Welcome to Conversationalist
Here's what I'll be writing about for the next few months...
As this newsletter is new, you’re probably wondering if it will be worth your time.
I hope so. Hmmm, still not sure?
Okay, let me tell you a little about me and the type of things I enjoy writing about, and you can see if you like my style.
Me first.
I’ve been around for quite a long time and dabbled in many things, including running a smallholding, copywriting and writing fiction.
I escaped from the corporate 9 to 5 to follow in the footsteps of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (If you’ve not heard of Hugh or his TV series River Cottage, check it out here) and try my hand at living the good life. But unfortunately, I discovered that the TV show doesn’t give the complete picture of running a smallholding in the back of beyond and earning a living from scampering around with happy, smiling livestock.
Our River Cottage was an 18th-century farmhouse with a massive open fireplace and a warren of rooms, including a skittle alley at the back of the house. In the summer, it was delightful; in the winter, it was fucking cold and damp, requiring multiple layers to avoid hypothermia.
You’re probably wondering why we didn’t light a fire in the vast fireplace or turn up the central heating; we did.
First, you must realise that a period rented property has period features, like metal window frames and glass the thickness of tissue paper.
The massive fireplace heated the six inches in front, and the rest of the warmth shot straight up to the heavens, and the central heating wafted through the tissue-paper glass to warm the garden. If we could persuade the dogs and cats to take their turn shivering, we could be alternately scorched or frozen.
We reared pigs, sheep, chickens and geese (don’t get me started on geese …) and, in River Cottage style, sold homemade ice cream, pasta and pasta sauces at farmer’s markets. These evolved into a veg box scheme and eventually a sandwich round and catering for corporate lunches.
We lasted eleven years until my wife cracked and demanded we move to somewhere we didn’t have to freeze for eight months of the year and had a shop closer than a fifteen-minute drive. I have to be honest, I agreed with more speed than was strictly decent, so we moved within a matter of weeks.
Our new house was a townhouse nestled on the south coast of the UK within walking distance of a Waitrose; I had never been more excited. That sounds a little sad and pathetic, but we were now warm and had easy access to a high-quality supermarket.
My wife’s plan for the future was nursing; mine was trickier. I spent a lot of my working life in the food and hospitality industry. The one thing I was sure of was that I needed a change.
I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember, writing stories about the adventures of Sammy the seal to amuse myself while still at junior school and, most recently, a full-length novel that combined cocaine smuggling with ghosts and a priest recovering from a heart attack. I’m rewriting this and will relaunch it on Amazon later in 2022.
I’m also dabbling in something a little more adult; how it will turn out, or even if it will turn out, remains to be seen. Don’t hold your breath waiting for news; you’ll suffocate.
I’ve spent the last few years working as a copywriter writing web pages, emails, articles, sales pages and landing pages.
One thing I’ve realised while I’ve been copywriting is that if you want to engage with your readers, have them trust you and maybe even look forward to receiving your thoughts; you have to write in their language. No, I don’t mean French, Italian or Spanish … You need to write conversationally.
Here are five things you can do to make your writing instantly more engaging:
Write as if you are talking to just one person you know really well like a close friend or member of your family.
Throw out the grammar rule book. Contractions (shouldn’t, wouldn’t, won’t, don’t) are fantastic and make your writing sound more relaxed and friendly. It’s how you talk, so why not how you write?
Always go for clarity over clever. You want your reader to understand what you’re saying, so your writing is easier to read. People love to show off how clever they are by using big words; it makes them feel smart. But, if your readers struggle to understand what you’re trying to say, you’ll risk losing them.
Keep jargon and acronyms (an abbreviation formed from the first letter of other words and pronounced as a word - NASA or NATO) to a minimum. If you have to use one, explain what it means the first time you use it,
so your reader doesn’t have to break off and Google for an explanation.
Conversational writing is easy to read, and that applies to how it looks on the page as well as the content you write. Design matters, so avoid big blocks of text that are difficult to read. Instead, use lots of white space to make it easier on the eye; your readers will thank you.
That’s it for this week. Next time I’ll be discussing travel, talking with your hands and why conversational words have to work hard if you want to get your meaning across without visual cues.