What Becomes a Copywriting Course Most [Part 2]

Copywriting Courses & Mamet

This ah-ha moment happened in the Spring of 2002. I was reading On Directing Film: a book version of a masterclass delivered by writer/director, David Mamet, to Columbia University’s film school students. How he brought film-making to life in the classroom was a real game changer.

A Christmas story with the happiest ending of them all.

copywriting christmas story

It’s about a writer’s tight deadline leading to serendipity. It’s about words. It’s about the small details. And it’s about a Christmas story that has grown stronger with time for those of us with ageing mamas and papas.

The Five Insights of Compelling Copywriting

5 insights of copywriting

… ‘how do you get that sudden clarity … that ah-ha moment … that insight?’ It’s good question. Especially for those of us in the communications and copywriting business and serious about ideas, knowledge, solutions and narratives. The answer can be the difference between inspired content creation and insipid content excretion.

CWiA Course Showcase: The Scammer

Copywriting Course Showcase_Scammer

I don’t care who you are, as long as I know your weakness I will find my way into your hard-drive and your accounts and come away with your identity. And … you’re going to hate this bit … you won’t know a thing about it. Unless, of course, you read this article from start to finish. There’s no skimming and scanning if you don’t want to get scammed …

Copywriting and the First Impressions

Copywriting & Introductions

“Friends, Romans, Copywriters! Lend me your ears …”

Copywriting those opening words is a finely crafted art of the first impression. The reader’s snap decision of that impression —”ho hum” or “oh wow!”— is crucial to the whole story. Writers call it “the opening hook”. To me, a great opening hook is like an elegantly designed door: it makes you want to have your picture taken in front of it. In other words, you want it to be in your story.

Copywriting and the hypnotics of prose rhythm

Copywriting Rhythm

COPYWRITING IN ACTION COURSE INSIGHT #14 The Hypnotics of Prose Rhythm Co-py-wri-ting. Rhy-thm-n-beats. Hyp-no-ti-sm. Four syllables = four beats. Say it aloud and you can feel the rhythm. Quite musical really. Probably because it has embedded in it that universally appealing rhythm of four (tetracolon). Composing a sentence is made up of the following three […]

The 6 Genres of Copy Writing for Selling and Telling [Part 2]

copywriting

To inform, to instruct, to persuade and to entertain: these are the four purposes of copywriting. Any other writing can be one or a combination of those, but in copywriting it’s all four. Why? Because copywriters have the most disinterested audience of all. Once you’re clear about that and the six genres of writing, you’re ready to craft sentences that suspend disinterest all the way to the final full stop.

The 6 Genres of Copy Writing for Selling and Telling [Part 1]

copywriting

COPYWRITING IN ACTION COURSE INSIGHT #15 The 6 Genres of Copy Writing for Selling and Telling [Part1] There are four purposes of copywriting (and all types of writing for that matter): to inform, to instruct, to persuade, to entertain or a combination of these. But how do we make sure that our purpose is properly […]

Hugh Mackay on the ten desires that make your target audience tick.

hugh mackay

COPYWRITING IN ACTION COURSE INSIGHT #17 Hugh Mackay on the Ten Desires That Make Us Tick Since introducing Hugh Mackay’s Ten Desires that Drive Us into my copywriting course in 2011, hundreds of students have been declaring it a revelation. These ten desires revealed to them a target audience beyond postcodes, wants and “pain points”. So […]