The week’s posts on a single page (most recent at the top):
Who Are You
A word on writing:
I found an old print-out of some writing advice. I have no recollection of who wrote it but here it is*:
- Write.
- Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
- Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
- Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
- Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
- Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
- Laugh at your own jokes.
- The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be true for life as well as writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can.
*If you know who wrote it, let me know and I’ll happily credit them.
Got To Keep On
I’m not one for harping on about things (OK, I sometimes might be) and I’m certainly not one for feeling sorry for myself.
But a gently reminder here and there of why you do what you do, and how it can turn out, especially when you’re up against a bump in the road, is always welcome.
So here’s a review of Mr Lizard that I’ve just revisited:
Don’t Be Nice to Me
I’ve been thinking about things and I want your opinion. Please answer this one question:
Create your own user feedback survey
Sincere
Today started off a little painfully.
I’d asked for an honest assessment of the book from my great friend Suze – and that’s exactly what I got.
I won’t go into detail here but it’s left me with some big questions to answer, some big decisions to make and a lot of work to do.
I’m still aiming to get at least the PDF out by the end of the year and, ideally, the fully designed paperback as well.
Crystal Clear
I wrote here about how successful products and services aren’t for ‘everybody’. The producers of those things are clear about who they’re for and what they’re for.
Here’s a great page on who your audience might be and what they might…
- respond to
- relate to
- admire
- understand
- be driven by
- fear
Show Me Love
Here’s a little story for you.
Once upon a time, I used to work in TV. And one day, some anonymous colleague in a far-away office signed me up to the company pension scheme.
And then I left that scheme.
Long story, but it was about trust: when researching mortgages, I could easily find answers online to every question I had. But pensions? Closed shop.
A friend of mine pulled out, and so did I.
And then two companies grabbed their bit back from me, and my trust and respect for the pensions industry dived again.
Years later, I still get undecipherable letters about changes to investment options and whatever else for that scheme.
This week I got a letter that said:
Further information on the current fund can be found via the following link:
https://literature-lgim.huguenots.co.uk/srp/documents-id/c994fd49-3eab-44a5-88ac-2f050d053a69/FactSheet.pdf
It took a minute and 45 seconds to type in.
Guess what I thought when I first read that link.
- You’re having a laugh
- You don’t want people to actually look at that, do you?
- You don’t care about your customers because, really, who apart from me is going to type that in?
- Have you not heard about URL shorteners?
There are loads of URL shorteners available, free of charge. And some are customisable.
The moral of the story?
The pensions firm could’ve created tiny.cc/pensionsURL in about ten seconds (like I just did) and with it generated a whole heap of trust and love.
From Now On
My good friend and a loyal reader of this blog, Andy, suggested a couple of changes that I could make to this blog that might improve it.
And I reckon he’s right.
So from now on, you’ll be able to leave a comment on this and future posts.
The other suggestion was to make it easier to like and share posts, especially on a mobile. So I shall look into that too.
What changes would you like to see on this blog? Let me know. Email paul@paulparry.com
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