How Copywriters Can Avoid Dropping Dead

The computer cannot lie. It doesn’t have that circuit built in. We have a very large number of lying circuits built into us. Now what I’m going to try to do is take the lying circuits and move them over here and be transparent. That means I’m going to answer any question, give you all the information I can, completely honestly. And we’ll see how that works because that’s the only way I can possibly impart anything of value to any of you.
– Gene Schwartz, legendary marketing and advertising genius

In Issue #138

How Copywriters Can Avoid Dropping Dead
by Monica Day

I’m off the grid. Seriously. I am writing to you from a cabin in Virginia. OK, it’s only 90 or so minutes south of the nation’s capital…but I can’t get cell service here. So for all intents and purposes, I am in my own private version of “Into The Wild.”

I’ve been here for three days, and I have one more to go. The purpose? A writing retreat. The reality? A long look in the mirror, a chance to make some promises to myself, time to reflect on the last year and the one on the horizon. Oh yeah, and pull my guts up, spit them out onto the page, and see if any of it might be useful…or if it’s all just an exercise in self-indulgence, like most writing.

Sigh.

I always expect these occasions will be grand and idyllic. I tell myself I will do all the things I don’t do at home. I will do yoga when I get up. I will eat a healthy breakfast. I will take time for walks, write in my journal, get a massage. I will be at peace. And the words will flow out of me like manna from heaven. (You hear the choir of angels and strings in the background, right?)

Not this time.

This time, I have been cranky. I feel torn between the work I should have finished before I got here and the writing I wanted to do while here. I am resistant to every writing prompt – convinced that it’s not the exact right one to extract the brilliance that is surely just waiting to be tapped.

Despite all the right conditions for the perfect retreat: really good food, a great companion and writing partner, incredibly beautiful and comfortable physical surroundings…I am restless.

I’m not the only one. MA woke up with nightmares three times last night. She confesses to being more tired than usual. And though we agreed to not drink anything stronger than tea and Pellegrino-with-lime on this trip, I have caught her eyeing the wine collection with no small amount of longing.

But I don’t think any of this means we are failing in our quest for the perfect writing retreat. On the contrary, I think we would both tell you that it has been a wild success so far.

Here’s why:

We are keeping each other accountable to our intentions by our mere presence, as well as occasional tugs and pulls to get back in line when the other strays too far.

We are pushing each other – so when we would normally feel resistance in our writing and go for a distraction, we are staying in the game. And each time we do, something wonderful emerges that surprises us as we read it back to each other.

We are breaking down our goals and attacking them one at a time. We are ambitious women, both of us. And our list of desired habits and commitments we’d like to make in our daily lives is long. But for the days of this retreat, we are each taking on just one – and making sure that it sticks.

And perhaps the most important element of our success is the simplest: we are using a timer.

You read that right. We have co-opted a trick originated by one of the greatest copywriters and marketers of all time, Gene Schwartz:

“Okay. This is a timer. It is the most valuable thing I ever bought in my life. I go nowhere in the world without a timer. Whenever I do anything, I press in "3, 3, 3, 3". That means 33 minutes and 33 seconds. I then press the start button…Now, why do I do this? Because I don’t think anyone can work for a very long period of time without interruption. And if you do, you exhaust yourself too quickly. When a posse used to chase a criminal out West where I come from, Butte, Montana, the horse thief would ride for an hour, and then he’d get off and walk the horse for an hour, and then he’d get on the horse again and ride. And the posse would ride for an hour behind him, get off the horse and walk an hour, and then ride. Why wouldn’t the posse go faster?

Because the horse would be exhausted and drop dead. Okay, your mind has a way of dropping dead on you. So what we do is we give it this 33.33 minutes and this gives us room for inspiration to sneak in.”

And that’s exactly what has been happening.

I’ve fallen into this cadence. 33.33. Break. Go to the bathroom, stretch, chat with MA in the kitchen, replenish my water, see if it is raining or cold or foggy outside. Sit back down and start again. 33.33. And we’re off.

And somewhere in there – magic happens. When I commit to the time allotted for writing, I override my urge for distractions. When I don’t give in to distractions, I reach further for words, concepts, phrases. I stay in the game until the creativity reveals itself fully. I surprise myself with what I can do.

Then, when the timer rings, I am released. I am not dead. I run around the house and rejoice in the victory of it. I made it through 33.33. And I’m willing to take the chance I can make it through again and again.

And in some strange way – this little habit has become ingrained in just three short days. Like planting a mustard seed, it has inspired great hope in me that I can do just about anything, since I now know I can do this one, simple yet powerful, daily practice.

Resource Referral: Lost Marketing Secrets…Found

Everyone knows that Gene Schwartz was a genius. But until you study him thoroughly, I’m not sure you can fully grasp the depth of the secrets he knew. I have been in this business for five years – and find that I can only now grasp some of his concepts. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

If you are also ready to get beyond some of the basics, and discover some of the deepest and most cherished secrets that make this industry tick – and are applicable to a lot of other areas of life and business – pick up this gem today. A joint effort between Boardroom and Agora Learning Institute, this complete course is based on marketing legend Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising methods. It’s called: The Gene Schwartz Graduate Course in Marketing.

In this program, Gene’s closest contemporaries, colleagues, and clients share with you the best of Gene’s "lost" marketing secrets… including:

This course gives you some of the most sophisticated — and powerful — advertising techniques ever developed, tested, and proven to work by Gene and his clients. What it can do for your copywriting career – or your business – could total in the millions if put to good use.

Quick Copy Tip: Freedom For Less Than $10

I’ve learned a very strange, counter-intuitive lesson these last few days.

I am a seeker of freedom. And as such, I avoid things like structure, commitment, and predictability. They are anathema to freedom. Or are they?

When MA wrote me about her visions for this retreat, she stressed that we needed a structure, a schedule, and that we would be using a timer (that a reader recommended back in CP Issue #92!) and we would be setting it to 33.33 as a way to mark our writing time and keep ourselves on target, etc.

Now, I love MA. Respect her a great deal. But I confess, when I got those emails – I rolled my eyes just a tad. I heaved a great sigh. Argh…a structure freak, maybe with a touch of OCD even. Well, OK. I can go along with it, I thought.

I have this haughty place inside of me. It would have me think that my loose, free-floating way of living makes me freer than most, that I have less hang-ups and inhibitions, that my aversion to structure and form makes me somehow more evolved than other people.

This week’s life lesson? That’s a crock. It’s just an excuse. The truth is, the timer, the 33.33, the structure – the container these things provide is probably the key to my freedom, not the barrier. Don’t believe me? Get the damn timer. You’ll see.