First job. Steve Jobs. And a funny thing called a Mac.

Telling you that I have over twenty years experience as a direct marketing writer easily dates me. Unless I started in the fourth grade, you have a general idea that I began my career in the late 1980s, early 1990s. Starting out, I was thrilled to land my first job as a junior copywriter at Doubleday Book & Music Clubs in Garden City, NY, where I was going to be writing. Yes, writing! No one cared how fast I could type, or how well I brewed a pot of coffee. (I grew up watching my parents make instant, so I didn’t even know how.) Granted, I wasn’t working on the high-concept projects that I delve into today, but I did learn the art of writing tight.

My first assignments were to write blurbs for the 100-plus books that were featured in the direct mail packages for book clubs like The Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club. But the tricky part was that I had to write a complete synopsis for each book in twenty words or less. I quickly learned that every word mattered, that there was always fat to trim, that words could influence readers, and that this process was fun!

 Learning to write teeny blurbs that packed a punch

I worked on a word processor in a cubicle the size of a Chinese food container. I shared that space with a junior art director named Jennifer. I called her Yennifer, or Yen, and through our relationship (a friendship I still hold dear to this day), I learned how magical writer/art director chemistry could be. I also learned about something completely foreign to me: a Mac.

After hours one night, Yen brought me to a room down at the end of the hallway. “Lis, you’ve got to see these new computers. They’re amazing,” she said. I thought it was a broom closet, but it was a media room inhabited by only the young, brave creatives. Much like a mad scientist’s lab, it was filled with objects I had never seen before: a few, modern-looking computers with lights glowing from the screens; hands holding a quirky little thing called a mouse and it moved rhythmically along the desk, as if playing the board game Ouija; faces transfixed on the amazing things happening on the screens in front of them. Yen sat me down, and for a few hours, walked me through funny-sounding things like Quark, Adobe, Word, scroll, drag, copy, paste. I remember feeling overwhelmed and excited, as if I had just been let in on the secret to the creative person’s universe.  Yen, the pioneer that she continues to be in her thinking and spirit, introduced me to a new world, a world created by a man named Steve Jobs. Back then, I had never even heard of him.

A sleek, graphic, partially eaten apple is staring me right in the face as I get to the point of this blog: life is an ongoing series of connect the dots.

I am presently reading the hefty biography of Steve Jobs. I am typing this post on a Mac. The Danielle Steel and Nelson DeMille books I used to write about in twenty words or less are now read on handheld devices created by Apple. Like pixels, or DPIs (which I’m sure Yen taught me about back then), individual dots continue to come together to broaden, enrich and expand an experience. It may not be obvious at first, but it’s happening. I draw from my foundation of writing tight to recognize when I’m rambling. (Like now.) I employ the timeless principles of direct mail when creating the latest electronic means of communicating. I take what I learned and continue to add it to what I’m learning. Looking back to move forward. No dot left behind.

Comments

[Maria]

You took me back to a time when changes to copy meant actually TYPING things over from scratch and art directors actually pasted their mechanicals together. Each change was truly labor intensive, and cut and paste required glue and scissors. Your writing reminds me how exciting and fun it was to be a part of that revolution. Keep up the great work!

[Lisa Safran]

Thanks for the comment, my fellow writer friend!

[kathleen]

i have no idea sometimes what you are writing about in terms of subject matter but your writing style is so captivating i find myself reading more and more, love it, impressed with all your goals
Kathleen