It's one of those Saturday afternoons when you just want to switch the AC on and lose yourself in slumber-land. And I actually came pretty close to doing it - the AC's whirring away nicely, and I have already pulled out my favorite quilt for that cold-yet-cozy feeling.
But I've been trying to discipline myself - for long now, I have been meaning to put together a book, just a collection of short stories actually. And so far, I have made no progress on that front. It's not that I lack ideas- my mind is brimming with them; but I simply can't seem to reach that level of concentration and creativity that the task demands. So I started thinking about the recent bit of content-writing I did for my company's not-up-yet website. I had been hoping that the content would be written by a professional copy-writer, but my boss obviously thought otherwise. So, for over two days, I tried to produce witty, relevant content, and the effort left me mentally exhausted. For one, I wasn't feeling particularly witty, and plus, there was a bit of a complex playing on my mind. My boss had been showing me all these rather super-cool websites that had really, really witty content as a reference point for how the content on our own website should be shaping up.
Now, I write well. I have produced quite a bit of witty content in my life-time, stuff that has earned me appreciation from far-superior writers, so I know I can safely gloat about my own writing skills. But here’s the short-coming I willingly acknowledge: I haven’t really mastered the art of concise writing. A vast majority of my pieces have been looong affairs, with a fair sprinkling of un-necessary adjectives. This leaves me depressed, because I, personally, am a fan of the concise writer: the kind that manages to convey wit and humor in a few powerful lines, as opposed to lengthy passages that go on and on. And on.
My all-time favorite example of such witty writing is something I had read on the website of the company where I held my first job (http://lexsite.com/). Now, the website had, and still has, actually, a section where the general junta could contribute articles for publication on the site. In the introduction to that section, was mentioned: ‘All published material becomes the property of Lexsite.com, but we will of-course let you re-use the article, if you ask us nicely, that is.’ Or something to that effect (You need to be a registered member to access that page, so I can’t look it up now to check if it’s still there). But I remember I had a smile on my face long after I read that bit. But then, Vivek, the COO of that company and the guy who I rightly suspected of writing the piece, is brilliantly witty even otherwise: I remember one particular meeting, when all the content editors had assembled to assess their work and were discussing the grammar in a particularly convoluted sentence. Shaking his head to indicate his revulsion, Vivek quipped ‘There are so many ‘which’s in this sentence, I am reminded of Macbeth’. Hahahaha.
Then there are the bits of content I stumble across accidentally – the Webchutney website (www.webchutney.com) and their blog (www.webchutney.org); the careers page especially made for fun reading (and which was actually the sole reason I applied for a job with them). Then there are other websites related to the Webchutney family - just recently, I had been trying to get information on our parent company, Goosefish Media Ventures (www.gmv.in) to add to my own website piece. There’s not much content on it yet, so I didn’t leave much enlightened, but I thought the first blog post was interesting. It reads, ‘This is the Goosefish Media blog. And a responsible person shall write on it soon.’ Simple and classy. Just the way I like it. And then, on some page on the Alootechie site (www.alootechie.com), which I can’t locate now, I found something really witty: the site was operating in beta mode (have yet to figure out what that means.. I sooo hate tech-speak). So right above their logo, they have this bit in parentheses, ‘Beta! Beti! Whatever!)’ Lol! Right, whatever!
Then there were the quarter-page print ads for Matrix cards some time back. They were trying to advertise their UK calling cards and the fact that they helped save quite a bit on long-distance calls. That was a wonderful bit of copy - about eating out at Nobu’s and going shopping and stuff. Will try and put it up on the blog when I spot it next time. Then there’s the story my boss was telling me about AMD, a processor-maker and Intel’s biggest competitor. It seems they had this coffin right outside their corporate headquarters, that read, ‘Intel Inside.’ Hahaha. How brilliantly clever was that? Then, of course, there’s Mark, whose blog (www.markskingdom.spaces.com) is packed with wit. In real life, he’s a bit like Johnny Depp’s character, Jack Sparrow, in the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and his blogs are almost always hysterically funny.
And to top it all off, here’s something I found in the most incongruous place of all: one of Mark’s friends had written him a testimonial for his Orkut page:
'To tell about mark i must first tell u about myself. Im awesome! Today i decided i was a Red indian pirate gypsy mermaid!! kickass no? Its always good to know about ur heritage. Oh Oh and im also the funniest person IN THE WHOLE WORLD! im nto even exaggerating..altho i could...cuz i am a drama queen. Anyway, what was i on about? Oh yeah mark...hes nice’
Lol!
