How to Write Passionate Letters

How to Write Passionate Letters

Sept. 27, 2005

By Jerry Huntsinger

Passion is contagious. A donor will not catch your passion unless your letter is passionate. And your letter won't be passionate unless you're passionate.

You can't fake it. You either feel it, or you don't. So if you've been sitting behind your desk for three hours, functioning like a talking head, with the cool, detached logic of a consummate executive, don't expect to just click on Microsoft Word and start writing passionately. No way.

Instead, take your project file with you, and go for a walk. Read it with the fresh perspective you get from being away from your desk. Fill your mind with it. Purge away the necessary administrative trivia you've been dealing with all day.

Then, morph into whatever routine that works for you when it comes to actually putting words on paper. For myself, I dictate all of my copy. Always have. Always will. And instead of sitting in an easy chair with my feet on the desk, I pace the room like a nervous tiger. I want the blood to be running from my legs into my brain, and not congealing in the fatty lumps of my rear end. I walk and talk. And since I can't see the actual words, I am forced to talk fast. I never look back on what I've said until the editing phase. I'm in a conversational mode.

I guess most writers these days sit at a computer. If you're one of them, you can achieve the same results by getting your package contents into your mind -- really into your mind -- and then marching around your office or going for a walk and thinking about the donor. And about the person signing the letter. And about what you want to happen. Then, when you get it all into your mind, to the point where you're about to burst, sit down at the computer, and get it all out. Don't edit a thing while you're writing that first draft. Don't get hung up on spell checks. Don't answer the phone. Be sure your door is locked. Don't go to the bathroom, or do anything that will interrupt the flow.

And if you don't have a flow, just write whatever comes into your mind. Get it out. Something good will appear.

Then, go to the bathroom. And come back to your desk, and edit your package like it had been created by someone else. Write with abandon and haste. Edit with a ruthless focus on what you want the package to do.

Freelance copywriter Jerry Huntsinger is the founder of several marketing companies. He can be reached via e-mail at qqq@starband.net.