Title - I am a lousy copywriter Tags - copy
“I am a lousy copywriter…
… but I am a good editor.”
Those are the words of the late, great David Ogilvy.
What did he mean by them?
He meant that his first draft was lousy but his final piece was good.
It would be easy to assume that Ogilvy’s advertisements - and the results they produced for his clients - were best explained by his raw talent.
Talent certainly played a part, but Ogilvy’s own words suggest his effectiveness as a copywriter was at least partially down to process.
In a 1955 letter, he followed the words above by admitting that it took four of five rounds of editing before his advertising copy was good enough to show to a client.
That’s an incredible insight into what it really takes to write good copy.
In fact, the same applies to any type of writing.
Proof?
In her 1994 writing memoir Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont wrote about how futile it is to wait for a fully formed idea before putting pen to paper.
In reality, ALL first drafts are terrible - so why wait?
It’s better to embrace reality - and weave your magic during editing.
This is the kind of discovery you only make when you stop thinking about doing something and acutally do it.
As a reader, you see the final product - a book, article or advertisement - but you don’t see the underlying process; the steps taken to get there.
One of the reasons I love writing is that going through the creative process not only helps me develop the craft, not it also helps me develop as a human being.