How to avoid copywriting
On Saturday I went to Shopko (a store similar to Target here in Wisconsin).
One of the items on my list was skirt hangers so I went to the part of the store where hangers should logically be.
No hangers.
I scoured the storage, household goods, kitchen wares and laundry sections.
Nuthin’.
After walking around in frustration for several minutes (and of course there wasn’t a clerk to be found) I decided to totally forget about the hangers.
I resolved that by stopping to look for the hangers I would find them. I turned my attention to the other items on my list and crossed the hangers off my list.
Sure enough, when I was underneath the “Automotive and Hardware” sign a few minute later, there were the hangers.
Huh? The least logical place where hangers should be, but there they were.
Lately I’ve been using this approach in copywriting.
There are times, even when I’m under deadline pressure, that I know I have to stop thinking about copywriting.
I resist the urge to turn to page 96 in Joe Sugarman’s Adweek Copywriting Handbook to study the copy flowchart to see if I’m missing something crucial in the letter or email I’m working on.
I don’t dip into Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Sales Letters That Sizzle book.
I ignore the Matt Furey emails in my inbox.
I stay away from the forums and skip over the copywriting and marketing folders in my Google Reader, even forsaking Seth Godin’s blog.
Instead I’ll pick up Reader’s Digest or a mystery novel and read that instead.
I also make sure to move around and do some exercise and then take a shower.
I’ll do this copywriting-avoidance for several hours.
Before long the ideas are pouring out of me and I simply have to go back to the computer and almost effortlessly crank out some email copy.
The funny thing is that I always deeply resist copywriting-avoidance even as I know it unleashes creativity for me.
I persuade myself that sitting at the computer means I’m working hard and the hours pass with nary a word written.
How about you? Do you ever practice copywriting-avoidance? If so, which copywriting-avoidance techniques work for you?
Filed under: Email Copywriting • Stories
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Anita Ashland is a direct response copywriter specializing in email copy. Sign up free to get fun stories about email copywriting and more!
