How I’ve learned to be a better Copywriter
All my life, I’ve been struggling with balancing my inner businesswoman and my inner freedom-loving artist.
I failed to be a journalist. The job didn’t pay much, and I needed money.
I failed at building a career in advertising. I worked in agencies for almost 5 years, then got out at the same moment I was offered a Creative Director job. I was empty. Mentally devastated. And I left.
I failed to downshift. I spent 4 months in Mexico, mostly in a small Mexican surfer town with its endless cumbia, mezcal and golden pieces in the sand. I was broke, recovering, free. And I left.
I failed to be an entrepreneur. It would be easier to blame someone else, the people who screwed me up. But the thing is, I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur. It was an illusion of freedom, heavy and unreliable.
I failed to be a writer. I haven’t finished any of my books. Even some based on great ideas. Even ones that could possibly change my life.
I failed to combine being a businesswoman with the free artist inside me.
Finally, I failed to fail.
Your own truth makes you a better copywriter
Back in 2009, when I was starting out, my precious Ukraine looked like a 13-year old teenager who’s a bit awkward, a bit angry, always anxious and never satisfied.
With a big desire to write and be a journalist, I wanted to investigate, uncover the truth and break down the walls between genders, generations and cultures. In that teenage society, I looked like an idiot. I still do, when I argue for world peace, equality, equity, emotional education and the importance of freedom over the forces of hatred.
Only now, I realize that putting forward views as a life guide and following my own choices made me who I am. A better human, and a better professional.
If someone asks me what is the most important part of copywriting, I would say it’s finding your own truth.
1. A copywriter’s most valuable quality is life itself
I believe that everyone can do anything as long as they’re emotionally capable or ready for it.
My copywriting courses often had students and applicants who were deluded by the image of a writer. Free-spirited, admired, with a big house on the lake and sophisticated, artsy friends. Somewhere between Truman Capote’s eclectic genius and Carrie Bradshaw’s lifestyle.
I can’t blame anyone for that image. I’m a mature woman and I still feel like I’m Carrie when I’m elegantly crossing traffic in my high heels.
The only thing they forget to include in that image is the work itself.
Truman Capote was a public figure, who moved with Hollywood stars and the most famous people of his time. He was openly gay, and while writing his absolutely insane “In Cold Blood” he was refused interviews in Kansas. People didn’t want to talk to him because of his “extraordinary” behavior. Capote was an alcohol and drug addict, he was hard to handle, and his job was his life.
Even with Carrie Bradshaw, we see how she is just hanging out and dating men, randomly writing pieces for her newspaper. But the thing is, hanging out and dating men was actually her job as a journalist. You can’t write a good piece about dating if you’ve been with the same person since you were 15.
A person who creates stories does not just sit and write. You must struggle through everything you write about. It’s about making life choices based on your decision to be who you are — a person with writing skill who is looking for the place in the world.
Copywriting comprises different skills, from writing to analytics. But it has the same vibe as every other type of creative work. I strongly believe that you can’t be a copywriter if you’re not ready to fight your fears, experiment, travel, communicate, have your own views (or at least try to have them).
At some point, your rebel mode will slow down. But once a rebel, always a rebel (or at least, an old hippie).
2. First learn how to write, then how to be a copywriter
There is a slightly visible line between being a copywriter and a person with compulsive graphomania.
Writing down obscure words won’t make you a good copywriter, but having your own voice will. Finding this voice can be your biggest challenge. Crafting it can be your life-long job.
Do you know how many times I thought I’d screwed up and shouldn’t be a writer of any kind? When I got a sense of my own style, I found peace. Well, this peace sometimes gets pneumonia and takes sick leave, but I try to hold tight.
How can you find your own voice?
I often compare writing to jazz, because they both come from the same holes and hills inside us. I’m not sure if Charlie Parker ever said it, but I tend to believe it: “First you try to play like others, then you play like yourself.”
