Hemingway’s writing tip that works for copywriting.
Hemingway.
You either’ve read him or heard his name.
A tip he shares on writing, one that has the potential to save your copywriting project—to help you get the pickle out of the jar when starting copy—is in a small paragraph in his memoir, A Moveable Feast.
I’ve read it. If you wish to read him and haven’t done so, I wouldn’t start there, as there’s no plot or climax. My favorites are The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Anyway, back to the paragraph:
Hemingway writes, somewhere in 1920s Paris:
"Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before, and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally, I would write one true sentence and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say."
One true sentence.
It still happens to me on occasion—figuring out what to say, trying to make it tactical, flowery, romantic, luxurious, or whatever have you. The words aren’t coming out because, in my view, I’m trying to write something that the product is not (or at least, it’s not in my dealt cards to write it exactly how I envision on the first try, as most great copy comes in proofreading).
Don’t even think of benefits; start at ground zero and write a list of facts.
Like the Gopuff analysis I did the other day:
That is a fact.
There’s no we sell everything and the kitchen sink cleveralities (coined this word—clever + trivialities).
What’s the one truest sentence you can write?
Start from there, then modify as you go.
Or so I think,
George
