How can you ever know if what you do is any good?

Last night at the Toppled Bollard dance emporium a woman asked me to dance.

After the dance she asked me what I did for a living. I told her I wrote advertisements and books.

She said, “Are they any good?”

I said, “Some of the adverts work very well.”

“How do you set about writing an advert?” she said.

“It’s like dancing,” I said, “I just start and the rest of it happens. When I started out, sometimes it would work, sometimes not. Then I worked out why those that failed, didn’t get the sales. After 30 odd years of dancing and writing, I’ve learned a thing or two about both.

“But aren’t there some basic rules?” she asked.

I told her that in dancing the first rule for the man was not to hurt the lady, and to dance within her means. In writing adverts it’s much the same. Don’t insult the customer, and don’t try to be clever.

She nodded and wandered off. I’m not sure if the nod meant agreement or something else. These days one can never tell.

Tony Attwood