.png)
Xander Fircks
work
What's important?
E.M. Forster wrote:"Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted." Which is how to connect with your reader. My job as a copywriter is to unearth the prose and the passion, and make the connection.
Stories are about people, not demographics, and personas, not profiles. As far as possible, then, draw your reader into the familiar, agreeable, personal space that stories provide.
Good copy is about listening. So, before writing, seek out the reader where they are (not where you are), and listen to them, and learn. That way you remove the sting from the transaction or sale, because you know what they want, or need, or hope for, which - above all - is their passion. Around which you can thread your prose. Which is particularly true with online copy, where you have 8 seconds (according to Microsoft) before the reader goes elsewhere, never to return.
Oh, and, no cliches.
about
Much of my life I lived between the UK and countries in southern Africa - mainly Zimbabwe - during the course of which I have been a student, banker, trader, start-up businessman, and writer. Writing was always my thing, to which I have recently, joyfully, returned.
I have spent the last year in India, studying their great, ancient, spiritual scriptures - Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, etc - and am now based in Nepal, living in an ashram on the outskirts of Kathmandu, in the lee of the Chandragiri hills.
AWAI (American Artists and Writers Institute)
I was confident I could write a thing or two, until I did a couple of courses with AWAI: '10 Weeks to Pro' and 'Writer's Apprentice'. Which I would recommend to any aspiring writer, in any field.