The Role of Creativity in Content Writing sounds like the type of thesis paper some liberal arts/communications major would delve into after a steady diet of totalitarian sci-fi novels, head-spinning lectures on Alan Turing and seminars like Twitter, Linguistics and Gender Politics. Yeah, we’re not going to go there, but it’s still a question that needs to be asked: What is the Role of Creativity in Content Writing?
Let’s get Socratic and answer the question with a question: Is web content only about traffic, driving traffic and traffic jams? The latter being what the Internet is (was?) dominantly and metaphorically comprised of, hence the party crashing arrival of Panda and his good friend Penguin. Following the same line of Socratic questioning, have you ever wondered what will come after Penguin? Will it be another animal that begins with the letter P, say a Panther or a Peregrine. You can probably double down on the fact it won’t be a Parrot, however, as that bird’s relentlessly banal chatter and mimicry is why Google’s algorithms are locked in place to begin with.
Rambling off the Rails (See Above Paragraph)
That bit of rambling verbiage about the pandas and the parrots, well it’s supposed to amuse and entertain. It’s supposed to make you smile, dear reader, and say “What about the kangaroo? The armadillo?” It’s supposed to keep you reading the last 200 words of this blog before you click away and continue to click, reading only 50 words of an article here, a half-paragraph there, your darting eyes and mouse-finger grabbing at snippets of information but never settling on one thing for Total Immersion. It’s said that when the average person goes to a museum they spend about 3 seconds in front of a work of art. We’re talking about Monet, Picasso and Matisse. If that’s the case at the MOMA and the Tate, how long does the average person spend on a website? The phrase like the speed of light comes to mind.
Is site content writing all about branding?
Socrates replies:
1. Is it all about rebranding?
2. Pivoting the audience?
3. Expanding the niche?
4. Social Media Strategies?
5. Leveraging content?
6. The 4-1-1 Rule?
Of course, not all content needs to be spiked with an 80 proof shot of creativity. There’s a blueprint approach to many types of web writing, especially those pieces that are intended to be instructional or devised for strictly informative purposes. In the end, creativity is a matter of taste, and there’s no debating that when you’re writing for someone who signs your paycheck.
Writers, the next time you try something new that results in queue of revision requests and rejections, just remember what the playwright Joe Orton once said: “The kind of people who always go on about whether a thing is in good taste invariably have very bad taste.”
No Pandas, panthers or parrots were harmed in the writing of this blog.
Damon H is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