I started without a mentor. I was just writing articles, conducting interviews and having no idea what the hell I was doing. I tried to copy Kerouac, then the whole Beat Generation. After mimicking Nabokov, I wrote poetry and started to create characters and children stories. Then I learned how to write jokes. All while working as a journalist and copywriter. I incorporated all of my experiments into my work, and it helped me to find my writing voice.
I needed to find it once more with English. It’s my third language and, as you can imagine, writing in Ukrainian and Russian is dramatically different from writing in English. And I found it adorable that writing in English reminds me of writing in Ukrainian — they both share eccentric nakedness.
When a part of your job is to know a language professionally, it’s hard to forget your fears when working in a new one. You’re afraid you’ll distort meanings, sound like a fool, and be worse than you are because of your inferior vocabulary.
But when you have a wall, you put paintings and flowers on it and transform it into a gallery. Being copywriter is more complex than simply comprehending words. It’s understanding the context of the subject to its heart and revealing the emotion.
What can you do to make your voice emerge?
Make your words dynamic, add opinions. Be specific, be loud when needed, whisper when you don’t want to show off. Start a conversation, and don’t try to be perfect. People are not perfect, so why do you want to be better than them?
A story hides in action. Don’t try to describe it. Try to make it alive.
3. Yes, you need to do more than write
Sometimes, I feel like words come from nowhere. Like, I can say that the air in the mountains smells like a drying wind, and there are no particular algorithms I use to create this comparison. Sometimes, my mind just works like that. It’s open to ideas.
But when your job is basically to create, you need to find ways to organize your mind. Imagine that you have a week to come up with a naming. People pay you money to do that. You can always think of something basic and use your power of persuasiveness to sell the idea.
But here’s what I recommend:
- Do the research. I don’t mean just understand the brand, audience and values — that’s a given. Do personal research. Listen to acid jazz, spend an hour on Pinterest, read poetry, articles or even mythology. Pay attention to ideas and words. Write all of that down in your hipster moleskin and save it for the right moment. I once come up with a name that combined words from lyrics by The Beatles. And many times I’ve gotten an idea after noticing a similarity in absolutely different areas — for instance, I once came up with a connection between amber, sun and Mireille Mathieu (and transformed it to a name).
- Follow a routine. At least, come up with a routine when you need to be super creative. Get a good rest, try to work when you’re most productive, in the place where you feel most productive. Go to the swimming pool, do yoga, throw a party if needed — try to open your mind. Once I needed to come up with an idea for a children’s story. I was struggling and went to the old Soviet swimming pool to clear my head (and exquisitely entertain myself). When the REM song “Losing my Religion” started playing on the radio and I suddenly found the main quality for the character I’d been looking for: courage.
- Use creative techniques. I usually go with associations or the reverse method, which helps me implement the required emotion in an unexpected way. It’s like portraying recruitment as a could-be love story, because “All you need is to find the right person.”
4. You need to find a way to fulfill yourself
When you’re a copywriter, you know some weird stuff.
I can conduct a lecture about fish breeding and how potatoes are transformed into chips. During my advertising years, I needed to switch from cheap beer to expensive perfumes, and from tampons to smartphones in a few minutes.
I feel like I’m the Billy Milligan of copywriting — sometimes supercharged with new information, and sometimes dead inside because there’s nothing left to articulate.
But even in those moments when your brain is burning and everything inside is dying, you still need to create, right? To make it work, I usually appeal to the three pillars I once found useful:
1. Something that drives you.
2. Something you have deep knowledge about.
3. Something that strikes you and makes you care.
For me, I’ve chosen those pillars:
1. Travel. I can always use my experiences in different countries and with different people to build a story.
2. Music & comedy. I’m a music nerd, and this knowledge helps me find metaphors, words, sometimes even slogans and naming ideas. Comedy (stand-up, TV shows) taught me how to create jokes in my own way.
3. Social issues. My rebel mode is on every time someone tries to discriminate or just spouts some BS. Understanding it motivates me to explore politics, law, psychology more — and basically, it allows me to understand people better.
5. Your job is to tell stories
How can you do that if you don’t have one?
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All my life, I’ve been struggling with balancing my inner businesswoman and my inner freedom-loving artist — and not letting myself realize that I can be both.
