It’s been a while. Too long, really. So I thought I’d come in and talk about something that was on my mind. Clearly that’s going to be emotion and copywriting and how that ties into to storytelling. But first let’s set the scene.
I’ve been in a nostalgic mood today. I was thinking back to days of old, of times that were significant for me. This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because it reminded me to keep going, that no matter what I do there’s someone who will appreciate what I do. Whether that be through paying me, interacting with my content or my creations, or just reading something I wrote.
But I was also thinking of the bad times. I’ve recently gotten back from my yearly trip and work hasn’t picked up like it was before I had left. Mentally I was back in the very early days of my writing career. A somewhat desperate 18 or 20 year old who just wanted to write about things he cared about and be paid to do it.
During that time I put out a lot of effort, and got very little in return. At that time I was being paid a tenth or less of what I get paid now for some projects. I’d spend money I didn’t want to spend in order to try and apply to a potential opportunity only to be ignored.
Now I know this slump will change. I just need to shake the money tree a little more and wait for some other people to fulfill their half of the bargain. But this leaves me with a lot of time on my hands, which can lead to this slight downward spiral.
Which brings us to today’s topic.
Copywriting and emotion go hand in hand. Emotion is one of the easier levers to use to sell a product to someone. People like things that make them feel. This usually applies to making them feel good, but sometimes people love it when they feel sad or angry for a good reason.
So I’m going to tell you a story to make you a little sad. It was 2020 and I was getting ready to wrap up a multi-year long Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The first one that I actually put a lot of effort into, that also set up a lot of my homebrew world. This is the same campaign that I normally referenced in previous posts if something particularly interesting happened.
I was internally a wreck during this process. I was saying goodbye to multiple characters and a storyline I absolutely loved. I had plot points and loose threads in abundance. But my players and I couldn’t explore them all. Sessions were becoming a slog. Schedules were starting to conflict heavily, and even now two years afterwards my core group of players haven’t fully come back because of their schedules.
There I was a few days before the final session. Everyone had been advised to prepare their epitaph for their characters. What would they do after the final current drop? As I myself was wondering this, I was looking through Youtube and I came across a channel called Cover Killer Nation (CKN).
The irony being that the first video I ever saw of CKN was the official announcement of his retirement from the Youtube game. He had made the tough decision to give up making videos for his channel and re-enter the work force. And so I found a kindred spirit in this random individual.
Here he was saying goodbye (for the most part) to a project he had been doing for 11 years and I was wrapping up one of my longest running campaigns. There’s something about hearing someone talk about a project they love doing that will always ring true. And I could absolutely feel for the guy and he “hung up his belt and spurs” that had taken up a good chunk of his life.
It showed me that some of the best goodbyes are the saddest, because they mean the most. A lot of people, myself included, love to see a story go on and on if we like it. We don’t want the ride to end. We want to know what happens next. But sometimes we don’t get that.
A good ending is entirely underrated in the modern age. The Marvel Cinematic Universe will pump out as many shows or movies as they can to capitalize on their customer base. and the more they try to push, the lower the quality will be. The MCU will become a husk of great expectations, never fulfilling everything and providing poorer entertainment as time goes on.
They’ll never have that heartfelt “Goodbye”.
And that, to me, is the true tragedy. They’ll never see the end of a good story. They’ll just experience the sudden and dramatic stopping of a story that went on for too long.
Everything has a pace that it needs to follow and a life span it needs to adhere too. Our hearts pump at a certain rate and we all live for a certain amount of years. When those stop, our story ends and its the same for songs, stories, and even our pet projects.
Knowing when to end something is a valuable skill. Somethings in life are not worth the extra effort or money to keep going. If we extend beyond the appropriate length of life of whatever we’re doing we experience diminishing returns.
In copywriting, this means less sales or reactions. In storytelling, we get this lich like monstrosity. Things that live beyond when they should have a repellent nature to them. It’s one of the reasons undead opponents or zombies unnerve us so much. It’s something dead that’s acting alive.
I don’t know how many projects are out that that have entered this undead status. Sometimes I feel this blog has entered that stage, but then I remember it’s there to retain the information, lessons, and experiences I deem interesting or important. It also provides something for you, whatever that ends up being.
It’s therapeutic for me. And as long as the internet exists, this blog will continue. Maybe not at the rates it used to, but that won’t stop it. Have a hobby or project that can last a long time. It might have multiple chapters within its story end, but keep going.
Because not every ending is the final one. The final ones are just the ones we remember the most.
Don’t keep your writing and stories alive longer than they should.
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
gentlemansuniversityofmanliness 