A blog about advertising, copywriting, creativity &c.
DBC Reader Question: How do you write about boring stuff?

DBC Reader Question: How do you write about boring stuff?

A fake ad for the 2003 Volkswagen Cabrio, with the word “spec” in the upper right corner. The ad is a full-page image of a glacier next to water, under a clear blue sky. Parked front and center on the glacier is a red Volkswagen Cabriolet with the top down. To the left of the car, in the background, is a person with one foot up on a snowbank, wearing black pants and a red puffer jacket with the hood up. To the left of the person is a red, purple, yellow, and green beach umbrella, open and standing up in the snow. Above the glacier are the words “Eternal summer standard on every model.” At the bottom right of the page, the copy reads, “The 2003 Volkswagen Cabriolet. Dual front seat warmers. What a great idea.” Under that are the words “Drivers wanted.” next to the Volkswagen logo.
Okay, so it’s not going to win any Golden Lions. I was a college student. Get off my tits.

I’m here for your, Baby Creatives. I’m here to answer your questions, soothe your nerves, and give you the benefit of my [hrumph]teen years’ experience in the industry. And that’s why I was proper chuffed to get a question from a baby creative in need of help. I’m here for you, Baby Creatives.

Today’s questioner is a budding copywriter working in-house in a… less-than-fascinating industry. And their question is a reasonable one.

How do you write interesting copy about a subject that’s boring?

And yes, I know some people will bristle at the word “boring,” but whether you call it traditional or corporate or industry-specific, some subjects are undeniably uninspiring, at least at first glance. As you were developing your college portfolio, you probably included some spec work for some really cool clients — cars, clothes, electronics. (I’ve actually done a post about how to fatten up your portfolio, btw.) I did a spec campaign for Volkswagen that I still think was pretty inspired. But statistically, you’re not likely to end up working on Volkswagen, certainly not at the beginning of your career. But the more mundane, non-rockstar projects and clients don’t have kill your creativity or to sap your will to create. There are ways to make the dull stuff sparkle.

Here are some of those ways.

And a note to past and potential clients: Please don’t be offended if your industry is included here among the boring ones. You still deserve the same dedicated work as any other client. But at the same time, maybe be honest with yourself about the inherent sexiness of your industry?

Dear Baby Copywriters,

First: The question you didn’t ask

When you’re a baby copywriter, whether you work in-house or for an agency, you’re going to find yourself writing a lot of boring stuff early on. (Dues-paying, y’all.) It’s just going to happen. No matter how naturally talented you are, no matter how great your college (or not-college) portfolio is, you are as yet unproven in a professional setting, and they’re going to start you out on some lower-risk stuff before they turn you loose on the higher-risk stuff that is generally more interesting.

You will start being given more and more interesting projects. Or you’ll find that your current projects are actually more interesting than you initially thought. Or you’ll get enough time under your belt and build your portfolio enough to find a new job with more interesting projects. Regardless, boring projects aren’t forever.

More interesting projects will come. Until then, you just need to concentrate on doing the best work you can on the boring projects you currently have. Because that’s the only way to get better ones.

Now: The question you did ask

Now that you’re committed to doing your best on boring projects, the question is, how do you do that? No matter how boring your subject is, your work is still expected to be interesting. And that can be tough. But I have six tips for making it happen.

1. Revisit the brief.

That should always be your first step. Remind yourself who you’re writing for, what you’re trying to convey, what you’re trying to get your audience to do, and what creative elements will help get you there. This is helpful for getting going on a single project, but those insights can also inform the work you do for that client moving forward.

2. Fake it.

I’m serious. If you aren’t interested in what you’re doing, pretend you are. When you find yourself dwelling on how not-at-all-interesting this half-page newspaper ad about podiatry is, stop yourself and say, “This is actually fascinating. I am fascinated right now.”

Normally, I’m not one for willful self-delusion, but this is a reasonable time to deploy it, because if you’re dwelling on how boring the work is, you won’t be able to do your best work. It’s entirely possible for you to talk yourself out of applying yourself to a project in front of you. But the good news is, it’s possible for you to talk yourself into it, too.

So as silly as it might make you feel, throw some reins on that inner monologue that’s telling you that this work is too boring to be worth effort (or, even worse, that it’s beneath you — get it together, Baby Copywriter) and turn it in a useful direction. Tell yourself, “This auto manufacturing safety information poster is so interesting. I don’t know how I got so lucky as to be working on a poster like this. Man, I’m having fun.”

To be clear: This will not actually make it fun. Because it’s boring. But it’ll help you get through any mental blocks that are making it harder (and more boring) than it needs to be. (And honestly, it might actually make it kind of fun. Faking it could potentially result in making it. Give it a try.)

3. Learn about it.

Of course, learning about what you’re writing about is a good practice anyway, but it can be especially helpful when you’re particularly uninspired. So take a few minutes — like, just half an hour — to do a super-deep dive into the subject in question. Learn about its origins. Find out who the key players are, and how they got their start. Find out what the biggest, juiciest controversies are, because every industry has controversies that are so very controversial that they’re spoken of in whispers, which is kind of hilarious when you think of it in the context of diaper absorbent manufacturing, but it’s there.

The people and stories and issues are the things that can make an industry interesting, even when the nuts and bolts of it are kind of dry. You know what’s gross? Mulesing. (Do not Google.) You know what’s interesting? Wool producers in Australia who are trying to defend their livelihood and the health of their flock amid controversy over this gross but ostensibly necessary practice. Why do I care even remotely about sheep butts? God help me, I don’t know, but I do. I mean, AMA about sheep butts, because I’ve fallen into that Wikipedia K-hole and come out way more informed about it than I ever expected to be.

