Does anyone else feel like working as a copywriter has made them a worse writer? I’m better at other things, like coming up with concepts, but fuck me if I can string together 1,000 coherent words.

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Now that you mention it...yeah. Totally. Fuck.

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Write stuff outside of work. It definitely rejuvenates my copywriting after spending some time writing whatever I want with only my goals in mind. It’s nice to work without thinking what CDs and clients will think about your work

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I can still write, but talking...

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LOL!!! I can’t talk anymore either. I think too much about every word I say.

I used to write short stories. Now I go back and read my work and think, damn, that was good, how did i ever write that? I don't think I'd even know where to start now.

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100% agree, but I will say it feels like copywriter is a bit of a misnomer at most agencies and long copy is as dead as Jazz. Take that as you will. The jazz bit, I mean.

likefunny

I’m definitely a worse long form writer...but I’ve learned to be quicker and more clever. Now it’s just a matter of taking these new abilities and applying them to long form... whenever I get the time....any day now...

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I remember when I started telling myself I’d totally keep writing essays and such. Yeah. Fat friggin’ chance.

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There’s so much other bullshit to complain about, the actual writing shouldn’t be one of them.

uplifting

I’m about to go to copywriting portfolio school so this is not exactly reassuring

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Hemingway kept it short, so maybe that’s ok.

Hemingway wrote 70,000 word novels. He kept them short by not making them 100,000 words

likefunny

Yep

It helped me to re-read stuff about writing manifestos.

Mainly stuff students would read or look at. Dig up the old books. Read articles people post about it. Read the classic manifestos and get inspired.

The biggest thing I realized is that you have to just let go and type EVERYTHING you think of and then edit down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

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I think my writing has more clarity and color. My grammar and spelling has gone to shit though.

Nope

I went to law school before kicking that over for a life pounding keys—and, kid you not, nothing decimates writing skills like vomiting as much legal crap as you can on a piece of paper in an hour-long exam. Took years, and I mean years, to get even a modicum of snap back. That said, the more you write, the better (vs bitter) you get (Malcolm Gladwell’s 6,000 hours to expertise really does seem true in this case), at least that’s what you hear from scads of famous writers in all varieties and flavors. Not for nothing, but here’s something that really does help: read your stuff out loud. It’s kind of a speed bump, but the truth is that your ears will let you know if it’s got coherency, rhythm, and, pace. There also the thing, as Gossage pointed out so eloquently, that it’s a conversation, not a fucking lecture, and your words have to resonate in your audience’s mind that way. So...have to admit to being curious: are you lucky and getting to kick it Neil French-style (to colleagues who say long copy dead—http://www.neilfrench.com) or.having to grind out prescribing gaak for a pharma shop? Trying to image why else you’d get asked for 1k words for anything.

I’m not asked for 1,000 words for work. But my background is in creative nonfiction. So, essays. And if I wanted to write an essay today, I’d hardly know where to start.

Great essays not an easy lift. Still, that’s an impressive resume item.

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