In Praise of One Liners
September 25, 2008 by Brad Shorr
Filed under Copywriting
Image by Larry He’s So Fine via Flickr
A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months. Henny Youngman, King of the One-Liners
A job well done, one that doesn’t need any words of thanks from others - recent blog post by Rick Mahn.
One of my clients has a VERY successful e-newsletter. It is one sentence long.
Brevity is a virtue. Cath Lawson observes that the pace of life today is frantic. So here are a couple copywriting one liners –
Short and sweet = happy customers.
When in doubt, leave it out.
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Brad, the short and sweet, leave it out works. Sometimes a person’s tempted to keep adding useful information. I go back and delete the “empty words” I tend to fill in on a rough draft and examine my verbs. That helps bring clarity.
Robyns last blog post..Don’t fear the pauses!
Hi Robyn, Verbs rock! Finding the right verb reduces verbiage. Consider that sentence. My first draft might have been, Finding the right verb is a good way to reduce verbiage. (BTW, I just noticed that “excess verbiage” is redundant - another word to leave out!)
Brad Shorrs last blog post..In Praise of One Liners
One of the shortest storytellers I know is artist Brian Andreas (http://www.storypeople.com/storypeople/Home.do). In a few words he can capture a feeling, a lifetime of meaning, or maybe an ache we never could explain — all in his quirky, insightful style. His stories, though short, beg to be digested for along time:
1)
One Us
Today all I could remember was the way your body held the ocean of my self & for a moment there was only one us in all creation.
2)
This is just one of those lives you try & get through, she told me, I’m hoping for better luck next time.
3)
Some Kind of Ride
feels like some kind of ride but it’s turning out just to be life going absolutely perfectly
SpaceAgeSage — Loris last blog post..Criticism’s dark and light sides
Hi Lori, thanks for the tip about Brian Andreas. I really like number 1 - you could ponder that all day. It really is harder to write fewer words than many. Clients sometimes get sticker shock when they hear how much it costs to create a tag line, but I find those projects two or three times as challenging and time consuming as writing five or ten basic Web pages.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..In Praise of One Liners
This has been a challenging week, so at the moment some of my favorite personal one-liners are:
1) Centered, creative and constructive.
2) What’s the opportunity here?
3) If I weren’t so busy worrying, what would I be doing?
4) How can I make this a sacred moment?
The last one is brand new, and as I write this it’s the one that has the most power.
Jean Browman–Cheerful Monks last blog post..Is This Really The Best Use of My Time?
Jean, I like that last one, too. Never heard it, but a good one to repeat out loud or silently as often as possible!
Brad Shorrs last blog post..In Praise of One Liners