99 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 the alphabet — that’s what it’s for.
7. Laugh at your mistakes.
8. Laugh at your triumphs.
9. Spend as little time as possible at your desk.
10. Spend as much time as possible outside (where there are no desks).
11. Read great writing — and don’t let it make you nervous.
12. Read terrible writing — and don’t let it make you cocky.
13. Say it out loud.
14. Say it out loud to people you love and trust.
15. Think reckless things.
16. Think ridiculous things.
17. Write down every recklessly ridiculous thing you think.
18. Be strange on the page.
19. Drink fizzy water.
20. Never throw a line away.
21. Write down every good sentence you ever read.
22. Read poems.
23. Write poems.
24. Tell people what you like about their ideas.
25. Buy a really good pen and try not to lose it.
26. Ask a beloved person in your life to make you a bookmark.
27. Don’t type a thing until the words are bursting out of you.
28. Learn to love pencils.
29. Watch a great copywriter do their thing.
30. Learn to distract your brain.
31. Let yourself be idle — your brain will thank you, and reward you.
32. Never eat the same sandwich every day.
33. Go to the cinema when you should be working.
34. Lie on your timesheet as much or as little as is necessary.
35. Remember, vividly, the worst job you used to do before writing.
36. Buy more books than you’re likely to read in a lifetime.
37. Help young writers.
38. Listen to old ones.
39. Stick stuff on the wall.
40. Never buy a notebook that’s too fancy to scribble all over.
41. Open any book at any page and read until you find a line you love.
42. Don’t criticise copy you see out in the world — you don’t know what happened to make it bad.
43. Don’t do it for awards.
44. (But celebrate any award you win madly.)
45. Thank people who help you.
46. Don’t let it get you down when you aren’t thanked yourself.
47. (But definitely don’t help that person ever again.)
48. Never give a bad client your best stuff.
49. Don’t eat crumbly foods over your keyboard.
50. Save your stuff very very very very very very carefully.
51. Swim.
52. Do nothing for nothing.
53. Chase your invoices like Tommy Lee Jones in ‘The Fugitive’.
54. Introduce yourself.
55. Listen to audiobooks.
56. Elevate your feet.
57. Rest your eyes.
58. Never be without a supply of your favourite boiled sweet.
59. Stare at sentences (but never people).
60. Put your words to good use — they’re worth more than you think.
61. Get out of meetings you don’t need to be in.
62. Get into meetings where there’s fun work to be had.
63. Let a great line speak for itself.
64. Take away as many words as you can before it stops making sense.
65. Listen to anyone who has a good idea.
66. Don’t assume your brain alone will be enough.
67. When you have nothing to do, write.
68. Write a ghost story.
69. Write a limerick.
70. Abandon any word game the second you get bored.
71. Don’t hate PowerPoint, it’s not its fault.
72. Let people make spelling mistakes on social media.
73. Lower the expectations of the people who assume you’ll be good at Scrabble.
74. Write headlines for briefs you don’t have.
75. Clean your spectacles every day.
76. Find a good bench.
77. Complain as much as everyone else, but never more.
78. Admire copywriting from the past.
79. Admire copywriting from the present.
80. Never fool yourself into thinking that one is better than the other.
81. Don’t Use Title Case Unless Absolutely Necessary.
82. Say ‘I don’t know’ when you don’t know.
83. Share what you do know.
84. Be generous with your time and your words.
85. Write down your worst idea first.
86. Don’t be ashamed of writing good stuff quickly.
87. (But maybe sit on it for a while before you tell anyone you’ve cracked it.)
88. Treat your imagination like a puppy — feed it, walk it, let it snooze, clean up its poop, treasure it always.
89. Believe people when they tell you you’re great.
90. Don’t always believe people when they tell you they’re great.
91. Chew quietly.
92. If your chair spins, then spin.
93. Throw scrunched up paper whenever the opportunity arises.
94. Never fill a page.
95. Control-Z means ‘undo’. This is handy.
96. Have copywriting pals.
97. Write postcards even when you’ve not gone anywhere.
98. Don’t get bored.
99. Never chew an unfamiliar pencil.
(And, if you’ve got this far, I might as well tell you I’ve written a book about copywriting that you can/should/must buy.)
