Training routines and practice?

Matt,

Much like music, everyone's got their opinion on this one.

I'm a saxophone player. Some guys swear by long tones. On the other hand the way I honed my sound was by playing a ton of ballads.

Copy's the same. Some people will tell you to write out letters by hand. I've never done that and I'm a pretty decent copywriter. By the same token I don't keep a swipe file where as many others do.

My point is it's just like music... you've gotta find your own groove and figure out what works for you. For me, it was just writing a hell of a lot, getting people I respected to critique it, and writing a hell of a lot more. Not to mention reading great letters and mentally tearing them apart to see why they work so well.

IMHO it's much like playing an instrument. So long as you're playing regularly your skills stay sharp... and it's the same with writing copy.

-Daniel

Hi Matt,

Since every piece of copy stems from good
research, you can polish up your researching
skills. Dive into new subjects, learn more and
get passionate about it. Identify jargon and
the way they talk. For example... "Sick" and
"wicked" means good to skateboarders.

If you want a specific exercise, try
pinpointing hidden interests that people
want, but are not fulfilled.

Exercises? Hmm... Break down swipes of
great copy. Memorize ingenious sections and
their "flow". Memorize their choice of
wording. Their phrasing. Their style of
writing in the market. Anything that strikes
you as "oh damn that was pure genius!"
should be recorded into your brain word for
word, phrase by phrase - so that you can
immediately recite it out, rephrase it, swipe it
without referring to an external reference.

That's my preference though - you might
want to just copy swipes ten or a dozen times
until you find their style and strategies.

But definitely start from research as well.
Once you get those gems, they shine on their
own with a little polishing.

I play the cello, piano and guitar... And
you know, we almost always start with
polishing the basics. The scales, then the
appeggios, then chords and all that. Same
with copy.

Start from the basics until you can do it blindfolded.

And then, find your style. Your intepretation.

Good luck.

I won't lie to you but I read 5th grade - 7th grade books.

On average everyone reads at a middle school level and one of the most crucial things to a sales copy, is "readability."



refZ

I'm noob at copywriting, so you might want to take this with a grain of salt.

One practice that I do everyday is Julia Cameron's "Morning pages." It's about writing three pages of anything and everything that pops up in your head--no matter what it is. The key here is to finish those three pages without having to edit anything while you write.

To improve my skills in copywriting, I take on work from odesk.

Wow, excellent responses. I have read a lot on copywriting online over the past year, and these were some often overlooked tips for the beginning copywriter. I will try to incorporate them in daily practice.

regZ - very interesting tip about reading lower grade books, and makes total sense. I always hear about great books in the YA genre, and now I have an excuse to check some of them out.