10 Habits That Will Make You a Better Copywriter

Make these writing and creativity tips a part of your weekly schedule

Jul 22, 2024

There’s a quote that goes: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

So if you want to become an excellent copywriter or writer, you need to build habits that help you excel at writing compelling content.

Today, I’ll be walking you through some little habits you can try as we go out and become better writers, together. Most of these, I picked up when I started my career as an advertising copywriter in the Philippines. And I still try to keep up with all ten of them.

Keep reading.
Some people might argue that they can write well without being a bookworm, but I believe that is an exception rather than a rule. So keep reading! Indulge in books and articles. Poetry. Fiction and non-fiction. Magazine features, white papers, whatever strikes your fancy! I’ve kept a Goodreads Reading Challenge since college and I’m currently halfway through my 2024 list.
Create outside the confines of work.
Don’t get burned out writing for brands and companies. As they say, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Go back to whatever first awoke the creative in you - whether that’s writing poetry, painting, playing the piano, or dancing! I love having this Substack, my tea and poetry Instagram, and other little hobbies like crochet and the ukulele.
Follow other writers/creators.
Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Substack make discovering new people with cool ideas easy. Start with this newsletter, and subscribe if you haven’t yet!
Set up a creativity learning hour.
Doom-scrolling is a trap - a learning hour at least once a week makes it easy to compartmentalize when you want to focus on learning more about writing, advertising, or marketing. I like to go through my Adweek, Adobo Magazine, Prompts Daily, Dan Nelken, Copyblogger, and Later newsletters for one hour every week. I also set aside one hour to go through my Substack subscriptions, one hour for reading/watching something new to me, and one for creating something. For the last bit, it’s usually writing this newsletter, but sometimes I extend and write poems, play the ukulele, and so on.
A sneak peek at my calendar!
Keep a Pinterest.
Give your future self an easy time finding inspiration or sharing creative pegs with co-workers. Maintaining a Pinterest account makes it easy to refer back to inspo for copy, artwork, videos, campaigns, or even strategies that might work for a future project.
I have a separate mega-board for Advertising, and it has sub-boards to help me find things faster.
Keep a calendar or planner.
If you’re juggling full-time work, household chores, and have other creative pursuits outside work, you’ll want to keep things organized in a calendar or planner. I like to use calendar-blocking not just for work but for my IRL calendar, too. More about calendar-blocking and other productivity tips in this old post.
Have a circle of fellow writers and creators you can talk to.
These can be friends at your current job, ex-officemates who share the same taste in creativity and humor as you, or even a forum or group. I like the Substack chats of Musings by
Mika
and Tiffany Chu’s
Asian Writers Collective
. It also helps that my boyfriend is a copywriter, too, so we send each other cool ads we spot on Instagram or LinkedIn. What’s great about having this network is that you can geek out about your niche, exchange ideas and feedback, and grow together.
Spend time doing physical activity and going outdoors.
In pre-pandemic times, I would learn a lot about advertising and fellow consumers when I would commute. I’d see the billboards of Commonwealth and EDSA, hear radio ads, overhear conversations, and people-watch.
But since I started working from home, my outside contact has been limited. And it’s more limited than most remote workers’ since my mom has cancer, so I don’t spend a lot of money working at cafes or by the beach.
Still, I make the most out of my weekly dates with my boyfriend. We talk about out-of-home advertising or brand activations we encounter. When we go somewhere new, I try to take it all in - the surroundings and the people.
I also keep my happy hormones up by exercising thrice a week, maintaining a garden, and walking our family dogs. Health-wise, this helps since writing is a sedentary job.
Look at ads through the eyes of a consumer and those of a writer/marketer.
It’s a neat little exercise you’ll find yourself doing more and more as you grow as a writer. Your initial reaction to an ad might be “Why’d they do that??” but then you’ll find yourself dissecting what the brand wanted to say, what the writer tried to do, and what the client eventually approved. Or you’ll watch a 30-second ad and go “Wow, I wish I’d written that!”.
Stay open, creative, and curious.
Listen to that artist you’ve never heard of on Spotify. Check out that series your friend with great taste recommended. Read that strategy post about Gen Z marketing. Scroll on TikTok (even if it’s just for work). You don’t have to like everything you encounter, you just have to know a bit about them. Because the moment you shut yourself away from new things, you’ll stop finding ways to innovate and be creative. And you’ll lose a chance to grow as a writer!

Remember - these tips aren’t going to win you a Cannes Lion overnight or get you a promotion next week. But by adding habits of excellence to your life, you might just become that excellent writer who deserves a promotion, an award, and more!

What habits make you a better writer or creative? Share them in the comments below!

10 Habits That Will Make You a Better Copywriter

Make these writing and creativity tips a part of your weekly schedule

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