The Copywriting Community Is Too Negative (Or Is It?)

There’s plenty of bad content out there. But lots of copywriters go about critiquing it in a very unhelpful way.

As a copywriter who spends (too much) time on Twitter, I’m getting used to logging on to this:

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Any writer worth their salt looks at adverts, articles etc. and sometimes thinks “that’s not what I would have done.” Unfortunately, Twitter’s 280 character limit rarely allows for the nuance of explaining how you’d have tackled it instead.

The typical social media reaction, one I freely admit I’ve been guilty of, instead becomes “this sucks.” Sort of ironic given the huge popularity of the #copywritersunite hashtag with those in the industry…

There are plenty of reasons why “bad” copy goes live, and why our reactions to copy that we don’t like is very negative these days. The good news is that it’s not (always) our fault, but an understanding of why it happens might help us to frame our reactions differently.

Lack of control over the finished product

Every copywriter in the world has experienced clients coming back with feedback that conjures up the grimacing face emoji (😬). Or, even worse, seeing projects they’ve worked…