It doesn’t have to be this way. All communication should evoke some kind of reaction, be it educative, informative, entertainment or emotion. This can’t happen unless there’s a bit of passion behind the words. A bit of creativity. Some life. It can be so easy to stick to the same formulas and language, yet this not only doesn’t benefit the client in the long run, it makes your working life a little bit dull.

What can we learn from creative writing for business writing? I ran a workshop at Petit Miracles to share some exercises usually reserved for fiction and poetry with budding entrepreneurs, all with the aim of improving their business writing.

The most crucial element of any story is the character. Who they are, how they act, and what happens to them is how plot develops. People connect with other people. Novelists say you should know everything about your character, even the things that seem irrelevant to the story. It’s not enough to know that your target customers are women aged 20-40. Be specific. The Petit Miracles team know their customer’s names, when they last laughed, what book they are reading, what’s in their handbag.

How often do you receive some communications from a company, and find that it’s drowning in jargon and long sentences – only discovering the thing that you actually want to know right at the end of the letter or information? We tried distilling down what the business and brand was about to a haiku. With only 17 syllables to play with there’s no room to be vague. Making the pitch poetry was a fun way to play.

There are over 90,000 products in the largest supermarkets, and we’re exposed to over 800 ads per day. How can you stand out? The best brands know that the heart leads, not the head. Decisions are made emotionally rather than rationally. Rather than focusing on what the product is, the entrepreneurs at Petit Miracles thought about how they wanted the product to make their customer feel. It’s not about clothes, it’s about feeling powerful. People don’t buy soap, they buy relaxation and time.

By the end of the workshop not only had we laughed a lot, but all the participants said that they had a better idea of who their customer is and how they want to speak to them. Confidence in writing and marketing improved, and there was a real energy in the room, with everyone motivated to take their business to the next level and ready to tell their brand story.

11am

Petit Miracle Hub, First floor, West 12 Shopping Centre, Shepherd’s Bush, London, W12 8PP

Book here

We tend to put creativity in one box, and communication in other. Play on one side, and business somewhere else. When we’re earning a living from our writing, writing for business, engaging with corporate clients, there’s something about the involvement of transactions, and well, money, that sucks the life out of words and takes away all creativity.

It doesn’t have to be this way. All communication should evoke some kind of reaction, be it educative, informative, entertainment or emotion. This can’t happen unless there’s a bit of passion behind the words. A bit of creativity. Some life. It can be so easy to stick to the same formulas and language, yet this not only doesn’t benefit the client in the long run, it makes your working life a little bit dull.

What can we learn from creative writing for business writing? How can exercises usually reserved for fiction and poetry help our business writing? At this workshop we will use creative writing techniques like poetry and storytelling to apply to a business communications context.

Part of Petit Miracle Hub, a retail and business incubation project – created by Londoners for Londoners – and a haven for aspiring entrepreneurs needing access to the retail market.

Here’s April 2017’s issue, featuring some of my words….

£25 per person, or two for £35 – price includes a glass of wine/tea and coffee and nibbles. Get in touch with Kate to book.

Join us at this creative writing workshop for adults; a space in which to explore storytelling, learn new techniques, stimulate ideas, channel your creativity – and put some words on paper. Open to all levels and experience, the session will include exercises, prompts, activities and discussion to help get your imagination and pens flowing.

The incredible talent that fills the shop (they have collaborated with over one hundred designers and offer space for makers to sell their wares) is both inspirational and intimidating. Led by Jude, and kept hydrated by Alice, we pretty soon relax, and get ready to become one of those makers, however briefly.

So step by step silver jewellery goes something like this….

After learning how to thread a saw – surprisingly difficult – we get stuck in on a piece of copper. Much cheaper than silver, it’s an ideal way to practice those straight lines, changes of directions and curves, and the process definitely informs the designs for our own pieces. Once we produced our stencils and stuck them to the silver, it was time to saw away. It’s easy to cut, or at least more so than I anticipated, and fairly fast once a decision has been made as to exactly what you’re trying to create. After sawing, it’s down to filing and sanding, an almost therapeutic job, watching your square of metal become a smooth shape that you created. Once the pendant is ready, it’s a case of drilling a hole somewhere in it and attaching a jump ring then a chain.

