How To Evaluate Your Own Writing

What advertising taught me about recognizing good ideas

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

I used to work in advertising, for the biggest ad agencies in the world, until very recently when I quit and I started a career as a freelancer.

And I miss it. At least some parts of it. As a freelancer, it is difficult to be a one-man show. I miss being part of a team. But more than anything else, I miss the thrill of being around creative people. Because they are amazing. They create! They take an idea and turn it into something more, out of thin air. And this is an incredible experience to watch and assist.

As a strategic planner and an account director, the best part of my job (among a lot of tedious things) was to promote, support, and sell other people’s ideas. Making sense of them, choosing the best fit for the given task.

Although coming up with ideas wasn’t in my job description, selecting and sifting others’ ideas was. As the ultimate goal was to present and sell the best ideas, as a senior team member, it was of utmost importance to be able to judge an idea or execution. It was like a creative editor position.

Now, as a writer, when it comes to crafting and selecting my own work, I am starting to realise that similar principles apply to writing, as in any other creative output.

When I’m evaluating a creative output, now in the form of articles and personal essays, it boils down to the same three things I used to evaluate other creative work:

Originality of the idea Novelty of the approach Uniqueness of the execution

If you have a look at the best-performing and award-winning advertising, it is art in its pure form. Advertising is an applied art. It serves its purpose, which, at the end of the day, is related to a brand’s objective. To raise awareness or educate and to sell in some form. Selling doesn’t always mean making money; you need to sell a cause or an opinion too, to obtain followers and supporters.

Looking at the winners of Cannes Lions each year will show you how the best pieces in advertising—regardless of the brand’s objective—apply the aforementioned three factors. The very best use all three or some combination of them, but even being outstanding in one aspect can bring success.

When it comes to writing, it is creative work at its core. With the goal of being read by the readers.

You can read about how to fight your imposter syndrome, how to overcome writer’s block, how to come up with ideas with writing prompts to practice and become more prolific.

But there is another challenge to overcome.

How to select your own ideas so that they could become best-selling pieces (as in most read and appreciated)?