Posted by: Catherine Morley
Category: Designers Working With
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

A wealth of information has been shared in the DWW series, so for those of you who don’t have the time to read through each post, the summaries are the place to be.

If you’d like to find out more about the writers contributing to this section, go to Introducing the Writers of the DWW Series.

For a quick review, below are the seven questions put to writers:

1. What are the main points that you’d expect / want designers to know before contacting you about a project?
2. When working with designers, what do you see as the top problem areas?
3. How do you work?
4. How should a company or individual in your profession be chosen?
5. At what point should your profession be brought into a project?
6. How do you charge?
7. How can a designer improve their skills in your industry?

Right after the introduction I became a bit skittish and contacted writer, blogger, Liz Strauss for advice (thanks Liz!). With a nudge in place, I moved to the first question.

Designers As Clients

The Question: What are the main points that you’d expect / want designers to know before contacting you about a project?

• Cheryl Stephens: Have a knowledge of designing information pieces.
• Gerald Weinberg: The purpose, how to listen and take initiative, how to balance creativity with the project brief.
• Judy Vorfeld: The target market demographics, information on the products and services, needs of the target market for the products and services, information on the competition, selling comparisons on the products and services in regards to the competition, file types needed, type of writing required (target market, as well as search engines?), strength of calls to action, preferred style guide.
• ME (Liz) Strauss: Prefers designers know her writing style, be ready with questions, and be prepared for a brainstorming partnership.
• Louise Bolotin: The client brief, a draft template of the design from the beginning, a clearly defined budget, approximate word count per page, the number of pages to be set, and enough time allotted for drafts and final versions. that the designer has educated the client on the possibilities. She’d also like direct contact with the client.
• Lynn Gaertner-Johnston: Expects designers to understand the basics of document design (no text widows or rivers, follow the rules of proximity, final text to be readable), have a wonderful visual concept, to pick up on the odd writing mistake and introduce no new errors into the copy, be able to describe deliverables and relevant steps in the process, make realistic time commitments, give clear project briefs and communicate as professionals (in complete sentences).
• Matthew Stibbe: A clear brief.
• Nancy Friedman: What kind of writing is needed.
• Roberta Rosenberg: Understand each medium, know which should take centre state - the design or the copy, knowledge of the clients industry, be serious about the project, know costs re results, and keep to deadlines.
• Roy Jacobsen: When to bring in writers (early is preferred), that good writing is more than spelling and grammar, writers are not commodities, the tone required (formal vs. informal, light vs. serious, consumer vs. business-to-business), demographics of the target audience.
• Roy Peter Clark: The tone, the look and the voice of the project.
• Tom Chandler: Tone, call to action, visuals, knowing the product, target audience, reason for the product, key selling proposition, what and when.
• Tom Mullen: Budget, deadline and turnaround times.

The Problem Areas

The Question: When working with designers, what do you see as the top problem areas?

This was a difficult question for writers to answer because for the most part, they’ve had good experiences with designers. Lucky, they scratched around to share a few issues to think about.

• Cheryl Stephens: Not trying to understand the target reader, and submitting alternate proposals that are too similar.
• Gerald M. Weinberg: Inability to listen and really hear, inability to surface assumptions (his or the client’s) and to do the work to clarify them, designers need to have large egos but should keep them under control, many designers are simply poor communicators, either in writing or face-to-face.
• Judy Vorfeld: Designers want things done fast, and probably don’t understand the various facets that go into writing an effective website.
• ME (Liz) Strauss: Listening, Personal involvement, Trust, Commitment to the Work, Ego. In a mix on both sides, make for a messy relationship in any creative endeavor.
• Louise Bolotin: Focusing only on the design, becoming obsessed with cramming in too much design, not passing on a proper brief from the client, not allowing time to proofread before publication.
• Lynn Gaertner-Johnston: Not returning phone calls emails, not keeping commitments, charging for services that have not been agreed upon in advance.
• Matthew Stibbe: Lack of understanding the writer’s process, the need for interviews and research, time to write well, edit and rework if necessary. Viewing copy as a commodity.
• Nancy Friedman: Not regarding writers as a full partner on the project.
• Roberta Rosenberg: Underestimating the time/cost needed to complete a project, forgetting that the work is not about the artist, sloppy final art — fonts and images missing, items not labeled, PMS colors not identified, no folding dummy, etc., too casual approach to returning calls and emails.
• Tom Chandler: If I have one rant in me, it’s about designers who render headlines and copy unreadable.
• Tom Mullen: Thinking of writers as simply wordsmiths rather than idea generators.