4. Make it a challenge.

A fake ad for the CDC, with the word “spec” in the upper right corner. The ad is a full-page image of a couple standing slightly apart, holding hands, shot from behind, cropped to see just the side of their bodies and their joined hands. She’s wearing jeans and a long-sleeved beige shirt, and he’s wearing jeans and an olive t-shirt. The blurred background appears to be out in nature, with a gravel path curving past trees and shrubs. The whole thing is flooded with yellow light, as if at sunset. Between their bodies are the words “She doesn’t know I have genital herpes. But then, neither do I.” At the bottom, the copy reads, “Many people with genital herpes never have sores and don’t even know they’re infected until years after the virus is transmitted. This leaves plenty of time to pass it on to partners. Regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases can catch genital herpes before you’ve passed it on. Don’t take your health for granted — get and stay informed. For answers to your questions about STDs, visit the Centers for Disease Control online at www.cdc.gov/std.
Ignore the art direction. I’ve never claimed to be a designer.

And if you think about it, it is a challenge — writing good copy about a boring subject is challenging. Writing entry-level copy — palm cards, endless social media posts, breakroom flyers — about a boring subject is doubly so. So acknowledge that challenge and make it a thing. Challenge yourself to make the best, most creative breakroom flyer ever made. Take chances. A couple of the most popular samples in my portfolio when I was first starting out were a spec campaign about STIs for the CDC. I figured if I could come up with a good concept and write compelling copy about herpes, I could do it about anything.

If you wanted to win a Clio for your boring client, where would you start? What would you do with an unlimited budget? What celebrity endorser would you choose for your boring client? How would you pitch it to the rest of the creative team? I actually freelanced for an agency that won a Clio for motor oil. (Not my client, unfortunately. Not going to pretend I wasn’t a little bit jealous.) It can be done.

And then do it. I mean, don’t assume an unlimited budget and write for a celebrity endorser for heavy-duty industrial piping. But take those ideas and use them to inspire those social media posts, that breakroom flyer, and make them something unexpectedly special.

5. Ask for help.

At this stage in your career, whether you’re a recent grad or an intern or someone who’s just new to the industry, it’s completely expected that you’ll need help from time to time. Asking for help is actually a good sign — it means you want to do good work, you recognize areas in your skillset that need improvement, and you’re, well, willing to ask for help.

So do it. Talk to someone else on the creative team, or someone who’s worked on the client before, or your CD, and tell them you’re stuck. They can give you some insight into the process, help you identify your personal sticking points, and maybe even give you some thought starters as a jumping-off point. You haven’t had a chance to develop experience yet, so it’s perfectly acceptable to borrow theirs.

6. Remember that everything is important to someone.

On top of my regular creative copywriting, I’m pretty chuffed to have gotten to do a good number of interviews throughout my career for features and videos, and I think it’s an experience every baby copywriter should get to have at least a few times because it taught me that if you ask the right questions, you can get someone to go on and on and on and on about something they’re passionate about. Because everyone is passionate about something, and there’s someone passionate about everything. And that means that no matter how boring the subject is that you’re currently writing about, someone is passionate about it.

They’re a business owner, passionate about growing their business. They’re a volunteer, passionate about their cause. They’re a parent, passionate about their kid. They’re an employee, passionate about leaving their job and moving on to something better. (Yeah, I’ve gotten one of those, and trying to edit that video in a way that was authentic and honest but wasn’t likely to get the kid fired before he had a chance to leave on his own was a delicate task.) Everyone has something that’s a big, big deal to them.

And that’s who you’re writing for. Your audience is people for whom this boring subject is actually a big deal. People whose business could collapse if their data isn’t protected during a natural disaster. People who are feeling like a failure as a human being because they’re disorganized and their closet is a mess. Have you ever seen photos of open knee replacement surgery? DO NOT GOOGLE, because it’s nightmare fuel. I only ran across them while doing research for web copy about arthroscopic surgery, so that project was both boring and SUPER gross. But for the person who’s currently debilitated by a totaled knee joint, having that information is huge.

It might not feel like what you’re doing is a big deal — and, sure, by most people’s standards, it might not be. But to someone, what you’re doing is a big deal. Think about them when you’re writing, and you’ll be more inspired to give it your all.

You’ve got this.

Even as an aged, wizened copywriter, I still find myself working on boring subjects from time to time — every example I’ve provided here, actually, is something I’ve personally worked on, and some of it has been within the past year. And to be clear, the boring stuff is still boring — just because it’s important that a company not poison the water sources its community relies on doesn’t mean the subject of industrial water treatment is sex on legs. But it’s important. And writing about it for that client is important.

Above all, remember that just because a subject might seem boring, that doesn’t mean our work and the creative we produce has to be. To the contrary, in fact — we owe it to our clients to produce non-boring work. It’s worth the effort, and now you have six shiny new tips to help make that effort easier.

And please don’t beat yourself up. Struggling with boring subjects isn’t a personal failing — it’s just a creative muscle you haven’t had a chance to develop yet. Over time, you’ll be trusted with work that’s more interesting, and you’ll be better at addressing the work that isn’t so interesting. And if you have any other questions, feel free to ask me. I love questions.

I’m here for you, Baby Creatives.

XOXO,

Caperton

Former baby copywriter, now wildly successful in the industry

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