This post reminds me of the difference between my writing before and after learning about the hero's journey and its applicability to the writing of novels and screenplays. Before, the blank page was my rotten oyster. Afterwards, my concerted words came up smelling like roses. I think there's a fallacy where people think of creativity as the ability to come up with something different... when really the kind of creativity that is actually valued is the kind that produces works that are sufficiently familiar and pleasingly novel. That requires a starting point, an understanding of story structure or similar, a knowledge of where the edges are so that you can use the whole canvas, where the lines are so that you can use the whole field — without going too far and wasting your time coloring or playing out of bounds where it's unproductive and annoying.
So true.
I think of likely-to-work advertising (which, of course, includes direct-mail fundraising appeals) as "comfort food with a twist."
You know enough to feel safe (ah, mac and cheese, my lover).
And then the twist sparks your curiosity and your later word-of-mouth (ah, mac and cheese ... but this time with rosettes of blue-cheese-bacon and a few dried shiitake mushrooms for crunch, framed by a fresh spinach-leaf necklace: to bring on the virtue --- "OMG!!!!! I have to tell you what I had for lunch...").
love to all in IL
~ tom