Dear Second Brain

Flick to the acknowledgements page of your favourite book and, among the love notes to parents and partners, you’ll find someone heralded as the real hero in its writing: the editor. 

That incisive soul who encouraged, challenged and pushed their writer towards the work we now treasure. The second brain behind the words.

Second brains are just as crucial to brand language. At our studio, everything we develop – including strategic statements, tone of voice guidelines, and copy of all kinds – gets the benefit of at least two writerly minds. 

Our lead writer or word-loving strategist crafts something smart, arresting, irresistible. Then our second brain helps take it to the next level. 

But what role exactly does a second brain play, and how does the editing process really benefit a piece of work? 

When we sit down to look at a draft, we:

Make sure audiences are getting what they need

Brand language experts step into their audience’s shoes. They’re constantly asking themselves: why will my audience care? But as a writer, it’s tricky to be the audience, a reader, until you step away.

Editors, on the other hand, are immediately a reader. The first reader, in fact. When we edit a draft, we’re reading for things that trip us up or turn us off – muddled thinking, confusing phrases, clumsy structure.

We’re also staying alert to language with impact so that we can encourage our first drafter to do more of that.

We’ll leave constructive comments, or sometimes tweak things ourselves. Always on behalf of our client’s audience, and in the name of making their experience straightforward, reassuring and in most cases enjoyable. 

Check our work is truly meeting the brief

As well as writing for their audience, a good writer or strategist holds the brief close as they develop their work. But it’s easy to get lost in a brief – to be swept up in creative thinking, or tangled in details, and to lose sight of what it’s really asking.

Our second brain is detached enough from the brief that they can see which elements we’re delivering on, and what we’re missing. They ask questions that help our first drafter to regain their focus and create a better second attempt. 

When we developed University of Greenwich’s (UOG) tone of voice, the language of the guidelines was clear, concise and engaging. But our second brain spotted an opportunity to hit the brief and then some.

They challenged our writer to bring UOG’s new tonal principles into the guidelines’ language itself. The result was a guide to sounding like UOG that become an A* example of the brand’s new tone of voice.

Challenge ourselves to achieve ‘simple originality’

To create truly original work, writers and strategists need freedom. To experiment, to play, to bring their own brand of creativity to language. But their own voice should never overpower the client’s. And their creativity should never confuse the reader. 

Without the emotional attachment our first drafter brings, a second brain can spot where originality has become self-indulgence. They challenge the writer to redraft language they might be wedded to, but which isn’t working. 

Or as William Faulkner and many other writers have said, they help you to kill your darlings. 

It could mean simplifying a sentence, clarifying a metaphor, or reworking rhythm. Whichever, it’s our concept of ‘simple originality’ that our second writing mind is pushing for: language ideas and writing that a reader hasn’t seen before, and that gives them what they need and is bang on brief.

So, next time you develop language and you’re not convinced it’s as compelling as it could be, ask someone to review it. Invite criticism, and get tips to improve what you’ve created. Dear Second Brain...