A Copywriter’s Guide to Dieting

No, this isn’t going to be a huge sales pitch for a new fitness video – I am not joining the ranks of the ‘not so famous’ individuals who’ve jumped on that band wagon.

A copywriter‘s diet is more to do with their writing skills.

Writing any copy, regardless of what it is for, can be an excrutiating experience. Writers’ block, blank page syndrome, call it what you want, but we’ve all experienced the inability to place words on paper.

The easiest way (in my experience) to get over this hurdle is to write. And I mean write anything. The action of putting words on paper (or screen) normally gets the creativity flowing again. Of course that does mean that the first draft is rather poor – but that is where great editing comes in.

Your client is never going to see your first draft so it doesn’t matter what it looks like. Writing in this way will open the flood gates and what you’ll be left with is something relevant, tight and powerful.

How you edit is crucial and I’m sure I’m not the only freelance copywriter out there who gets very attached to words and phrases. But editing is vital and has to be ruthless.

Michelle Russell wrote an excellent post on copyblogger tackling this very issue. She offers some brilliant tips on how to edit your writing to create a more toned version. Read the post here and give your writing skills a workout.