Today is National Writing Day, an opportunity to think about the power of writing and how it helps us express ourselves, navigate confusion in uncertain times, and forge deep connections with others. Whether you’re using a feather quill, a stubby pencil or a keyboard, writing stories is a great way to create new worlds or simply understand the world around you.
At distillery, we believe that everyone has a story to tell, and our global team crafts exciting narratives in a range of formats tailor made for today’s digital audiences. Over the past three months, our Asia-Pacific team has produced over 100 stories as blogs, case studies, podcasts, infographics, video scripts, magazine pieces and more.
Writing for global audiences that have different cultures, and expectations is a complex but exciting challenge. We produce content in 11 different languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, Korean, Chinese, and Malay), and we strive to ensure that our stories resonate with local audiences. This past quarter, our EMEA team has handled over 80 commissions, writing stories for brands, big and small. And our US writing team has been working closely with brands located not only nationally, but also across South Africa, Japan and Canada.
Here, our writing teams share some of their thoughts on writing and what it means to them:
Tom Nash
Why I love writing: You can create worlds with words.
Best writing skill/USP: I always try to keep things snappy.
Favourite quote about writing: “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” Elmore Leonard
Martin Gschwentner
Why I love writing: It lets me flex my imagination.
Your best writing skill/ USP: I can write in English and German, which is handy I guess.
Favourite quote about writing: “Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.” Octavia E. Butler
Tim Collins
Why I love writing: It’s the greatest tool I have to express myself.
Best writing skill/USP: My ability to quickly get my head around highly complex information to produce engaging copy.
Favourite quote about writing: “I really couldn't imagine writing without a desperate deadline.” Hunter S Thompson
Himanshu Ojha
Why I love writing: It helps make the world make sense.
Best writing skill/USP: I like working out how to make one sentence flow into the next.
Favourite quote about writing: “A creative writer is one for whom writing is a problem.” Roland Barthes
Robert Mason
Why I love writing: Because I can’t draw.
Best writing skill/USP: Keep it simple stupid.
Favourite quote about writing: "You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write." Saul Bellow
Sofianna Ng
Why I love writing: Because you can edit writing, but you can’t take back things that have been said. Writing makes you more thoughtful.
Best writing skill/USP: I can ELI5 almost anything. #challengeaccepted
Favourite quote about writing: “Write drunk, edit sober.”
Alycia
Why I love writing: I get to tell people stories, no matter where they are.
Best writing skill/USP: Spotting a typo (okay that’s more of an editing skill). Also, I’m pretty good at chopping stuff off.
Favourite quote about writing: “You can make anything by writing” C.S. Lewis
If you’d like to find out more about what it’s like to work with our talented team, feel free to reach out here.
