Important blog posts and conversation about word craft have been taking place over the last week or so.

Lots is written about the art of writing headlines. Most people know about the volumes of solid advice coming from Copyblogger, but here’s a fine post on headline formulas you may not have seen from Copywriting.com.

Liz Strauss sparked a truly illuminating conversation about how to write a killer tagline. Reading this, I’m reminded that while copywriters tend to get paid by the word, we ought to get paid by the absence of words. Harder to write less than more, don’t you think?

Matthew Stibbe offers no less than 62 ways to improve your press releases. Have you ever seen so much valuable information in one spot?

Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog presents the top ten reasons why sales proposals fail. If companies could avoid all 10, their closing percentage would increase double digits.

Of course, writing can never be reduced to a formula, because it’s a science and an art. But the dependable suggestions offered by these bloggers are foundational. They give us a starting point, a launching pad for creativity. Without them, I think I’d be doing a lot less writing and a lot more pencil tapping. Thanks for the help!