3 Writing Tips from 3 Years of Copywriting

The process of forming our thoughts into words is foundational to life; though it's by no means easy. Every job requires competent communication, whether a waiter is explaining the menu to an inquisitive diner or a recluse programmer has to defend his reasoning for building an app a certain way. As for writing, very few jobs will not require you to write emails or text messages.

So I wanted to share a few observations I could only have made in the refining furnace of experience as a professional writer (I flatter myself with that title and believe it credits me with far more prestige than is my due.)

It is true that having a natural talent with and love for words boosts your writing ability. But it's not a prerequisite of a good writer. If you stick to the basics of writing sentences that contain only one thought or main idea, using words anyone can understand, and staying resolutely on topic with an eye for how your words would come across to the reader, you are more than halfway there. But let's dive into what comes before all that with my first tip.

Be Patient with the Process.

Many people aren't willing to give writing the time that it needs, most especially on the front end of writing where the most time is required. Remember that good writing is the product of clear thoughts, which are the product of thorough research. Start with research. That is the first phase of a writing project. It involves gathering the bricks you need to build a house. Yes, you may think of thoughts as bricks in your mind. It takes a great deal of time to forage for the bricks you will need, and you will likely gather more than you need, as you should!

This is important: when you find a good brick, write it down immediately! This is not the time to be particular, but you should still be relevant. I don't care if the grammar is a mess, get that thought down on paper because you will likely forget it as your research continues.

Many writers make the mistake of holding a thought in their mind, but they are clogging their whole mechanism. Let go of that brick by writing it down; then you can pick up another one properly. Or writers could have too tight a filter on and pass over many useful thoughts or phrases thinking they're too trivial. If it makes any lick of sense, get it down right when you think of it.

Pro tip: Keep these bricks in a "notes" section at the page's bottom to quickly reference.

Now comes the difficult part, organizing all those bricks you threw in the useful pile into coherent and flowing sentences. Start where it makes sense to. What would the reader want to know first? How do you get their attention? What thoughts fit together? This is when writing becomes more like a puzzle. You've gathered several pieces; now look for commonalities. It's a good strategy to start broad, like you would with the corner and edge pieces, and get more specific as you go.

But you must capture their interest with that first sentence. This is why the first sentence is the hardest to write. It's a dam holding back the mighty river of all your good thoughts and research. My advice is to just do it. Even if you aren't in love with what you wrote, get something down. Just starting something is how you crack that dam. This process will take time so be patient and don't give up.

Pro tip: When you begin to write the first sentence, do not write it in the same space the finished product will go. Hit enter a few times or start writing in your "notes" section and copy and paste later. It's a weird trick, but doing this takes the pressure off that first sentence having to be perfect. I start every project I write this way.

Obey the Law of the Letter.

There are some critics and experts who would have you obey the letter of the grammatical law when you write. But one surprising lesson I've learned is how open to interpretation the rules of grammar really are. Sure, some rules are inviolable, e.g. a period at the end of a sentence or an apostrophe to denote possession or contraction. But a grammatical rule is only applicable if it is beneficial to the reader.

Yes, the only purpose of grammar, I contend, is to help the reader understand. For example, if I didn't just end that sentence in a period, you would have kept reading and been very confused. If I capitalized a random word, you would have stopped and wondered why. If a writer has one goal, it's that the reader never has to stop or re-read.

If you are grammatically unyielding, you will sound more like a robot than a human. I've been told never start a sentence with "there", never use the pronoun "it", never use adverbs, and never use contractions. These rules are as fake as never ending a sentence in a preposition.

You always want to sound human when you write; the key to doing this is to write how you talk, but not exactly how you talk. If you wrote word-for-word how you talk, it would sound disjointed. Rather, write conversationally, even casually. If that's not how you would say it to a friend, reword it appropriately.

Pro tip: Single out a member of your target audience in your mind and talk only to them.

Rather than obeying the letter of the law, obey the law of the letter. The law of the letter is that the letter must be understood. On its own, a letter is meaningless. Put it into a word and you have meaning; put words into sentences and it gets even better. When writing, ask yourself if these words will be understood; be empathetic with the reader.

Remember, people don't like reading.

This was a humble and unexpected realization for me. People would rather watch a video, listen to a podcast, or see a social graphic than read, especially if a paragraph gets longer than four or five lines. However, it doesn't matter how long your paragraphs or sentences are as long as you keep to one main idea that flows well. Hopefully, your writing is easy to read so length won't matter as much. But people always get intimidated by a lot of text.

The most consistent feedback I get from my writing at work is it's too long. It's true that writers should be thorough. But less is more. How many times have you jumped ahead to see how long a chapter in a book was and felt discouraged if it was more than 8 pages? Exactly. People need things bite-sized.

Get to the core message you need to say quickly and then get out. Cut out the fluff. It's okay to write fluff, but go back in the editing phase (which is a must) and shave off words. Ask yourself: Is this information essential? Does it tie directly back to my topic? Where are you redundant? Where am I showing off my knowledge? Be ruthless. It's hard, but brevity is a mark of a good writer.

Three years of copywriting have flashed by and I've learned so much. I hope some of this advice is useful in your day-to-day and that you'll consider sharing something you've learned through your job with the world!