Is Copywriting Easy? Writing Tips From The Great Margaret Atwood
It's Margaret Atwood's birthday today! The Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor wrote the bestselling novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Happy 83rd birthday to this trailblazing writer!
But first, let’s get to today’s myth busting. Is copywriting easy? Some people have a natural affinity with words that may make it easier, but copywriting requires many skills that a person, like Atwood, will build up over their career to become experts in their field.
Not only do copywriters have excellent grammar and spelling skills, as well as large vocabularies, they also understand marketing, branding, advertising, psychology and human behavior. And they are constantly honing their craft.
Whilst not anyone can do copywriting, that doesn’t mean you can’t become an exceptional copywriter if that’s something you want to do. 🖋As Malcolm Gladwell popularised the theory in his bestseller, Outliers: The Story of Success, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert.
Like with any skill, if you put in the hours of practice, you can achieve excellence! 🥇
Writing Tips From The Great Margaret Atwood
Whether you’re wanting to outsource your copywriting or you’re eager to become an expert yourself, today being Margaret Attwood’s birthday feels like a good day to share some of her best writing tips!
Writing is a way of recording the human voice.
Even when you’re writing SEO to rank high on Google, copywriters must not lose the human voice by overstuffing keywords and starting to sound like a robot. Your words have to connect with the reader and make them feel like you’re talking directly to them.
A conversational tone is a hallmark of great copywriting, as in, writing like you talk, because readers will feel like you’re talking to them. This helps to build rapport, trust and an authentic connection with your customers!
At The Marketing Collective, we’re all about making emotion the heart of marketing, and believe that’s when your marketing can truly become exceptional.
Don’t lose the human voice in your writing, and you won’t lose the customer!
Learn from the greats.
“All writers learn from the dead. As long as you continue to write, you continue to explore the work of writers who have preceded you; you also feel judged and held to account by them.”
If you want to be a great writer, learning from the greats who have already tread this path is always a good idea. Find inspiration from writers and experiment with writing in different styles. Think the simple and direct style of Hemingway, the objective and ornate style of Capote, or the evocative and intricate style of Toni Morrison.
Every writer has a unique voice and style you can learn from as you develop your own. As you experiment, your writing will improve and so will your ability to hone the brand tone, style and voice of the brands you write for.
From darkness to light.
Atwood said that writing has to do with darkness, illuminating it and bringing it out to the light.
The best copywriting gets the pain points of the reader spot on, and meets the customer where they’re currently at. Think of your customer as in the darkness. How are you going to bring them back out into the light?
What are their greatest pain points right now? How can you show you understand them? How can you show them you're the go-to person who can help?
If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.
Is copywriting a part of your business you just can’t seem to get to doing? Are the copywriting tasks the ones you put off or say you don’t have time for?
Copywriting is integral to any business and its success. It’s the bridge that connects the customer with the brand, guiding your customer to walk over the bridge to make a purchase! Maybe copywriting isn’t for you and it would be better for your energy and time to outsource. If so, book yourself in for a free discovery call!
But if it’s something you’re looking to do more of in your business yourself, you may be procrastinating because you’re waiting for perfection.
First drafts suck. When you’re writing a piece of copy, the best thing to do is to get the words out of your head, even if it’s a jumbled mess and you’re thinking oh god, this is rubbish.
It doesn’t matter how good you think you are at writing; first drafts are often terrible. Focus on getting the words out at first and resist the urge to edit as you go (unless you prefer to do this, of course).
The magic happens in the editing. That’s where you can make everything coherent, think more about structure and jazz up your language!
And after a few rounds of editing, you can make that copy pop with pazazz!
I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.
Read as much as you can across many genres and forms, but most of all, do it for pleasure. Nearly every prolific writer has given the advice to read, read, read and that you can’t be a great writer without reading a lot. But if you enjoy the process and find writers and words you really love studying and learning from, Atwood is right, you’re going to learn so much more.
Find joy in reading and discovering new stories, works and writers, whether that’s articles online, books, short stories, poetry, and of course, other people’s copywriting! Experiment with the styles and techniques you love whilst building your own writing skills!
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
This powerful statement by Atwood draws on feeling rather than raw fact. Instead of writing about the colours of a sunset, Atwood has described a sensory moment.
The sentence allows the reader to use their own imagination, to imagine what it’s like to smell like dirt at the end of a day when the sun is going down! Engage all of the 5 senses as much as possible to allow the reader to feel the sensory moment through your eyes, as this helps to create vivid writing the reader can connect with!
Get writing.
“So stop what you are doing. Don’t even think about creating the ideal work environment or grabbing a latte. Sit down. Open the computer. Type some words. Type some more words. Repeat for 15 minutes/one hour/whatever you’ve got every day for the next month. This is the way to write – by writing, not by being good at it (yet).”
There’s never a great time to write. The chaos of life is unavoidable. Many people are guilty of procrastinating when it comes to sitting down to write; even professional writers can be masters of procrastination!
So, this advice is for you if you want to make copywriting a priority in your business! Minimise distractions, put the phone away in a drawer, carve out time in your calendar and make writing whatever you need a priority. The only way to get better at something is to practice.
Are you still feeling copywriting isn't for you? If copywriting is a constant source of stress and overwhelm in your business each week, why not outsource it and get it taken off your hands? Book your free discovery call with me today, and we can chat about what you might need to make your life easier!
