A recent competition shortlisting for one of my poems got me thinking about the ways that creative writing (which for me at the moment largely means poetry) and charity comms feed into each other.
Every word counts
Samuel Taylor Coleridge described poetry as ‘the best words in the best order’ and carefully choosing the right word matters for both poetry and copywriting. It’s a skill that helps with key copywriting tasks like explaining complex ideas in ways that are concise, clear and relatable, or developing messages that readers will find compelling and motivating. It’s perhaps been particularly useful when it comes to writing social media posts where the number of characters available and the time you have to grab people’s attention are limited.
Distilled storytelling
One of the things I’m often trying to do in a poem is tell a story in a precise and concise way, those things are really important skills in telling stories for not-for-profits too. It’s not just about getting to the heart of the story quickly, but finding the best way to tell it.
Writing to a prompt
The competitions and submission slots I’m most likely to enter are those that come with a theme that starts the imagination firing. That might be because I’m so used to writing to briefs but I also love taking a vague theme or topic from a charity and working out which stories I can tell and how I might move away from the obvious responses to something more interesting for the audience.
Research meets imagination
I love incorporating more creative work into charity writing projects, that might mean combining historical research with imagination to fill the gaps, or telling an environmental story from a non-human angle. My poems and short stories often start with a real point of contact, for example an object in a museum or a moment in nature and develop from there. (This is exactly what happened with the poem that’s just been shortlisted, I spotted something on a walk in the woods and then gave it a life of its own.)
Ways I can help you
- Find out more about my freelance writing work.
- I provide copywriting support for small charities and not-for-profits, community groups, and churches.
- My new sharpening social media copy package provides an accessible starting point for reviewing your posts.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss a writing or copywriting project.
Shelly Dennison 