Tuesday, June 17, 2008

HOW TO INVENT A CATCHY SLOGAN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA


SITUATION


I saw a question about slogans. The reader was asking creative writing ideas for:
1. Creating awareness for road safety through wearing of helmets.
2. Conserving fuel energy
3. Preventing noise/air pollution.

Inventing slogans is a challenge, is it not? So we need some way to invent creative writing ideas for slogans.


DIRECTIONS & EXAMPLES


First, I started looking for good slogan examples. 'Nothing runs like a Deere' is a slogan of John Deere (a great tractor manufacturer). Deere – deer. It is a play of words, isn't it? A pun.

Second, it is short. Just four words.

Third, just for the sake of the wordplay: let us use alliteration. No, I don't say it is the only way to build a pun. There are several ways, as in the above example: Deere – deer. But I wish to use alliteration just for the sake of training.

Remember good examples for alliteration? 'Donald Duck', 'busy as a bee', 'good as gold'. And plenty of others.
One more example I found thanks to Seth Godin. "Wanna See my Socks?" - this is a slogan of 'Little Miss Matched', a sock company. Do you hear the alliteration?
By the way, do you see another wordplay here: 'Miss Matched'? And why is it 'mismatched'? Because their funky socks never match.


SOLUTION


OK, let us start with the first slogan. Helmet is in the center. Let us find words with 'h' and 'l'. A helmet is holding. What is a helmet holding? A head? 'A helmet is holding a head.' Maybe. There is another word: a hull. It is not a head exactly, but it sounds good.
'Helmet's holding your hull'

Now the second slogan. It is about energy. I've found three words alliterating with 'energy'. These are the words: enable / encourage / enhance.
I like it like this:
'Enhance Energy Economy'.

Finally, the third slogan: it is about pollution. Let's find the alliterating word to the word pollution. 'Pull', for example. Let's say it like this:
'Pull polluters down'

Those are creative writing ideas for our three slogans.

Monday, June 9, 2008

BLOG MAP, SELECTED



SHOULD I CONFESS IN THE TITLE? CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS
As you know, today it is common to write various help-articles 'How-to'. There are 1,140,000,000 (yes, one billion) search results on Google about 'how to'.
I am thinking now how to title such an article 'How to?'? Because the standard title 'How to' is too common. Read more


TITLE ANTITHETICAL OR PLAIN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA
Plain or fancy? Apparent or paradoxical? Straight or contradictory?
I am talking about creative writing ideas for titles / summaries. I have read a question at 'Yahoo answers'. The question is about a title. The girl is writing a story and asking for help about creative title.
Read more


MEN'S BODY IMAGE: HOW TO IMPROVE IT?
What do you think about your own body image? Are you satisfied with it?
There are plenty of men not satisfied with their body images because of various reasons. One because of obesity. Another because of hair on his body. Or because of sweat. Or because of smells. Or he might be bald. Or he might have too many skin blemishes.


HOW TO PROMOTE A BLOG: SOCIAL MEDIA VS SEARCH ENGINE

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR SITE ON YAHOO ANSWERS ?

HOW TO GET A FREE PROMOTION ON TWITTER?

Saturday, June 7, 2008

SHOULD I CONFESS IN THE TITLE? CREATIVE WRITING IDEAS


As you know, today it is common to write various help-articles 'How-to'. There are 1,140,000,000 (yes, one billion) search results on Google about 'how to'.
I am thinking now how to title such an article 'How to?'? Because the standard title 'How to' is too common.
And now I see the same question at 'Yahoo Answers': Jessica needs a creative title for her essay on 'how to put a baby to sleep?'.
See the problem? How to title the essay about 'how to'? We need some creative writing ideas.

Fortunately, we have a prompt: the author acknowledges / admits / confesses she/he has similar problems during her/his own life.
As this great example of the famous author and child pedagogue Janusz Korczak: "My greatest fault is that I am no longer a child".

Here you see Seth Godin is not ashamed to confess about his 'IDEAS THAT DIDN'T WORK':
That makes Seth a great blogger!

Now I remember how in a public admission in July 2007, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (= Lula) confessed that he fears for his life when flying under the current safety conditions at the Brazilian aviation.

Let us agree on a few points:
The title should contain a question.
The title not necessary needs to imply the word 'how'.
Let the title imply some confession of mine.

Beyond that I don't know exactly (yes, I confess to not knowing everything).
Have more good examples of great authors for creative writing ideas? Share them.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

TITLE ANTITHETICAL OR PLAIN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA


creative writing antithesis
Plain or fancy? Apparent or paradoxical? Straight or contradictory?
I am talking about creative writing ideas for titles / summaries. Today I have read a question at 'Yahoo answers'. The question is about a title. The girl is writing a story and asking for help about creative title.
I assume the author wishes to write it catchy, doesn't she? To grab the attention?

What are the known/possible solutions?


As you know, this problem may have several solutions. You may go straight to the point: the principal heroine has such a character (a bad/good temper, an eccentric/normal nature, etc).
Or you may use a rhetorical question: "How to…?" "What do you know about…?"
Or you may scare / shock your readers: "If you don't know this information, you may happen to lose…".

How to choose the suitable solution?


I need to mention: we have more information on the story's main character. Rylie (that's the heroine's name) 'begins her senior year in bitterness that leads to rebellion. Once a sweet, innocent teen now an angry, faithless girl etc.'
OK. So we see a kind of contradiction here. This leads us to using a rhetorical device named Antithesis.

What is Antithesis?


You remember good known examples of antithesis:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong)
"Man proposes - God disposes".
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness." (Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities").
Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." (Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)

How would I title / begin the story?


Maybe like this: "Is Rylie sweet or harsh, charming or nasty, attractive or unpleasant?"
Or: "How can a girl be innocent and impure, spiritual and worldly?"
Or: "Naive but experienced, open but angry, spiritual but faithless…".

Practice it, try other creative writing ideas (antithetical) and get new possible titles.
The above photo is from Flickr