Copyvirgin: the beginner’s copywriting blog

What does a copywriter need to do his/her job? I asked myself this question today and whilst the mind boggled with a number of pretentious and coincidentally shit ideas, I believe I have narrowed it down to just 5 actual, existing things we need.

No it isn’t a pen, a piece of paper, a creative mind, a love for words and a strong coffee (these were my pretentious ideas).

This list is not exhaustive and could potentially be huge, but I don’t think I could do it without any of these. Please argue with me.

1. The pen is not mightier than the PC

Yes, a PC (if you’re reading this you have one, and understand blogs, websites - congrats on that by the way). Well, a computer of some type, whether you’re a loveable MAC user, or a disease ridden PC user (like me), there is no getting around it, you need a computer. I have read far too many comments about how a pen is all you need.

We need a PC to e-mail, to access resources, build websites, host blogs, comment in forums, keep abreast of current news and of course most importantly word process. You need Microsoft Word or something to that end. Do not use TextEdit (MAC) or Notepad (PC), as it lacks formatting options, spell-checker etc. It is also highly likely clients will want your copy in something like Word, or a pdf version so Adobe Acrobat is always good to have around too.

2. Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus of English

I’m talking about the big fuck off bastard one. The one that creaks when it opens and hurts when you drop it on your toe. If you like words (as you hopefully do, being a copywriter) then understanding their origin, meaning and relationship to other words is obviously essential. I like the Oxford version for it’s friendliness.

Now you may think this is obvious, but far too many people I know rely on that stupid thesaurus in Word (I know I just praised i, but it’s not all good) which doesn’t help all the time.

3. A copy of George Orwell’s essay ‘Politics & The English Language’

Truly inspirational stuff from the late and great George. A man who saw the connection between words and politics and how certain phrases, specific words and jargon are used to deliberately blur meaning and generally confuse us. This essay is downloadable from a number of sites including this one.

In this essay are golden rules for any writer. I really felt ashamed after reading it, as I have often made these mistakes and you can’t help but agree with everything he says.

4. One of those how to become a copywriter books

Something like The Copywriters Handbook by Bob Bly or a number of other ‘How To’s’. There are some good tips in there, and the kind of jobs a freelancer gets from places like elance.com or getafreelancer.com are covered well.

But mainly get one because it makes you not want to write like a used car salesman. I am angered by laziness in writing and I also believe there has been too much ‘Americanism’ in writing allowed into the UK.

5. Your own blog or website

Somewhere to post your work, get involved in the community, provide contact details and essentially just a bit more credibility i.e. Copyvirgin. I recommend wordpress or blogger for a blog.
You can get a domain with hosting for less than £5 a month ($10), and it is surprisingly easy to do it all yourself just following guides on various websites. I did it with no knowledge of html or servers or anything.

The chosen 5

So that is my 5 things you need to be a copywriter. I could have made a list of 10 or 20, but these 5 seem (to me at least) pretty much the essentials in forging a career in copywriting.

I think it covers the instruments, the general rules but most importantly the motivation to get going in the first place.

These are by no means exhaustive. I would be very interested to hear what others believe are the essentials.

All good copy follows the same rules. That is being technically accurate and gramtically sound. As a relative beginner to this game of copywriting I am always falling for these common errors. Whether commas, apostrophes, exclamation marks etc. I could go on.

I was in the process of putting together a list of what makes good copy. Some rules to follow, some common mistakes and then I came across this little gem.

Entitled ‘Improving Your Technical Writing Skills’ by Norman Fenton of Queen Mary (University of London), it is targeted at those people writing reports, whether students, academics or business-people alike, it is packed full of great advice. You can get a copy of it here. (more…)

Copywriting was not prolific in this year’s D&AD awards. The awards are probably the most prestigious recognition a copywriter can get, despite them being included under the categories ‘Writing for Design’ and ‘Writing for Advertising’. This is largely down to the D&AD being primarily a design body. However, it does show the unquestionable marriage between design and copywriting. (more…)

Ok, so i took the best part of 4 months off without posting. I have been out of action doing agency work for so long and have got some nice additions to my portfolio.

I will upload them shortly.

So, after I spent the best part of 30 minutes sifting my comments awaiting moderation, and getting rid of the penis growth, viagra, get rich quick comments I noticed a few people had left comments. Thanks very much. I’ll not try and sort some interesting stuff for you to read.

 New post coming shortly.

A great post by Ben Myers on the Guardian website.

Stating that ‘advertising copywriting’ or ‘corporate copywriting’ is a last resort for writers who can’t get employed as a novelist or journalist.

Well what a load of bollocks! What Ben fails to recognise is that some writers actually want their writing to have an impact on a bigger scale rather than appearing at number 78 in the bestsellers chart before retiring to a life of solitude on the dusty shelves of a library, or (more…)

Anyone who may have visited copyvirgin today would have seen it has not been working. This is because i took on upgrading the wordpress software to the latest version, and almost failed miserably.

Needless to say I have been panicking for the last 5 hours why I deleted, reloaded and sweat!

Do not fear, all is back working again. Hopefully I won’t have to upgrade for a couple of years!

So, that is why I have failed to write a meaningful post today!

So, my first promise in a previous post has already been broken. That being to ‘post regularly.’ I have singularly failed to do what I set out to achieve.

Never mind hey! Onwards and upwards I say.

I have been working on my first ‘proper’ piece of copywriting. It is huge. I have been provided complete artistic freedom working with a graphic designer who also benefits from (more…)

I had intended to write a post early on during the development of the copyvirgin about the lack of copywriting opportunities working within an agency. Being fed scraps, and the rest of the time, finding work to do.

No sooner had copyvirgin started than I am snowed under with copywriting work. I won my first copywriting project, for a tidy sum of money and have since had a number of other copywriting projects (mostly small) fall upon my desk.

That means working at work, working at home, and very limited time to post on here and in the various forums around the net where you may see the ID ‘copyvirgin’.

 So for any budding copywriter’s out there, may I say, please be patient. If you are lucky to get in an agency where copywriting opportunities arise infrequently, be enthusiastic about them. Make them more important than they are. Display your ability, and make sure your superior’s recognise where your talents lie.

To me, until five years ago, copywriting was a way of protecting your rights to a piece of work, whether music, books etc, so no-one could steal your work and claim it as their own. Of course I was actually talking about ‘copyright‘!

Since completing a Journalism degree and working as a researcher and writer/editor in the design industry, I have now developed a more thorough understanding of this word, and believe it is not (more…)

Gosh, damn and blast! A whole week without a home Internet connection due to some plebian at Virgin Media. Needless to say I am up and running again now, and my blood pressure has returned to a steady ‘hissing’. I have not lost the blogging bug already, of that I assure you. In fact, without the Internet in the evenings to take up my time, I have instead been reading plenty more than usual.

Of note, I am well into George Orwell’s 1984 (the man is a literary genius), and also Bob Bly’s (the so-called King of all copywriting) book, ‘The Copywriters Handbook’. Thus far, I have to admit I like what Bob has to say. Unlike many of his counterparts, he is an honest, and sincere writer, and does not hide behind titles such as, The Master of all Copywriters, or The No.1 Copywriting Guru. He has a great blog too which I will list in my blogroll.

Now i’m back up and running I am able to complete my first official ‘copywriting’ post. But so as not to waste a post’s dynamic, i’ll start a new one!

Very soon indeed.