Writers write words that speak.

Everyone is a writer. Seriously. We all have to write every day. Whether it’s an e-mail to a co-worker, a to-do list for your spouse or a check to the guy who just fixed your car, you have to put letters together into words and make sentences to convey your point. That’s writing.

Me? I actually write for a living so I have to do a little more than that. Actually a lot more than that.

Without question, I have to have my facts straight. I have to tell things truthfully because I represent my co-workers to our clients and our clients to their customers. That is a huge responsibility that I take very seriously.

The other side of writing for a living is that I have to make said facts interesting.

There’s an ongoing joke inside advertising that most copywriters laugh at on the outside and silently jab their co-workers with forks in their minds. That no one ever reads the copy. Ah ha ha. Real funny, huh?

Well, it’s true. If you don’t engage people right off the bat, they’re never going to read that stinger ending you edited and re-edited for 25 minutes just to get the cadence right. But even that’s not the hard part.

You can get your facts right and make what you write interesting. But you can still fail if what you write doesn’t move people or show them that you truly understand what you’re talking about.

Case in point. Early in my writing career, I wrote an article about a new piece of mammogram technology. The nurse who looked it over for me actually laughed when she read it and said, “Honey! How old are you? You have obviously never had a mammogram!”

I hadn’t. And it obviously showed. Which is not good when your target audience is all too familiar with the annual pain and discomfort that is the price for potentially lifesaving images.

Her good natured ribbing that day was a humbling experience that taught me a lot about my job as a writer. It’s one thing to write to get a point across. Anyone can do that.

It’s quite another to write things that actually speak to other people. That’s my job.

Every word. Every sentence. Every project. Every day.

An Advertising Teaching

Before I went off on that pharmacy rant a few weeks ago, I actually intended to make that whole post about things I've learned in advertising. I thought this one would finally make good on that promise but now I'm not so sure. I'll give it a shot though.

Probably the number one most interesting thing I've learned is sort of a no brainer. But an interesting one. I came across it researching for a pitch a few years ago. I was trying to learn what makes a business or company decide to locate in a given community. There was a whole list of criteria (way more important than this one thing and I am guessing related to tax breaks and monetary incentives) butI cannot recall any of them except this one.

One of the things some companies look at when assessing a community is whether or not people leave their shopping carts out all over the parking lot. At the grocery store, Wal-Mart, Target and other stores. That simple action says a lot about what people think about their community. Nothing says I don't care like shopping carts all over the place when there are plenty of proper places to put them. I don't care if this cart causes someone to have to park somewhere else. I don't care if it rolls into another car in the lot. I don't care that this parking lot looks like a minefield. I can't be bothered to either put it in the corral (even though I am close enough to it to comfortably walk there) or walk it inside. Other people have left theirs, so I will too. I don't care.

I am a rule follower, so I have never been the type to leave my buggy out in the lot. I don't care if I have a baby in tow or if it's raining or both, I put that thing in the corral. And if I am two spaces away form the entrance, I actually walk it in back to the store. Ever since I learned this little nugget it always makes me sad to see buggies out in a parking lot. I'm sure those people really could care less about what they've done and it may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

But to other people an action like that is very significant. It says something. About you and what you think about the community you live in.

I can't really do much about other people's actions and there will always be people who will leave their buggies out in the lot. Such is life. But I hope there will always be plenty of other people who care enough about where they live to grab the handle and push those wayward buggies where they belong. Even if no one is watching.

If I Had a Dollar

How many times I have I stood on my soapbox and blasted those who don't update their web content in a timely manner? Too many to count. And now here I am, one of them. Maybe I should have called this the Semi-monthly Grind.

Anyhow, I've been stewing over a post about things I've learned over the years in advertising. Hear me out, though. It's not what you think. I hope it's more interesting than that.

The first, of course, is about pharmacy. I write a lot about pharmacy management software. Not being a pharmacist myself, that means I have to do a lot of research. Have I ever learned a lot in the past few years. Now I know what a PBM is and now that my family's prescriptions are at the mercy of one, I have felt the pain firsthand. But that pain is nothing compared to the pain that many pharmacists are feeling behind the counter.

You might think your pharmacist is busy doing important medication related stuff all day. But he or she is not. There's hardly any time.

They are coping with the aftermath of Medicare Part D ... explaining the doughnut hole and the jillions of different plan co-pays, and all that jazz that really has nothing to do with prescriptions per se. They are getting yelled at by customers because of the cost of their medications and copays when they have absolutely nothing to do with that. They are on the phone with third payer and PBM help desks trying to understand absurd formulary requirements and idiotic error codes that tell them what they are required to do even when they know it makes no sense. Especially frustrating when you consider that your pharmacist knows way more than the person on the other end of the line who has absolutely zero clinical training.

Pharmacists are dealing with the people who call in prescriptions from doctor offices (here's a hint: your doctor is not the one calling them in and the person who is probably calling them in seems to think that task makes them some sort of pharmacy expert). And electronic prescriptions, which have cleared up the handwriting issue on prescriptions, are still error prone when the person filling out the prescription lets go of the cursor in the wrong window whether for patient, medication or dosage. An error that a pharmacist will probably help clear up.

And not to mention the strains of the environment. In some pharmacies there is no time for bathroom breaks or lunch. The days are long sometimes 10 or 12 hours at a time. The phone is ringing. The drive through is dinging. Customers are talking on their phones and ignoring the person at the register whether it's a pharmacist or tech. I could go on and on because we haven't covered independent pharmacy versus chain giant or prescription drug addicts who shop doctors and pharmacies.

But I'll stop here. Just do me a favor. The next time you go to the pharmacy, look at those people on the other side of the counter and remember that 80 percent of the stuff they are doing, they really shouldn't have to do. They do it because they are health care professionals and it's the right thing to do.

I have learned a few other thing but I'll save those for later.