Google you?

Hi,

Here's a nano-thought for the thought-a-dayers: Have you Googled yourself yet? What turns up? Nothing? Can this be good? You must have an online presence if you want to be someone these days, and it must google up fast.

.........

COPYWRITING...

Thanks to those of you who enquired about my offer to help you find your voice.

A week ago I was sitting here at the dining room table (it's the size of an aircraft carrier) trying to start the copy for a fundraising blog post for the Carbon Coalition (our farm soil carbon credits lobby group) and I was getting nowhere. Everything I wrote was wooden and wrong. Nothing "sounded" right. Nothing "sang".

Then I remembered what I'd said to you about finding your voice. I snapped out of "copywriting" and used my voice. (Check out the result at carboncoalitionoz.blogspot.com - "I'm blown away...") Now this is full-throated 'voice'. It is personal and emotive and risky. It can pay off big time, or die a silent death.

Not all "vocal" copywriting is like this. Sometimes the copy can be stiff as a board - because that's the tone you need. Eg. An official-sounding directive. The key with 'voicing' is that you can control whichever voice you choose - switching like a voiceover actor, to suit the character you are playing.

You see, there's a little secret I discovered: Most people 'subvocalise' when they read. They hear voices. Shakespeare calls it, "To hear with eyes..." The seeing of reading is always at once a hearing, according to Richard Aczel. Reading is an over-hearing of voices, he says.

Some German named Gadamer says reading is "letting speak" ("Lesen ist Sprechenlassen"), a returning of the written word to the dialogue out of which it arose.

The spoken word is even more powerful than the written word because is has the ability to engage the listener in a type of conversation.

According to learning theory, subvocalisation is a crucial tool when learning new material. Subvocalising can help us remember what is read.

What does all this mean?

Listen...