When you spend a lot of time doing something—in my case, writing and editing various passages of text—you tend to end up with a few tricks up your sleeve. Putting words together is something that everyone does in their own unique ways, but over years as a copywriter I have stumbled across or developed some useful pointers, shortcuts, and habits that help to get my message across in a way that sounds good and is clear, concise, and accurate.
1 . Sometimes you just have to start.
I have been given very detailed and helpful briefs, and I have been given briefs that are just a word count and a list of keywords. Most copywriters, creative writers, students, or anyone putting pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) are familiar with the feeling of being in over your head and not knowing where to begin.
The accepted advice is often to plan ahead, lay out your format, and perhaps brainstorm your themes or points; to get organised first. However, I find that oftentimes the best way to begin is to just dive right in at the beginning. Writing an introduction can help me to tease out thoughts I didn’t know I had, and often help me to get my head around what I know and what I need to do further research on. It can uncover a good angle to take, and clarify how I need to structure the rest of the text. You can always go back and edit it if is a mess—but to start, sometimes you just gotta start!
2 . Avoid repetition, use more specifically descriptive language
There are sneaky words which pop up in my writing over and over again, which has a very negative effect on the sound and flow of any copy. Vague adjectives like “good”, “nice”, “great”, and “fantastic” are common culprits, and I try to replace these with something a little more specific to what they are describing. “Charming”, “picturesque”, “stellar”, “delicious”, “personable”, “atmospheric”—these words give nuance that the others can’t.
Often, reducing repetition is something that happens when I edit - I don’t always catch it as I write.
3 . A thesaurus is helpful if you use it right
If you haven’t seen the scene in ‘Friends’ where Joey uses a thesaurus to replace just about every word in a letter to make himself sound smart and ends up signing it “baby kangaroo Tribbiani”, you probably don’t need to because I’ve just described what happens. Here it is anyway:
While Joey certainly takes it too far, a thesaurus is a useful tool. I will type a word that doesn’t quite hit the spot into thesaurus.com to see if I can find something better. Sometimes, I don’t find anything—and sometimes I see something that sparks an idea for a different way to structure the sentence. The key is discernment. Don’t use the word that has the most letters and call it a day.
4 . Keep it simple
The best thing you can do in your writing is cut it down, pare it back, and take away the frills. Descriptive sentences have their place, but you should constantly ask yourself whether words are necessary, informative, and contributing to your message. Simplify sentence structures where you can, too.
I find myself over-explaining and using “hedging” or vague, cautious language, similes where a metaphor would work. Taking out words like “seems” or “can be” makes your sentences stronger—although those writing for legal purposes may need them in order to cover their bases. As an example, I have just gone back and changed my third heading from “A thesaurus can be helpful if you use it right” to “A thesaurus is helpful if you use it right”. It’s a statement I’m willing to stand behind.
5 . Use exclamation marks sparingly
Enough said, really. They have their place, but it’s not at the end of every sentence. If your subject matter is serious, you probably don’t need any at all.
6 . Edit, edit and edit again
Casting a quick glance back over what you’ve written is not enough—you need to read it back a few times to spot spelling errors, typos, repetitions, and sentence structures that could do with improvement. Cut things out where you can, and clarify where it’s necessary.
The best way to ensure that your text is accurate is to read it out loud. This is a great help in ensuring that subjects and verbs agree, and that your longer and more complex sentences haven’t lost their way in the middle.
These are the things that I have found help me to produce quality copy for my clients, and practices that I have attempted to improve on over my years as a writer. If you have some of your own, I’d love to hear them.
Header photo by Joanna Kosinska via Unsplash