My hands are sore as hell.

And j’ai mal aux mains.

But meanwhile, there’s a certain section of the copywriting industry that will have you believe there is some big secret to becoming a more successful copywriter.

If they could share it with you (which will coincidentally require you to give them a nice chunk of money) then your success would know no bounds.

It’s weird how these same people often went from zero to hero at the flick of a switch…

It’s weird that it’s left them a little intense and shouty…

And it’s weird that they don’t appear to have written much copy in their careers.

But I’m sure it’s all above board. I’m sure they’ve not just figured out how to do effective ad marketing and are funneling people through an impersonal and cutthroat sales gauntlet.

No. They have a secret. And that’s fair enough.

Hmmm.

I’m learning two new things at the moment.

Rock climbing… hence why my hands are sore as hell.

And French… hence my basic translation of I have poorly hands.

Bouldering up the side of a wall and learning how to ask where la gare is require different approaches to learning.

One is extremely physical, the other entirely mental.

I’m half decent at both—not great by any means, but not a complete beginner…

But to get better at both disciplines requires one thing…

Practice.

You have to actually do the thing and keep doing it over and over until things start to click… until you realize that you have to use your legs as well as your arms to get you from one hand hold to another… until you realize certain elements of a foreign language work the same as your own and can save you a lot of time.

Sure, there are smart little processes you can learn to help speed things along… but there is no ONE BIG SECRET that will mean you can suddenly go from zero to hero.

Copywriting is, sadly, the same.

You need to keep doing it. You need to write, or at least read a little every day. You have to have your copy brain engaged at all times, watching for clues as to how people act, how they think, how they make decisions. And most importantly, you have to put your copy in front of other copywriters and have it discussed.

This last one is why we do our live calls on a Friday and why we spend so many episodes of The Fix analyzing copy we get sent in by readers.

At the same time, it’s this last element that so few copywriters practice. It’s why I see countless advertising emails—even ones written by people professing to teach copy—that are so lackluster and wet.

It’s why expectations of how easy it is to become a well-paid copywriter are so skew-whiff these days too.

And perhaps worse—it’s why so many clients put such a small value on copywriting. It’s because the stuff they receive (often presented as “just the words”) is so damn shoddy.
Of course, there’s nothing you or I can do about the folks out there pretending like there is a big secret… or those perpetuating this degrading view of copywriting. It’s a free world, they make a pretty penny, and that’s their call.

Instead, we can focus on our own game and carve out a position in the market where we can be paid well by a handful of good clients who understand the true value of our skill.

And the only way we can truly begin to do that is by recognising there is no one secret… there is no “cheat code”… and one man or woman or “guru” has all of the answers…

Instead, just like I have to keep strengthening my hands to be able to grip that tiny hold for longer… and just like I have to keep swearing every time I end some madass verb in -ons instead of -ent…

We have to keep writing more…

We have to keep reading more…

And we have to keep getting our copy reviewed more.

If there were one secret—that would be it.

But as I say… or as French Glenn would say…

Il n’y a pas de secrets.