The Process

The Question: How do you work?

• ME (Liz) Strauss: I work in a variety of ways to suit the kind of writing that I’m doing. When I write the “softer” genres, I often hope to work at night or early in the morning. When I write the “more structured” genres — things that require research, detail, and accuracy — I’m a top down writer. I plan my work in pieces or sections, the way a designer might storyboard a multi-piece design. I define my ending point — that closing conclusion that I want to be the end that satisfies the reader. Then I determine what would be the corresponding beginning to echo or reflect that ending. Usually I’m doing this first, because the middle is the hardest part for me.
• Roy Peter Clark: For me, writing is a process, a set of rational steps: the search for an idea; the collection of important stuff; working toward a focus; finding a structure; creating an early draft; revising. I want to involve collaborators as early in the process as possible. I want them to be able to plan and rehearse.
• Tom Chandler: Some days more slowly than others.
• Tom Mullen: Mostly I work remote. I’ll collaborate w/designers, art directors, or I’ll work alone. It just depends on the scope of the assignment.

The Care and Feeding Requirements of Writers, a review of How to work with writers, from Bad Language.

Choosing A Writer

The Question: How should a company or individual in your profession be chosen?

• Cheryl Stephens: Portfolio on website
• ME (Liz) Strauss: Look for curiosity, a positive “can do” attitude, and patient, listening skills.
• Louise Bolotin: Word of mouth recommendations, the phone book. skill and experience, work samples, portfolio, price (but high prices have no guaranties) and a good rapport.
• Nancy Friedman: Experience, talent, word of mouth, with the least being price.
• Roy Peter Clark: Find writers who are curious, passionate, and practical, can meet and beat deadlines, are willing to talk about their process, and who enjoy feedback.
• Tom Chandler: Choose a writer based on goals and voice.
• Tom Mullen: The quality of the portfolio.

When to Hire a Writer

The Question: At what point should writers be brought into a project?

• Cheryl Stephens: At the beginning
• ME (Liz) Strauss: As soon as you can stand to talk to me.
• Nancy Friedman: As early as possible. At the beginning, preferably.
• Roy Peter Clark: Early, early, early. And did I mention: early.
• Tom Chandler: The earlier I get into a project, the more value I can add for a client.
• Tom Mullen: The best work involves all participants from beginning to end.

How Writers Charge

The Question: How do you charge?

• Cheryl Stephens: By project, based on estimating hours
• ME (Liz) Strauss: Flat fee whenever it is possible.
• Louise Bolotin: By the hour, although I’m happy to work within a set budget for a fixed fee.
• Nancy Friedman: On a project basis.
• Roy Peter Clark: As a writer, I have worked on salary. As a consultant. As a freelancer. On book projects, I’ve received advances and earned royalties.
• Tom Chandler: On a project basis. Hourly simply doesn’t make sense to me.
• Tom Mullen: Day rate or project rate

Improving Skills: Writing

The Question: How can a designer improve their skills in your industry?

• ME (Liz) Strauss: Learn to listen, find solutions that get the text and design to work together.
• Roy Peter Clark: Learn how to speak “writing” without an accent. Artists need to learn how to speak across the borders of their discipline.
• Tom Chandler: Writing’s like anything; you get better by reading great writers and writing.
• Tom Mullen: Keep an open mind.

Why Designers Should Be Writers, by Roger C Parker.

