What a difference a conversation makes

Tough assignment yesterday. I needed to put together 350 words for an article for an inhouse magazine. Should have been straightforward. I’d been sent reams of background material after all.

But ...  the slides, press releases, internal emails and even the briefing documents were just chock full of words I thought I knew but clearly had a different meaning in this context. The sentences were pretty hefty too. I'm no expert on medical research or even venture capital - and you needed both to begin to understand what this story was about. Ever feel it's all getting away from you a bit?

Yet half an hour on a call with the expert and how the world changed. This most amenable interviewee was happy to let me ask the questions, and in return gave me a great plain-English explanation of what it was all about.

Actually it turned out to be really interesting story, so we had a fascinating conversation. That means I could write an article that would be interesting to a wide, non-technical audience too. The added bonus is that my interviewee talked in the American English that I needed to write the article.

The lesson for today is:

-          If you’re a journalist or copywriter, do your best to talk to the source yourself. Don’t be scared off by a difficult subject – it’s your job to explain so first you have to understand.

-          If you’re in marketing, PR or internal communications, don’t be afraid to put your writer in touch with your experts. You’ll get a much better result for it, and not all writers are embarrassing or try to steal your clients from you at the first opportunity.

(Of course, I haven’t had feedback yet. That might change everything.)