If it all sounds surprisingly simple, that’s because it is. What makes Turpentine unique (and awesome) is the clear passion that they have for what they do. At the same time is being in awe and respect of the makers they work with, they set up a feeling of accessibility and inclusivity. From describing their education – ‘St Martin’s, yeah, it’s just an art school round here ‘ – to the equipment needed – ‘don’t spend a fortune, find an old scrap of wood somewhere’ – and the cosy warmth of the shop and space, they clearly want to bring their craft to everyone. As well as one off workshops they run 6 week courses, graduates of which have gone on to do great things.

Handmade to the high street is their tagline, and they’ve succeeded in creating a brilliant shop space with workshops, that is ‘accessible, catchy, gender-neutral, art-based’ – and most of all fun.

Not that long ago street art was considered a synonym for vandalism. Tags scrawled by young louts hanging from railway bridges when they ought to have been home at night and who didn’t respect the value of people’s property. Or at least that was one mindset. But things have changed (partly to Mr Banksy’s fame) and now the whole spectrum of street art, right from the scorned tag, through typography, paste ups, and murals can be seen on the streets of the world’s most celebrated cities.

On a street art walking tour through parts of Old Street, Shoreditch, and Hackney, with Emilie from Alternative London, I was shown an array of styles and forms, some playful and aesthetic, some a demonstration of identity, and others part of a social conversation and making challenge statements. And try as they might, the authorities can’t stamp it down. Just like Christiaan Nagel’s brightly coloured mushrooms made from expanding foam and popping up around the east, it keeps on growing.

Street artists are nothing if not innovative. Take Ben Wilson. You’re unlikely to notice his work. In fact, you’ll step all over it. Also known as the chewing gum artist, he creates works on discarded and dried up bits of gum, putting the view in front of him down on the sticky pavement. Some of the simplest work is deep in meaning, like ‘Stik’, the man who is a comment on the vulnerability of the disenfranchised homeless community.

Street art is no longer underground, displayed in galleries and selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds. We see pieces by Banksy, Thierry Noir (the first man to paint on the Berlin Wall), Connor Harrington, and a secret pop star who goes by the name of Bambi. Having soaked up inspiration from all the above and more, we wandered back to the studios (via a beautiful and intricate paste up mural from Lily Mixe) to create our own.

Emilie guided us through designing and cutting out multi layered stencils, and bravely trusted us to wield spray paint as we cast it on the walls, paper and bags to take away. Struggling to create the perfect A4 stencil, I’m in awe of the large and intricate pieces like that of French stencilist Tian.

But this form of art isn’t about competition. Instead it’s creative and expressive. Rocking my new bag and proud of my skills, as well as encouraged to look up, down, and really see what’s around me, I’ve got a whole new appreciation for art—wherever it happens to be.

It became apparent just how intrinsic this is to the creative process. When drawing an unfamiliar scene and an arrangement of disconnected objects you have to be aware and focus on what is actually there. That’s where the mindfulness aspect comes in. Much focus is put on the importance of really looking at what’s in front of us, rather than what we think we see.
I took my uncle, high flyer in finance and confessed technology geek, whose immediate gut reaction to my suggestion on how to spend a Tuesday evening was ‘no way.’ So he came. Although we agreed to put no pressure on ourselves and accept that with a gap of up to 30 years since last drawing, we wouldn’t like what we drew and that was fine, the first couple of exercises still felt a little stressful. But as soon as the time passed, the wine flowed and the muscles loosened, and we basically gave up trying to do it right and instead tried to do it for fun, things felt better.
Leaving with no new found skill, but a bunch of worksheets, drawings and tools, as well as an appreciation of the value of taking the time to sit, be and create. He even sent me this photo the next day, with the caption ‘So I find myself here…’ That’s success.