Resources for the writing series:

Writing Resources: Part One: Writing Books

Writing Resources: Part Two: Online Writing Guides

Writing Resources: Part Three: Online Writing Courses

Contributing Writers:

Cheryl Stephens | Mentor/Muse
plainlanguage.com | Building Rapport | Building Rapport : CafePress.com

Gerald M. Weinberg | Writer, consultant
Weinberg on Writing | The Secrets of Consulting | gerald weinberg books and leadership courses

Judy Vorfeld | Webmaster Services; Editing and Writing Services
www.EditingAndWritingServices.com | Judy’s Blog

Louise Bolotin | Writer, consultant
PlainText Editorial Consultancy

Lynn | Founder, Business Writing Specialist
Syntax Training: Tools for Better Business Writing | Business Writing Blog

Matthew Stibbe | Writer-in-chief
Articulate Marketing | Bad Language

ME (Liz) Strauss | Writer | Career coach | Strategic planner
Successful Blog | Letting Liz Be | Liz Strauss.com | The Blog Herald | Performancing.com | Write With ME

Nancy Friedman | Chief Wordworker
Wordworking | Away With Words

Roberta Rosenberg | Pres/CEO
MGP DIRECT, INC. | The Copywriting Maven

Roy Jacobsen
Writing Plain and Simple

Roy Peter Clark | America’s writing coach
Poynter Online - Writing Tools | Book: Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

Tom Chandler | copywriting : online/blogging : marketing plans
Chandler Writes. You Profit. | The Copywriter Underground

tom mullen | writer & proprietor
EXIT3A.com | ANONYMOUS, JR

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Coming up next in the DWW Series will be photographers. Enjoy!

until the next
Designers WW,
cat

Posted by: Liz Strauss
Category: Write With ME
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

The three most important pieces of advice for designers aiming to improve their writing

• Know who you’re talking to. More than anything, this is the one thing that most folks get wrong when they write. Write for your reader, not for yourself. When you write listen to how the words will sound to someone who doesn’t know what you know about the subject. Be careful not to endow your boss, your client, your writer with information that they couldn’t possibly have.
• Along this same line, know that designers often don’t pay enough attention to the tone of what they write. Be careful of how you use the word “you.” A poorly worded sentence with the word “you” can sound like an attack when you only mean it as a statement of where things currently stand.
• Know what you want to say. So many people start to write without stopping to consider the outcome they want. STOP. Think about what you want the reader to do. That will tell you what your message is. The writing is so much easier and shorter when you know what you want to say.

Until the next
Write with ME,
Liz

ME (Liz) Strauss | Writer | Career coach | Strategic planner
Successful Blog | Letting Liz Be | Liz Strauss.com | The Blog Herald | Performancing.com | Write With ME

Posted by: Catherine Morley
Category: Designers Working With
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

Apologies for the lateness of this post. I was waylaid by a meal of Durian with a non-tasty red wine. Sadly, sans dark chocolate.

I’m going to change the schedule on this part of the series by introducing our writers. Writers who were so kind as to share their experiences and advice. Writers who have busy lives, yet took the time to respond to my questions.

Our writers, in alphabetic order, by first name:

Cheryl Stephens has a treasure trove of writing information at plainlanguage.com. She also has an excellent writing blog, Building Rapport (advocating plain language, clear design, sensitivity to audience concerns, and civility). It was at Building Rapport where I discovered Kenneth W. Davis’s blog, Manage Your Writing. Kenneth has written The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication, a course I recently ordered and intend to review on BoDo. In time, yes, in time …

Gerald M. Weinberg is the author of one of the first books on writing I read from cover to cover. Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, breaks the research of the writing process down to manageable chunks. There’s a lot more to the book than that, but for me, that part was invaluable. You can also visit his blog of the same name - Weinberg on Writing. Gerald is an author of many books, so check them out if you have an interest. He also spends time at a second blog, The Secrets of Consulting. In preparation for this writing series, I featured Weinberg on Writing on Designers who Blog.

Judy Vorfeld’s ‘Writing Tips’ were some of the first I bookmarked ages ago when researching for writing resources. You can find her at EditingAndWritingServices.com, or her blog. I especially enjoyed her post, Danger! Exclamation Marks Ahead!!

Liz (ME Strauss) is one of BoDo’s Visiting Authors. Liz comes to my rescue, often, when I’m panicking, or need advice, or both, and more. She’s also an extremely popular blogger / writer / career coach and strategic planner. Liz can be found at Successful Blog, Letting Liz Be, Liz Strauss.com, The Blog Herald and Performancing.com. Liz has a lot to say, and I certainly have a lot of time for Liz. Last year I featured Successful Blog on Designers who Blog. Check it out. If you are a great one for community, drop in at Liz’s Tuesday Mic Night. For a sample, there’s We Talked About Art!

