Preamble: I wrote this piece for my ‘Radio for the Blind’ recording on 01 November, my predictions appear to have been prescient as we had a heavy fall of snow this week. Well we are heading for it now. The clocks have turned back and I have lit my open fire, as I write the […]
Author: Douglas Adamson
When manners obscure meaning
I came across this piece of dialogue in Scott Fitzgerald’s great novel, Tender is the Night. Dick Diver, one of the central characters, says: “Good manners are an admission that everybody is so tender that they have to be handled with gloves. Now, human respect – you don’t call a man a coward or a liar lightly, but […]
Beware Content Blindness
The communications industry is obsessed with ‘content’. In layman’s language this means copy and visual material for websites, blogs, social media sites and internal briefing documents. There is an overload of ‘content’ and therefore a greater need for brevity and conciseness. Engaging audiences among the tsunami of non-stop communications has become harder to achieve and […]
What’s in a name?
From the early stages of writing my first novel I had decided on the name, ‘The Windelton Absurdities.’ I felt it accurately characterised the absurd, outlandish and hilarious roll call of inhabitants and place that is the imaginary, small Yorkshire town of Windelton. So why did it end being called ‘Hidden Lives’ you might ask? […]
Understanding audiences
It is stating the obvious that different subjects will require different pace and tone; writing about an insurance policy needs a more serious treatment than say, a pair of Levi’s (although some may disagree), but understanding the motivations of your audience remain paramount. It is all too easy to forget when messaging, whether it be […]