5 Things I Had To Unlearn In Copywriting
If you want to be an excellent copywriter, learning how to write isn’t enough. Here’s what you need to unlearn.
It never mattered who I was around. I was always the best writer in the room. Everything I wrote seemed to impress, from my cute elementary school stories to term papers. In college, my writing professor had a reputation for returning papers filled with remarks and corrections. After passing her class with an A+, I felt my writing was unstoppable, and no one could ever tell me I wasn’t an excellent writer.
Until I tried copywriting.
I spent my entire life using advanced vocabulary, correct grammar, and perfectly placed punctuation that it never occurred to me what had been my strength throughout school would be my downfall in the real world. I had written a fantastic paper on The Nutcracker that I wanted to frame because I was so proud of it. Yet, I couldn’t write a simple “About Me” or welcome e-mail. My reason for writing had dramatically changed. That was a big part of my struggle in copywriting.
I was still writing for the sake of writing. I wanted the attention to be on the writing itself rather than the message my writing was communicating. I wanted people to look at my paragraph structure, punctuation, and fancy words and think, “Wow, this person knows how to write!”.
So how did I get past that?
It was simple; I threw everything I learned in school about writing away. Okay, maybe not everything, but at least a few things I knew wouldn’t serve me well in my copywriting.
Here are 5 things I learned in school that I needed to unlearn to be a better copywriter.
1. Using Adverbs of Degree
Adverbs of Degree include words such as really, very, fully, little, etc. While we may think using these words intensify your writing, it can have the opposite effect. These words can soften your message instead of strengthening it.
For example, “This is boring.” has more oomph than “This is pretty boring.” Copywriters should always write from a place of authority and confidence. Instead of using these adverbs, find a better word if you feel like the word you’re using needs intensity.
If you want to say the water was “really hot,” use “scalding” instead. You get the intensity you want and also minimize wordiness.
2. Using Unnecessary Filler Words
We all remember the days when we tried to reach the word count on our essays. Simple sentences that could have been written using as few words as possible were being stretched out with filler words.
“The girl looked at the dog with joy” suddenly became “The girl looked over at the dog in a way that seemed to express a little bit of happiness.”
I had a nasty habit of doing this. In a way, it also made me feel smart and poetic. I could take a simple sentence and craft it into a work of literature.
Except, it came off as wordy and pretentious.
Writing is all about simplicity. Don’t feel like you need to “sound” like a writer. Just think of what you want to say, and write that.
3. Avoiding Contractions
This one grinds my gears. I remember being told to avoid using contractions in my writing because it didn’t sound professional.
Except it made me sound like a robot! Don’t be afraid of using contractions. It’s easier to read something that sounds the way you speak and will feel more relatable.
“Can’t Wait!” sounds better and more natural than “Can not wait!”.
No one talks this way, so why would you write this way? Use those contractions! It’ll also help your writing look less wordy.
4. Using Advanced Vocabulary
When it came to my writing, the one thing I prided myself in the most was my extensive vocabulary use.
And I loved showing it off.
I used words like penultimate, pensive, or inflammatory when more common words could have worked. I blame A Series of Unfortunate Events for my insane vocabulary at an early age.
Austere? Ersatz? What child uses words like these?
I did, and I wanted you to know it too. But when it comes to writing a web page about the newest water bottle or a sales page about new accounting software, the easier the language, the better.
There’s no reason to confuse your reader with uncommon vocabulary.
5. Paragraph Length
During my time in school, it was constantly stressed that paragraphs needed to be between 3–5 complete sentences.
Not in copywriting!
You can make your sentences as short as you want!
It can even be one incomplete sentence like the one above. It’s harder for readers to go through long paragraphs of text than it is for them to bounce from a couple of lines of text to the next. (ooh, I rhymed.)
Short paragraphs are also helpful for people who don’t read everything in its entirety. You’d be surprised at the amount of information you can absorb from skimming the text. So don’t worry about meeting a certain paragraph length anymore.
Make them as short as you want.
If you feel like these are all things you still do in your writing, the only thing you can do is continue to practice! We all start somewhere, and even though we may write terribly at first, it’s all about improving yourself. I still have a ways to go with my writing, but I can’t deny that I’ve significantly improved during my writing journey. What matters most is that your audience can read your writing and understand its message.
Is there something else you feel you need to unlearn to be a better copywriter? Let me know in the replies!
