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7 Tips for Writing Like a Pro: Insights from a Seasoned Copywriter
#1 Your writing should feel like the smooth shell of an egg
The account director of an international advertising agency told me that I could never be a copywriter. “It requires a very special talent,” he said, “Have you published a novel? A poetry book?”
I hadn’t. I went home heartbroken.
But then, thanks to an ad that worked like a writing prompt for me, I landed a job at the coolest and trendiest agency in Turkey!
The person who interviewed me and then hired me was a brilliant senior copywriter. She taught me so much about copywriting, advertising, and life in general during the two years we worked together.
Here are the first few things that come to my mind.
1. You should aim to write like a smooth eggshell
My mentor was the first person to tell me that I should read my copy aloud. When you read your copy aloud, you’ll notice that some words catch your ear. And that’s not a good thing.
She told me that writing should feel smooth like an egg and there shouldn’t be any sharp or unnatural corners.
The analogy stayed with me all these years. She didn’t say “a flat marble surface” or a “perfect crystal sphere,” see, she said an egg. An egg is fat on one end and pointy on the other. So a straight line you draw on its surface will have an imperfect curve, but at the same time, it will be perfect, if that makes sense!
This means your writing will flow smoothly and change course in a circular manner. It won’t be two-dimensional like a flat surface. But it will allow you to move without turning sharp corners, and it will always wrap up nicely in the end, reaching a perfect ending.
2. Your writing should be clear, simple, and flowing
You need to resist the urge to write complicated, “intellectual” sentences with twists and turns. I know when I first began fresh out of university, I had this tendency. But my mentor taught me to simplify my writing by cutting sentences in half and choosing simpler words and phrases.
