I’ve lately come across several articles written by other copywriters that I, quite frankly, have a major issue with. Clearly targeted toward small business owners with miniscule budgets, the articles that some of our fellow copywriters are crafting encourage John Q. Small Business Owner to write their own copy because it’s so incredibly “easy,” and good writing is just a matter of “practice” and misleads these poor souls into believing that writing is almost as easy and methodical as brushing your teeth.

I doth protest. Those of us who make a living as writers are not living the Big Lebowski life.

Whether you work for a small public relations firm or a major corporation, or, like me, you work for a search engine optimization company, when charged with the task of copywriting, you quickly understand that your work is a critical piece of any marketing effort.

While WRITING may be easy, and just a matter of practice, GOOD WRITING requires significantly more effort. And GREAT WRITING, or attempts at great writing, is so stressful it usually leads to personal distress: Heavy drinking (Hemingway), unprecedented drug abuse (Hunter S. Thompson) and just plain general psychosis (Jack Torrance, The Shining.) Let’s stick with the middle of the road, where I think most writer-oriented copywriters find themselves – GOOD WRITING.

I don’t want to sound like the tortured writer or anything, but good writing ain’t easy at all (yes, I did say “ain’t”). The good marketing copywriter is given the heavy responsibility of wordsmithing, which is not like writing a book report. If you’ve extended yourself beyond just writing, and gotten into the nitty-gritty of your customer’s product or service, to try and determine the best angle to make them stand out from the crowd, you understand that good writing requires talent, and developing the craft takes sweat and creative energy, and sometimes requires several doses of aspirin. several cups of coffee, and repeated massaging of the temples to ward off writer’s block. Imagine trying to write a press release for a company such as Dunder Mifflin (the paper company that is the set for “The Office” on NBC).

I don’t care how many times I watch Discovery Health Channel, I’m not remotely interested in attempting even the most simple surgical procedure. Is writing as difficult as surgerY? Hmmm – I would say not.

But the talent and hard work of a good copywriter should not be minimized and certainly not so easily dismissed as a talent-less task that requires only a logical flow and good sentence construction. I’m not trying to discourage the non-writers of the world from taking a stab at it – just respect the fact that if you don’t have natural writing talent or experience, you’re not the Yoda of copywriting (and I would not dare to proclaim myself as such either, I might add).

A little humility and respect for those of us who make a living doing this would be appreciated. GOOD WRITING and GOOD COPYWRITING are not a do-it-yourself profession – there are no Bob Vila’s here. If you can’t afford a copywriter, do the best you can – and it’s all good. Just don’t proclaim yourself a wordsmithing genius.
Best of luck in your copywriting efforts – for the copywriter and the non-copywriter alike – no matter what they may be. Don’t play the role of the true writer if you’re not.

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