Jan 16Copywriting Is — the lost chapterA preface You may have heard (probably from me) that I wrote a book about copywriting called Copywriting Is: 30-or-so thoughts on thinking like a copywriter. If you have managed to get your hands on it, and your eyeballs into it, then I have nothing but enormous thanks for you. …Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Aug 8, 202299 ways to have more fun as a copywriter (and possibly get a bit better at it too)1. Try your best. 2. Never try to try more than your best — this will make things worse. 3. Don’t take the brief too seriously. 4. Don’t take yourself too seriously. 5. Don’t take anybody seriously when they tell you to take things more seriously. 6. Mess about with…Copywriting4 min readCopywriting4 min read
Mar 28, 2022I am really boring about wild swimming (and I think you may be too)Outdoor swimming didn’t make me boring, it just gave me something with which to bore people. Like many people, outdoor swimming (see how I skirt around the much-mocked word ‘wild’) seemed to leap from hobby to interest to obsession almost at once. …Swimming4 min readSwimming4 min read
Mar 14, 2022Every copywriting mistake I made (this week)I didn’t read the brief properly. I didn’t read any of the briefs properly. I got one brief mixed up with another and wrote 300 words that would’ve badly confused/annoyed either/both clients. I accidentally opened an attachment to a brief and it made me sad. I spelled neccessary wrong. I…Copywriting2 min readCopywriting2 min read
Jul 14, 2021Pretty much everything you’ll ever feel when you’re a copywriterYou’ll feel like you’ve been given an awful lot of words in order to write just a few. You’ll feel like a lot of people (who aren’t copywriters) think they can do what you do. You’ll feel like you’re breaking loads of writing rules. …Copywriting3 min readCopywriting3 min read
Jun 16, 2021I don’t know (the three best words a creative can say)I read an interview once with the novelist Nelson Algren where he said this: “The writer who knows what he’s doing isn’t doing very much.” The knowing, or not knowing, of stuff has preoccupied me one way or another for the entirety of my creative life. The early expression of this fixation with knowledge was in direct opposition to Mr Algren…Copywriting3 min readCopywriting3 min read
Nov 20, 2020The copywriter who stopped writing copyAt this point, I find the most useful copywriting advice I give is to simply share the dependable counsel offered by other writers. But while all the most useful instructions for writing better copy have been shared and shared again, ours is a profession that — like a child on…Copywriting3 min readCopywriting3 min read
Sep 10, 2020Creative like ColumboI couldn’t explain why exactly, but creative people seem, in my experience, more dependent on heroic figures than most. Perhaps it’s to do with the nakedness of the creative life — where you expose your most personal efforts to the world again and again. …Creative4 min readCreative4 min read
Aug 24, 2020English teachers, meet copywriters.My A-level choices were made thusly: Geography (because we got a week’s trip to Poole). Psychology (because I had/have a debilitating Agent Mulder Complex) and English (because I liked books). In many ways, each one has benefited me as a copywriter (who now also teaches other people to be copywriters)…Creative Writing4 min readCreative Writing4 min read
Aug 5, 202012 of the very (very) best new creative teams aroundThe downside to teaching on a Creative Advertising course is, quite simply, the envy. How can these students know so much? How can they be so endlessly curious? How can they be not only creatively adventurous but strategically perceptive. …Creative4 min readCreative4 min read
