Do any copywriters borrow from other fields?

I write fiction. I've been published in several literary magazines (both "high brow" and genre), and I'll be attending an MFA program in the fall.

I could write a dozen posts on how writing fiction helps with writing copy.

A few things:

• Conflict. It'll keep your audience reading every time.
• Characters (including the narrator) your audience can relate to.
• No extra words. Every word serves a purpose, whether it's creating emotion in the reader, or just moving the story along.
• Play to the senses.
• Be detailed! The more detailed, the stronger the reality invoked.

That's what came to mind just now. Maybe I'll see what else I can put together later.

Joe's thread in the stickies is good resource for storytelling for copy:

http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...marketers.html

For many here copywriting is the end game, however, for many other people copywriting was a stepping stone.

There are many Hollywood types who got their start in advertising and were copy writers...probably the best known, because he's got some books about copywriting, is Herschell Gordon Lewis, the godfather of direct marketing and gore.

HGL went the Vin Montello route, from Hollywood to copywritng. So there is a lot of cross over skills and talents, mainly, in my opinion, because they require good stories.

I'm a lousy classroom student, so college was not my cup of tea (except for classes to get my GRI)...but I'm a fervent autodidact, especially when it comes to human behavior, motivation and influence.

Playwrights to astrologers, high priced escorts to panhandlers, Oscar winning writers to platform speakers...all have offered valuable lessons in psychology and persuasion.

In another post I offered up the first 6 days of a 30 day plan to study the weapons of influence BEFORE a noob tries to write copy.

So, here are areas which I consider to have progressed my own education down the tracks of my life...

Plato- especially Rhetoric. Lajos Egri, Art of Dramatic Writing. ALL Joseph Campbell but especially the Hero with 1000 Faces and Linda Goodman, Sun Signs.

I encourage people to join Toastmasters and complete the first level.

Some justification as to how this may help you with copywriting.

Copywriting is salesmanship. Salesmanship is the understanding of human behavior. Persuasion is the manipulation of behavior to a specific end.

Campbell and Goodman offer VOCABULARY. Their work provides sketches of the "types" of people.

A study of human "types" can be a rabbit hole, some with 16, others with just 4. Astrology offers 12 basic types of people with their inherent desires.

Rhetoric is salesmanship in speech. "Friends, Romans and countrymen, lend me your ear." Dramatic writing is captivating, attention grabbing and when effective, just keeps us reading (don't you want to achieve that with your copy?). "It was the best of times. It was the worst of time."

Also POETRY can be a valuable asset to your copywriting skills. Images, simile, metaphor, meter, voice...

rhythm, repetition, rhyme,

alliteration, assonance and allegory. All tools to communicate.

And copywriting is nothing if it isn't COMMUNICATION.

Poetry communicates and connects by evoking emotions. Does your copy?
Rhetoric communicates by resonating with the listener. Does your copy?
Drama communicates on a visceral level. Does your copy?

So borrow from all areas of life, all disciplines, all human endeavors.
"No man is an island..."

gjabiz

PS. Don't forget songwriting and music composition. READ some Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jim Steinnman.
Get lost in Bach, Beethoven or Brahms.

Learn about hooks, bridges and chorus. Perhaps, music is the universal communication, so a study of WHY and HOW it makes us feel would be well worth your while.