Louise Bolotin’s PlainText Editorial Consultancy tackles one of the hardest chores for me to get my pen around, plain writing. So when I came across Louise Bolotin’s site, I paid attention. Logically, when I needed to get professional advice for this series, I headed straight to Louise - working journalist, editor and copywriter.

If I lived anywhere near Seattle, I’d sign up for one of Lynn Gaertner-Johnston’s Business Writing Courses. As is stands, I’m limited to online courses or studying by books. If you are in the enviable position of more choice, then Lynn’s business writing courses may just be the thing for you. For timely business and business writing advice, check out her Business Writing Blog. In January of this year I featured Lynn’s Business Writing Blog on Designers who Blog. I realise I have a long way to go, but I’m blushing at my recent construction.

Matthew Stibbeis the well known author of Bad Language, a writers blog. As a well known, I’ll point you to my past and recent favs - The Devil’s marketing dictionary: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. And my top of all times, A guide to working with writers.

Nancy Friedman is the Chief Wordworker at Wordworking. I’ve enjoyed poking about Nancy’s blog, Away With Words. Filled with diversity, it’s where I came across Ben Yagoda of Slate Magazine for the first time. Check out his new book, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse. I know I will. Away With Word was featured at Designers who Blog this past January.

Roberta Rosenberg heads MGP DIRECT, INC. It’s her blog I was originally drawn to, The Copywriting Maven (direct response marketing & SEO copywriting tips, techniques and reviews of incredibly useful resources for professional and aspiring marketing copywriters). I’m a book hound so Roberta’s Best BOOKS category was a must bookmark for me.

I’ve been a fan of Roy Jacobsen ever since I started researching for the first writing series at DWB. Roy gives consistent advice at Writing, Clear and Simple (You have a story to tell. Tell it clearly and powerfully.) I was impressed when I read in his about, “You CAN learn to write better. You don’t have to revisit high-school or college composition courses, and you don’t have to slog through hard-to-understand and harder-to-memorize rules about past-participial posessive pronouns. Writing, Clear and Simple is here to help.” Writing, Clear and Simple was featured at DWB back in 2006.

Roy Peter Clark, boy, if I could only get his writing tools inside my head! Roy is the esteemed author of the blog, Poynter Online - Writing Tools, a must read for those intending to improve their writing skills. I reviewed Roy’s Poynter Online - Writing Tools at DWB for the Writing Resolve series

Tom Chandler of The Copywriter Underground is a fun type of writer slash marketeer. Entertaining to read, The Copywriter Underground was also featured at DWB early this year.

Tom Mullen, writer & proprietor of EXIT3A.com has been around my world since early days at Creative Latitude. Whenever I receive an eyeopening marketing email, it’s bound to be from Tom!

To finish, I’d also like to thank Roger C Parker for his loan of Why Designers Should Be Writers, first published on DWB.

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Note: there will be another change in the schedule. Due to the aftermath of a family crisis, the DWW series will skip a week.

until the next
Designers WW,
cat

Posted by: Catherine Morley
Category: Resourceful Friday
Bookmark on: del.icio.us

Resources for this designer’s resolve to learn to write

As previously mentioned, I’m a designer who intends to write better. To nudge myself into writing, in 2006 I began a series. Early January of this year I finalised the series by compiling my writing resources.

After looking through all the writing books I’ve acquired since 2002, I selected the below to start my writing adventure.

Helpful writing books

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost

1000 Most Important Words by Norman W. Schur

Collins Good Writing Guide by Graham King

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook

On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser

New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors by R. M. Ritter (adapter)

New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors: The essential A-Z guide to the written word by R. M. Ritter (Editor), Angus Stevenson (Editor), Lesley Brown (Editor)

Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker

Developmental Exercises to Accompany Rules For Writers by Diana Hacker and Wanda Van Goor

Spunk & Bite: A writer’s guide to punchier, more engaging language & style by Author Plotnik

The Careful Writer by Theodore M. Bernstein

The Elements of Style by William I. Strunk

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method by Gerald M. Weinberg

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Conner

Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing by Patricia O’Conner

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

101 Elegant Paragraphs — A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook, by Robert Hartwell Fiske

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Wish me good luck?

If you have any business of design resources to suggest like the above, go ahead and send them on over.

Until the next
Resourceful Friday,
cat