In A Word, Cha-ching!

Deep in thought as I washed my hair the other day, my mind was wandering all over the things I wanted to write, the things I needed to finish writing, and, well, just all sorts of things about writing. As the suds began trickling down my arms, I thought about all the opportunities that are out there for writers. Many people don't even think about--consciously.

There are certainly the novelists, the essayists, the journalists, the biographers, the writers of memoirs, the playwrights, the poets, the songwriters, and the writers of deep philosophical and theological discussion but then there are the unsung heroes. The technical writers, the advertising copy writers (someone writes those great Super Bowl commercials), the obituary writers, and the writers of all those directions on every container we buy anywhere.

Words in any venue need to be honed and perfected to express exactly what the work calls for. Quite literally, a project can live or die by one word. And one word can truly make a difference in the bottom line financially. Take for instance the word, repeat. Lift up almost any bottle of shampoo and read the directions. It will usually say something like, "Apply to wet hair, lather, and rinse. Repeat."

And there's the cha-ching. Repeat. How much more shampoo is sold simply because a writer decided to write into the directions, "repeat?"