VeryGoodCopy started as a personal exercise:
In 2014, I became serious about copywriting. I immersed myself in the discipline—books, articles, podcasts, seminars, interviews—and when I’d come into a fascinating principle or technique, I challenged myself to write a pithy article about it.
I thought: if I can explain this insight in writing, I’m ready to use it in my own work.
So I started documenting these articles in a running Google doc. And eventually I built a website, and launched a blog. Then a newsletter. Then LinkedIn. Years passed.
Now you’re reading my 300th article.
The process has taught me so much, including, every so often, something revelatory about copywriting or creativity. Every so often, I had epiphanies that transformed how I think and work.
Now I’d like to share some of them with you.
I spent the last couple weeks curating and writing about 12 of these revelations as thoughtfully and concisely as I know how. Specifically:
Never miss a VeryGoodCopy Micro-Article: SUBSCRIBE
172 words on writing
123 words on storytelling
82 words on copywriting
157 words on having ideas
123 words on having more ideas
89 words on having even more ideas
123 words on remembering your ideas
164 words on faith
71 words on living
168 words on resting
106 words on imagery
96 words on practice
Please, enjoy:
172 words on writing:
I’ve always felt things deeply but I’ve never felt pride as readily, and as intensely, as I do for my son, Beau, our first, born last year.
Even the little things—and they’re almost all little—make me emotional, affected, beyond affected.
It’s beyond feeling warm in the chest and face. It’s beyond tears. It’s hearing This Magic Moment playing in my brain while my son plays in his pen. It’s hearing Lou Reed sing “Everything I Want, I Have…” so loudly I fear there’s too much sound for the room to hold—much less my head—like the walls will splinter and the ceiling will buckle if I stay and watch him do something typical for one more second, just one more second.
So I kiss him and give him to mom and I go upstairs and I write. And when I do, the words come out in a straight line. And the act feels good, very good, better than usual.
And The Reader, I’ve found, can tell.
→ I tend to write better when I’m emotional.
123 words on storytelling:
When VeryGoodCopy developed a following, I realized people everywhere understood my work. This felt remarkable, that thousands of miles away, people resonated with my experiences and worldview.
Yes, I write simply—I use small words and short paragraphs and I generally try to make my work accessible—which helps.
But more importantly, I think, I tell stories about human things: love and fear, gain and loss. I describe scenes and images from my life that are at once personal and universal, recognized by all, understood by all.
“Put yourself into your work,” said advertising great David Abbot. “Use your life to animate your copy. If something moves you,” he said, “it will touch someone else, too.”
→ At a certain level, we are all the same.
82 words on copywriting:
Copywriting should not create demand. It can but it shouldn’t. Because creating demand for an unwanted—or worse, unneeded—product is boundlessly difficult: you’re going against the current.
“Copywriters don’t create demand,” said internet marketing pioneer, Ken McCarthy, “we channel existing demand.”
We do this because, simply put, advertising to a proven need is easier: you’re going with the flow.
“We’re not paddling,” Ken said, “we’re sailing. We put up our sails and let the wind take us.”
→ You cannot force the market.
157 words on having ideas:
“Inspiration is for amateurs,” said Chuck Close, “the rest of us just show up and get to work.”
For example, copywriting great Eugene Schwartz sat at his writing desk for 33 minutes and 33 seconds at a time. He set a timer and he sat down and he followed one simple rule: don’t get up until the alarm rings. Schwartz did this because he understood that writing well was the product of consistency. You must consistently show up and get started, giving yourself a chance to make something happen.
When I adopted this ethos, it transformed my productivity. I realized you can’t wait to feel inspired before you write. Inspiration is a luxury, not a sustainable creative strategy.
Instead you must sit down at your desk and force yourself to make one decision at a time. And the more decisions you make, the easier—and faster—good ideas will come to you.
→ You can force good ideas, or…
123 words on having more ideas:
When his timer went off and Eugene Schwartz stood up from his desk, he stopped actively thinking about his work. He put it away and moved on, physically, mentally.
But even though his conscious mind was elsewhere, his brain continued writing copy in the background, subconsciously processing information, organizing things, bucketing things, making connections.
This phenomenon is called incubation—and it’s responsible for every ‘lightbulb moment’ and ‘shower idea’ you’ve ever had. It’s why copywriters break up the day with distractions, darts and walks and podcasts. It’s why people think clearly after a good sleep.
“You’re often most creative when you’re the least productive,” said Austin Kleon.
He’s describing incubation.
→ …Or, if you have time, you can let good ideas come to you.
89 words on having even more ideas:
Kevin Kelly is the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine.
