Insights archive
Red Pony is a team of writers, editors, Microsoft Office template developers and communications trainers. We have been writing about our areas of expertise for over a decade in our Red Pony Express newsletter.
This collection features the best articles from the last 10 years.
An ode to the epistolary novel
From its prevalence in the earliest days of publication, the epistolary novel is now less common, yet still it persists. Perhaps it’s to do with the thrill of receiving a humble handwritten letter.
What are you selling?
As any marketing advice will tell you: consistency is key. If you are selling something, all your communication should consistently reinforce what it is and who you are. But it’s worth keeping in mind that there are times when your brand identity isn’t what your audience wants to know.
The productivity of rest
Respected thinkers and leaders have long recognised the benefits of carving out uninterrupted time to think. But what about the benefits of doing nothing at all?
Are beach safety flags the wrong colour?
As someone who regularly drives between Melbourne and the west coast of Victoria, the new West Gate Tunnel has been a welcome addition to the road network, saving me about 15 minutes each trip. The new routes and signage have taken some getting used to though, and I’m not the only one who has taken some time to adjust.
A strollout of milkshake ducks
It’s that time again! The Macquarie Dictionary has selected Australia’s Word of the Year: the word that best reflects the zeitgeist for 2025. In the spirit of the season, let’s get judgemental and rank all 19 previous winners.
Listening for the joy of language
Ever wondered why we call it a trailer when it comes before the movie? Or why we refer to anonymous or unknown people as John or Jane Doe. These and many other topics to do with language are the heart and soul of A Way with Words, a podcast that’s all about ‘language and how we use it’.
How to make gravy
In his ode to a particularly Australian style of Christmas, Paul Kelly gave a recipe for How to make gravy (‘Just add flour, salt, a little red wine / And don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang’). For Christmas lunch, I will be in charge of the Christmas ham, as well as making the seasonal drink using Adam Liaw’s delicious cherry chinotto cordial recipe. All of this got me thinking about the art and science of writing recipes.
Blank space
In broadcasting, you’re instructed to avoid ‘dead air’. If you’re applying for a job, you may be dreading the question about that gap in your resumé. Why are we so scared of a little blank space?
So many books, so little time. Is Blinkist the answer?
The tower of unread books on my bedside table is growing. And with it, my guilt. I consider myself a ‘reader’, not someone who smugly displays books but never cracks the spines!
Author as editor: Ann Patchett revisits her own novel
By going back to a novel written more than 20 years earlier and annotating it by hand with what she liked and what she would now change, author Ann Patchett offers a fascinating insight into the creative writing process.
Rearranging slide decks on the Titanic
PowerPoint’s inventors imagined a simple aid to verbal communication, yet now it has mutated into its own genre and embedded itself in the DNA of corporate and government communications. Is PowerPoint doomed to an eternity in the icy depths of workplace ennui?
How to make an editor happy
We editors get a bad rap. We appear as nothing but a series of crossings out, rewrites, annoying demands (please review), irritating questions (please clarify) and suggestions for changes that, at first glance, look very similar to what was there in the first place. It’s no wonder you might think of us as grumpy pedants whose only joy in life is finding and correcting other people’s mistakes.
False formality
The saying goes that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The same is true for writing. Style – in how we choose an outfit or structure a sentence – evidences our desire to be taken seriously. People notice when we ‘make an effort’ with writing, the same way they notice when we wear a freshly ironed shirt.
Structural integrity matters
When a 12-storey apartment building collapsed in Miami in 2021, killing 98 people, many observers couldn’t understand how previous building inspections had failed to avert the disaster. We now understand that while faults were obvious, inspection reports failed because they obscured them.
Letting the words come
What goes through your head while you’re writing? For many writers, this internal voice is negative, like author Haruki Murakami who said in an interview, ‘When a writer develops a story, he is confronted with a poison that is inside him.’
Out-of-office and out-of-mind?
With many businesses closing over the holiday period, many of us will be setting up an automated email to let people know that we’re out-of-office. You wouldn’t want this email to make people think you weren’t serious about your job, would you?
Making writing enjoyable
The average human has 70,000 thoughts a day and it has never been more difficult to organise these thoughts onto the page and construct a piece of writing worth reading.
Inventing a language of peace
When the French used their veto to vote down a resolution at the 1921 Assembly of the League of Nations, did they unwittingly thwart the world’s best chance to foster world peace and international understanding?
Finding your flow
This is the first in a series of pieces to better understand how we can reach this ‘flow state’ to make writing and editing less painful and more rewarding.
Don’t fear the ghostwriter
Q. When is a writer not the writer?
A. When they’re a ghostwriter.