The initial name for this article was: “When there is no topic”. It turns out there is always a topic, sometimes author is discovering it together with the readers.

That was a long and busy day today. With only a few moments to think about the article I am now writing. There was no enough time to narrow down the topic, to think about the specific angle. And now I am too much tired to think clearly.

Nevertheless I am on my way to hit 100 articles by the end of the year. And great story does not have to be made up, polished from the beginning till the very end and is not measured with the time I’ve spent working on it.

A core

Most of the time whatever we are trying to create has a core. A single thought or feeling we are trying to capture. We may try to approach it from the different perspective. It may be important to find proper terms and definitions. And this is the most common place of failure.

This is why journaling works well for so many people. It helps to realize, find what’s really causing that feeling. Find a place and name for it. And this is exactly why people shall keep writing. This is why endless meetings are useless. It’s like a flow of the river. We might try to capture it, use it or change it. The higher the impact - the worst are the results. Some things must be accepted without changing.

Figuring out a core idea is the key to polished message. I am curious is this possible to capture and idea or feeling with just word. At this point of my life I am really happy when it can be captured in 1 sentence. This is the result of great job.

The package

The package means a lot for sales. And also for understanding. Sometimes, even perfect idea capture within precisely crafted sentence is till not enough. This is the reason books are written. I was never enjoying extra long descriptions and I’ve been looking forward to jump straight to the action and the results.

That’s not bad or good. That’s the typical rush, that is not letting impatient reader to enjoy the atmosphere. To feel it. And that’s kind of defect. Then books becomes even better than movie or a game. Because our imagination will craft the best feeling for us, the way we understand them.

Actually, writing this I reminded myself quite an interesting fact about how some places are randomly appearing in my head when I’m reading or thinking about something. These are not always from real world - these can be form a movie or a game. And this makes me wonder - how was I imagining this myself, before someone gave me an example or cliche that is reconstructed and resampled by my mind?

Proper packaging isn’t only about providing context or details for the core. Proper package builds feelings, builds a bridge, tune-up the consumer. This way consumer is ready to accept the core. Use it. Understand it. Integrate it. And best product teams are using it for decades. Is it even possible without loving it?

What’s more important?

We know well it’s possible to have low-quality core and pack it so well it is bought again and again. There are cases when package outlives the core: cookie boxes that gets second life as a storage boxes. Jokes and parodies, which has dumb core but the angle these are presented - funny and catchy - makes it popular. Because it’s fun. It makes feel us good.

On the other hand it’s tempting to keep wrapping everything in feel-good package that it takes the value of the core away. It masks it. It feels good and the core is defined the right way. But it lacks feelings. It lacks power. No energy there. And without energy it looses it’s most important quality (at least for any piece of art or creativity) - it does not lead to actions. It’s dead and it can’t become a beginning of something new.

Right now this sounds like a good distinguish point where to pick the “feeling-good” approach - it’s fine to have it a default approach. Good package will always attract more attention. And when feeling-good package attracts attention but the core is lacking energy - this is the moment when package must become harsh and rough. To keep that energy flowing.

In this article we’ve discovered the idea of core and a package together. Now I’m finishing it and I want to admit - I had no idea what will it be about when I have written first sentence. It turned out to be a nice discovery of how to deliver a message. In any form: article, product, idea, music or picture.

What is your way to define the core and what is your approach to ground it with the context?