“What I discovered,” said Kelly, “which is what many writers discover, is that I write in order to think: I’d think I have an idea but when I begin to write I realize I have no idea, and I don’t know what I think until I try to write it,” he said. “That was a revelation.”
Ideation and writing are symbiotic, interdependent.
Writing is ideating. Writing is thinking.
A revelation, indeed.
→ Write to get ideas, not to express them.
123 words on remembering your ideas:
I remembered every good idea that ever came to me—until I didn’t.
Some stayed in my brain for hours, even days, long enough that I felt comfortable not writing them down. They were ingrained, I thought. So I left them there, like a teabag in hot water, steeping, brewing.
Like I said, I almost always forgot these unwritten ideas. They were there and then they were gone, “like a freight train, like yesterday.” It made me sick.
So I’ve since become draconian about writing down my ideas as they come to me: I pause movies; I interrupt conversations; I wake up at night. It’s strange behavior—and in some ways, a sacrifice—but the payoff is never forgetting, and regretting.
→ Recording your ideas immediately is a failsafe.
164 words on faith:
“I’m such a control freak,” said the great Christoph Nieman, “I would love to sit down and come up with a perfect formula for creating art.”
Yeh, I can relate: I want control over my output. I also want control over how I feel when I’m writing. Because I hate not knowing what’s next, the next word or concept. It’s stressful. And it makes me anxious.
“But [creativity] doesn’t work that way,” Nieman said. “It’s a painful realization because it really is, to a very large degree, staring at paper.”
Yeh, I can relate: staring at the cursor until my eyes hurt, then looking down and squeezing the bridge of my nose and hoping something bubbles up, some connection, an idea, a usable, unembarrassing idea. I depend on these flashes to do my work. I need to have faith these moments will happen to me. This is the opposite of control. And yet, somehow, it works.
→ Having faith is part of the process.
71 words on living:
Highly creative people live different lives than the rest of us.
For one, they have more diverse experiences than most people. And two, they think more deeply about their experiences than most people.
This lifestyle—built around diversity and thoughtfulness—breeds opportunities for connection, which is the foundation of creativity:
A new thing is born when you connect two or more old things in a surprising, seamless way.
→ Creativity is a lifestyle.
168 words on resting:
One of the hardest things about doing creative work is dealing with doubt, grappling with the fact that any decision you make, however well-informed, is still just a best guess. Creative work is uncertain work, precarious work—and this is taxing, stressful on the person who does it.
Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, does something to neutralize this stress: “I’ll sit there and put LEGO together,” he said. “Because you’ve got an instruction book and you just sit there and do exactly what something else tells you to do—and it’s just therapeutic.”
It is: when you’re doing something creative and inevitably get tired or stuck, an effective way to energize yourself is to stop making decisions—and instead start following directions. You can paint by numbers, or put together IKEA furniture, or build LEGO, like Trey.
As long as you let yourself be told what to do, you’ll take the pressure off, rest, and find peace, if only for a little while.
→ Following directions is rejuvenating.
106 words on imagery:
It’s easier for your brain to decode a picture into words than it is to encode words into a picture.
From a writing standpoint:
Encoding words is telling.
Decoding pictures is showing.
For example, this statement forces The Reader to encode words: “Little bits of food cause impaction, which leads to tooth decay.”
While this statement lets her decode pictures: “Little bits of food are like termites for teeth.”
The former creates more work for The Reader. The latter, more work for the writer. But then, hard writing makes for easy reading, which is never a bad thing.
→ Our brains think in images, not words.
96 words on practice:
Writing is a skill the way basketball is a skill, the way piano is a skill.
If you’re serious about writing: be hard on yourself, and be unsatisfied with your work, and practice daily to improve it. This is what athletes do. This is what musicians do. Writers must do this, too. We must set a bar and beat it, over and over.
“You’re only a success for the moment you complete a successful act,” said Phil Jackson. “You gotta do it again.”
Go do it again.
→ There is no substitute for writing every day.
12 revelations on my way to 300 VGC articles:
1 → I tend to write better when I’m emotional.
2 → At a certain level, we are all the same.
3 → You cannot force the market.
4 → You can force good ideas, or…
5 → If you have time, you can let good ideas come to you.
6 → Write to get ideas, not to express them.
7 → Recording your ideas immediately is a failsafe.
8 → Having faith is part of the process.
9 → Creativity is a lifestyle.
10 → Following directions is rejuvenating.
11 → Our brains think in images, not words.
12 → There is no substitute for writing every day.
LEARN TO PERSUADE
✅ Join thousands of email subscribers
✅ Less than 0.4% of readers unsubscribe
✅ Never miss a Micro-Article or -Interview
✅ Get instant email access to VGC's founder
✅ Be first in line to get new, free Micro-Courses
