As you know, I’m a professional wordsmith. I take words and wrangle them into submission. I’m also an improviser. In coming months, I’m spending five days doing musical improv in Brighton, and four days doing an improv retreat in leamington Spa. I’m also performing a 10-minute improv set in Solihull, Read more…
Last month, I was flattered to be approached by an editor at the Guardian to write a “lighthearted, fun piece about how to use language in different contexts to get noticed and get the result you want”. Unfortunately, the request got caught in my spam trap, and I didn’t notice Read more…
I wouldn’t usually write about me, me, me. But this month is my 40-year anniversary of being a professional copywriter, and I was asked to share what’s changed since I started. I always knew I wanted to be a writer. My first memory is aged 4 when my Mum told Read more…
You can’t escape all the chat about ChatGPT. Many people are raving about it. They’re predicting the end of the world for copywriters like me. But is AI as ‘clever’ as it’s cracked up to be? Recently, I tweeted one of my concerns: Artificial intelligence would be better named as Read more…
Marketing online and offline events is one of the things copywriters are often asked to do. A good example is the invitation to Drayton Bird’s ‘final fling’. As the acknowledged expert in direct response copywriting, you’d expect it to demonstrate best practice. And, of course, it does. if Drayton can’t Read more…
ChatGPT can write copy (even if it can’t write very good copy), and it can write about copywriting. How does it know how to write copy? ChatGPT has been trained on 2/3 of the Internet (using Common Crawl), as well as Wikipedia, Reddit posts with at least three upvotes, and Read more…
<rant> I’ve been to three funerals so far this year. Life is short. Life is for living. Not for agonising about deadlines. Clients… Your freelancers don’t want to spend their precious time knocking themselves out trying to meet unreasonable deadlines. If you’re late providing the brief, your freelancer may have Read more…
You have probably seen all the posts about ChatGPT. Everyone seems to be raving about it. It’s quick. And it’s currently free. But that doesn’t mean it generates quality copy. As a copywriter, you might argue that I would say that, wouldn’t I. But here are some of the reasons Read more…
“Mr Clennan?” said Mr Barnacle. “Be seated.” Mr Clennan became seated. “You have called on me, I believe,” said Mr Barnacle, “at the Circumlocution–” giving it the air of a word of about five-and-twenty-syllables, ” Office.” … “I have found a debtor in the Marshalsea prison of the name of Read more…