Very Good Copy - 207 Micro-Lessons on Thinking and Writing Like a Copywriter

Additional resources
Foreword
Prologue
About the content
About the sequence
OnThinking
Noticing:
Being creative:
Horrible, horrible copy:
Artificial writing:
Meeting your firstborn child:
Windows:
Types of ads:
Not doing your job:
Sailing:
Markets:
Products:
Being sentimental:
My best story so far:
Love:
Happiness:
Using your life:
The most personal:
The inner drama ofcopywriting:
Copywriting or design?
Solitary copywriters:
Competition:
Creative loneliness:
Imposter syndrome:
Deadlines:
Solving problems:
Ads vs. art:
Legacy:
The time I wasn’t hired atHubSpot:
Having something to say:
Resonating:
Curious idiots:
The odds of creativesuccess:
Failing often:
Trying hard enough:
Guessing:
Originality:
Cults:
Copying:
Aliens:
Highly creative people:
The source of genius:
The copywriter’s lifestyle:
Finding hooks:
Listening:
One of the mostpainful experiences ofmy entire life:
Predicting the successof an ad campaign:
Length:
Generosity:
Giving:
The time I wasn’t hiredat Facebook:
Consistency:
Improving:
Self-doubt:
Craft:
Relevance:
Standing out:
Pain vs. pleasure:
Free ideas:
Industry standards:
Saying something first:
Branding:
Rebranding:
Advice for young creative people:
Sloppy copy:
Copyresearching:
Person(a):
Vibrations:
Dancing:
Selling work:
Passion vs. arrogance:
Pitching ideas:
Risk:
The process:
How we fail:
How we succeed:
Staying successful:
The copywriter’s true work:
Accidents:
Control:
Inspiration:
Incubation:
Letting your brain wander:
Sonder:
People-watching:
Swipe files:
Theft:
Stealing from people:
Robbing and writing:
Perfect grammar:
Feelings:
Reflecting:
Human nature:
Workaholism:
Balance:
Writing with ADHD:
The scariest thing in the world:
A revelation:
Kernels:
Minimalists andmaximalists:
Style:
Patience:
Change:
Acquiring perspective:
Being close:
Contrast:
Time, money, andreputation:
Big ideas:
Analog vs. digital:
Creative rest:
Mindless, refreshing work:
Disconnecting:
OnWriting
Good copywriting practice:
Writing immersive stories:
Shock copy:
Visceral copy:
Writing, slow:
A poetic masterpiece:
The magic number:
Specificity:
Showing vs. telling:
Writing the picture:
Writing the film:
Context:
Writing in images:
Strong words:
Quantity vs. quality:
Vignettes:
Minimalism:
Clearing the cobwebs:
Writing insurance:
Writer’s block:
The voice of copy:
Distance:
Time-based work:
Proof:
Heuristics:
Testimonial walls:
Video testimonials:
Needless friction:
Filling in the blanks:
Imagining:
Long copy:
Short copy:
No copy:
Authors who write like copywriters:
Benefits (part 1):
Benefits (part 2):
Energy:
The most powerful element in advertising:
Truth:
Emotional writing:
Writing while emotional:
Idioms:
Relaxed writing:
Transcribing:
Copyworking:
One of the best copywriting exercises:
Dialogue:
Writing better dialogue:
Writing better headlines:
Impossible headlines:
Incomplete headlines:
Adverbs:
Headline words:
Metaphors:
Adjectives:
Brand adjectives:
Quotation marks:
Habituation:
The cross-out test:
Harmonizing:
Hijacking attention:
Brevity:
Writing short, but thorough:
Feedback:
Writing decisively:
Writing faster:
Having written:
A simple, versatile, proven copywriting formula:
Empty space:
Writing with your ego:
Fancy letters:
Fancy words:
Image captions:
Great stories:
Conflict and change:
Conditions:
One of America’slongest-running ads:
Starting stories:
In Medias Res:
When to stop writing:
When to stop editing:
Writing first drafts:
Rewriting first drafts:
Big promises:
Small promises:
Reading more:
Accessible writing:
Simplicity:
Redundancies:
Repetition:
Confident writing:
Connecting:
Brilliance in advertising:
Storytelling, simplified:
Open-endedness:
Ending:
Thank you to:
Eddie Shleyner is a freelance copywriter, content marketer, and the founder of VeryGoodCopy.com, where he publishes essays on copywriting, storytelling, and creativity read by millions of people each year.