Earworms

I get sentences and phrases stuck in my head the way some people do with songs. Either way, I think it's fair to call it an earworm. 

And just like that 80's power ballad that won't leave you alone, sticky words and phrases can only be exorcised one way.

You have to write it down.

It also helps to share it with others. Why do you think so many people share their earworms on Facebook? It's not just sheer mailce (although in the case of a few of my old college friends, malice definitely plays a role). It's because actually rolling around on the floor with the song -- or words -- that are haunting you that day is sometimes the only way to shake them loose.

You have to put them to work.

I'm incredibly lucky because I get to write for pay, every day. So I can almost always find some way of incorporating my daily earworm into something I'm working on. Whether it's an email, a blog post, or a bit of microcopy ephemera, there's usually something that can serve as a vessel for that little bugger and get it out of my head.

The thing is, that's usually exactly where it belongs.

Good copy uses words and phrases that are familiar to the reader -- beats and rhythms and patterns of sound that resemble the chatter on the inside of their heads. Since earworms generally emerge from my nonstop immersion in the clatter of the web (I'm not much one for TV or the movies, but I'm a wicked magpie when it comes to what people are talking about on the web), I can be pretty sure those words and phrases are cluttering up the brains of other people, too. It's part of the zeitgeist. It's in the air.

Which means it would probably make good copy.

The only challenge is figuring out where -- and how -- to use it.