tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924041612858397282.post6012453322529757400..comments2010-06-21T09:06:14.230-04:00Caren Lipkinnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8924041612858397282.post-63318759862898415542010-06-18T21:45:43.580-04:002010-06-18T21:45:43.580-04:00Great post, Greg. Again, thanks for all your insight. Another important point about great writing comes from the same thing that’s at the heart of all great novels, plays and movie scripts. Whether consciously or not, when you read a book or watch a theatrical production or go to the cinema, you grant the creative artist your "willing suspension of disbelief." You acknowledge, one way or the other, that you know you are about to experience a story, and that you agree not to say or think "there are no such things as aliens" or "no way could he shoot the lock off that door." Instead, you consent (more often than not unconsciously) to sit back and enjoy the ride. The worst of creative writers violate the pact of the suspension of disbelief by doing something that jars the audience out of its dream state. Mistakes, inconsistencies, preposterous coincidences, and trite artistic flourishes are examples. Can't the same point be made for great PR writing: the reader must never come across a paragraph, sentence or even a phrase that leaps off the page and screams "look at me." Great writing of any kind is, as you suggested, effortless to read. When a writer gets in the way, readers disengage. And most importantly great writing never lets you see the writer's hand. Great writing leaves readers deeply immersed in the idea the writer wants to put across without ever knowing the writer was there.Frank Freudberghttp://www.freudberg.comnoreply@blogger.com