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Smooth Copywriting

by JJaouli1
11 replies
Hi everyone,

I have a question that's been plaguing me for awhile.

I've studied alot of copywriting books, seminars, etc. I spend at least an hour a day handwriting ads, and I think I'm reasonably solid at copywriting.

But my big issue is when I have a star copywriter critique my work and tighten it up, it just seems to flow so much better. I've become friendly with someone who used to apprentice with Gary Halbert and when he tightens up my sales letters, at least to me, it seems like it's just a totally different letter. The new version always flows so effortlessly, it's more emotional and overall it's just MUCH better.

Can someone explain why I haven't achieved that yet and what's going to make me get that kind of slick copywriting ability? Is it just time? Or more study? Should I hire a mentor?

Thanks everyone.

-Josh
#copywriting #smooth
  • Profile picture of the author ThomasOMalley
    Study the actual flow of copy in successful sales letters. Then you will see how it's done. Gary Halbert has excellent flow in his ads and sales letters.

    Study the transitions from one section or block of copy to another.

    The flow in your copy should get better as you continue to write more.
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  • Profile picture of the author shawnlebrun
    Constant practice and learning... fine tuning, testing, tweaking... overall... just more time and experience will help... as long as you continue to read good ads, study good copywriting, and practicing what you read. Like any other skill... you gotta work at it to become good.
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    • Profile picture of the author rbates
      I have a close friend who used to go over all of the writing (papers and such) that I did when I was in grad school. She has a PhD in literature and makes a living writing. After a time or two of her going over my work, I realized that, to use a phrase from a previous post, "I really did suck!".

      She would look at a paragraph and say "You didn't mean this". After she re-wrote it, I realized that she was right. Amazing what a few "Correct" words will do for a sentence.

      What I did to improve was to look at what she had changed. The other thing that I did was to re-write, re-write, and re-write again. After a while, you find that you do not need as many re-writes. I guess they call it PRACTICE.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Bowring
    It could be that the other guy just has more talent for it than you do. We all have different talents. Different strengths.

    Maybe he's put in thousands more hours into the skill than you have. He can flip the switch at any time and write great copy, and he can spot the weakness in writing and fix it immediately. That just comes when time and talent combine.

    Your question is a little funky to me.

    Why does it matter if he can do it better?

    Either keep working hard on your copy to catch up with his talents, or pay him to do it for you.

    --- Ross
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    • Profile picture of the author Hapningnow
      The way to learn it is to study the rewritten format and ask yourself WHY does this way sound so much better than mine. The next time you write your copy you should apply some of those techniques. You'll get better and better.
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    • Profile picture of the author JJaouli1
      I was just wondering...wanted to get some feedback on maybe the time progression it usually takes to write really high level copy.

      Originally Posted by Ross Bowring View Post

      It could be that the other guy just has more talent for it than you do. We all have different talents. Different strengths.

      Maybe he's put in thousands more hours into the skill than you have. He can flip the switch at any time and write great copy, and he can spot the weakness in writing and fix it immediately. That just comes when time and talent combine.

      Your question is a little funky to me.

      Why does it matter if he can do it better?

      Either keep working hard on your copy to catch up with his talents, or pay him to do it for you.

      --- Ross
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      • Profile picture of the author Ross Bowring
        Originally Posted by JJaouli1 View Post

        I was just wondering...wanted to get some feedback on maybe the time progression it usually takes to write really high level copy.
        Malcolm Gladwell has his 10,000 hours of practice that he links to becoming a master of an art. But there's no magic number of days, months or years.

        --- Ross
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        • Profile picture of the author Memetics
          Originally Posted by Ross Bowring View Post

          Malcolm Gladwell has his 10,000 hours of practice that he links to becoming a master of an art. But there's no magic number of days, months or years.

          --- Ross
          A very interesting book Gladwell's. Bear in mind though there is a law of diminishing returns. If you managed to rack up 9,000 hours then your gains in copywriting ability would be so incremental after that it would take a master in the craft to even spot them.

          The absolute pinnacle of persuasive writing is those who write the speeches of our Presidents and prime ministers. Obama's "yes we can" speech was absolutely incredible in it's technique and methodology but bear in mind; the people who wrote it were the best of their generation
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    If you are getting a "critique" without the reason why then it is not
    a complete critique. When I critique my students work then I
    give a reason for every change I make--that's the whole point--
    otherwise they would continue to make the same mistakes.

    It's 'teach a man to fish' principle.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Someone who is objective and has good copywriting skill
      is always likely to come up with improvements that make
      your copy work better.

      And yes the more you do the better you get.

      You might want to pay attention to the types of changes
      that keep happening over and over.

      After a while if you'll pay attention to these instead of
      someone else having to rewrite them you'll start rewriting
      them yourself.

      Then after a while longer you'll start rewriting those
      mistakes as you're making them.

      Then after a while longer again you'll just stop making those
      mistakes.

      It's a process.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author expresswriters
    Originally Posted by JJaouli1 View Post

    Hi everyone,

    I have a question that's been plaguing me for awhile.

    I've studied alot of copywriting books, seminars, etc. I spend at least an hour a day handwriting ads, and I think I'm reasonably solid at copywriting.

    But my big issue is when I have a star copywriter critique my work and tighten it up, it just seems to flow so much better. I've become friendly with someone who used to apprentice with Gary Halbert and when he tightens up my sales letters, at least to me, it seems like it's just a totally different letter. The new version always flows so effortlessly, it's more emotional and overall it's just MUCH better.

    Can someone explain why I haven't achieved that yet and what's going to make me get that kind of slick copywriting ability? Is it just time? Or more study? Should I hire a mentor?

    Thanks everyone.

    -Josh
    For me it was time, and LOTS of it -- 1.5 years of trial and error taking up everybody's project and learning to just do it...deal with critique...and learn from it on my next project. NOT a recommended way to go but it worked for me.

    Books and studying doesn't do it for me... I have to get my hands dirty and fully soaked to learn something applicable.

    To gain extra value, I do like to browse Slide Share for copywriting guides, read PDFs that are < 20 pages (my latest two were the ABCs of Copywriting and the FAB formula).
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