One Word After The Other

Author and copywriter Ty Hutchinson, is featuring a guest post on his blog by mystery writer Chris Knopf, who is also a copywriter and CEO Mintz & Hoke.

Asked if being a copywriter is an advantage to the fiction writer, Knopf replies:

The greatest challenge every writer faces is the blank page. Something has to get you to start writing stuff down. This can be extremely daunting if your only motivation is sheer will power. When you’re a professional copywriter there are plenty of people more than willing to relieve you of this personal responsibility. Clients, for example, and their proxies – creative directors, account executives and spouses interested in paying mortgages. So what you must learn right out of the gate is to write something quickly, under intense deadline pressure, that’s good enough to allow you to keep writing and keep getting paid.

In other words, copywriters produce. Or they are no longer copywriters. And the same can be said of authors of fiction or any other form.

About David Burn

I wrote my first ad for a local political candidate when I was 17. She went on to win her race, and I felt the power of persuasive copy for the first time. Starting in Portland in 1995, I worked my way across the country as a copywriter and eventually became a content director making media products for big packaged goods brands. I returned to Oregon in 2008, and now I focus on building brands for companies that matter, including this one.