonfuls

Mister                                 Messrs.

Table d’hote                     Tables d’hote

Manservant                      Menservants

Ox                                         Oxen

Cul-de-sac                         Culs-de-sac

Crisis                                   Crises

Court martial                   Courts martial

Formula                             Formulae

Piccolo                               Piccolos

Please share any other unusual plurals in the comments below…

It got me thinking.  Is it a Customer Care Program in the UK?  Or a Customer Care Programme?

Program or Programme?

Apparently, the word ‘program’ was predominantly used in the UK until the 19th century, when the spelling ‘programme’ became more common — mainly as a result of influence from French, which has the same word ‘programme’.

So, if you’re using the word in British English, they you should almost always use ‘programme’.

The one exception is when you are referring to the word in the context of computing.  A computer program should always be the shorter version of the word.

So, in British English:

• You can take advantage of our Customer Care Programme
• I can’t get this program to run on my PC
• My favourite television programme is Doctor Who

However, if you’re writing in American English you should always use the word ‘program’, whatever the context.  The same is generally true of Australian English, where ‘program’ is also mainly used (although ‘programme’ is still in common usage).

So, if you want someone to ‘get with the program’, you probably want to be using the American version.  Or don’t use that horrible phrase at all, of course.

As a verb

Using the word as a verb follows much the same rules.

If you want to tell your computer to do something, you will program it.  For example, ‘it is easy to program this PC’.

However, if you’re using British English and want to programme anything else, use the longer version.  For example ‘the next stage of the plan is programmed for next year’.

So, my clients now have a Customer Care Programme.  Lovely.

Last time I looked at the correct usages of ‘while’ and ‘whilst’ and this time I thought I’d double check I was using ‘inquiry’ and ‘enquiry’ in the right places.  Are they interchangeable?  Or do they mean different things?

Inquiry or enquiry?

As with many of these things, the simple answer is ‘either’.  For example, the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary presents the two spellings as interchangeable variants in the general sense.

However, there is a subtle difference between the two terms.

In the UK, ‘enquiry’ is generally a term that is used to refer to ‘the act of questioning’, such as:

• He enquired about her health
• I made an enquiry about the price of a ticket

‘Inquiry’, however, is more commonly used when referring to a formal investigation, such as:

• There will be a public inquiry into the riots
• The police are making inquiries about the incident

A simple way to remember which to use is to consider that an ‘inquest’ (an official investigation) is related to ‘inquiry’.

Just to confuse you (of course): if you are writing in American or Australian English, inquiry is normally the correct word, irrespective of the circumstances.

Have you any examples of when ‘inquiry’ or ‘enquiry’ might be correct, or suggestions for seemingly interchangeable terms that I can consider in this feature?  Let me know in the comments below.

I’m writing a monthly newsletter for a client of mine who runs a catering company in London.  They produce lovely breakfast and lunch platters of sandwiches, wraps, cakes, pastries and fruit for meetings, conferences and so forth.  The newsletter is intended to go to existing customers and subscribers by e-mail.

I’ve written the copy which is broadly in four small pieces:

• A personal piece from the owner (a sort of ‘Happy New Year’ and an introduction to the rest of the newsletter)
• A focus on one of his products relevant to the time of year
• A ‘did you know?’ piece with some random trivia and facts
• A special offer for newsletter subscribers

The template he has is lovely and the newsletter is easily readable and not too long.

My issue though is this: I’m not sure what to put in the subject line of the e-mail.  I have been racking my brains this morning for something catchy that would encourage recipients to open the e-mail and read the newsletter immediately.  Part of me thinks that focusing on the one main benefit (the exclusive discount) would be the way forward, whereas part of me thinks it should have something to do with the subject (so a New Year reference, so when I do next months the subject can be whatever I choose to write about in February (probably Valentine’s Day)).

Does anyone have any ideas or experience of this?  What works best?  Please share in the comments below.  Thanks!