Imitate, then innovate: How to use copywork to develop your unique writing style

Have you heard Hunter S. Thompson’s daily routine?

He rises at 3 p.m. with a Chivas Regal and a snort of cocaine (his first of many that day).

By 7 p.m. he has had two margaritas, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, more cocaine, and endless glasses of Chivas.

At midnight he drops acid. Then he’s ready to write until 6 a.m. 

But within this famous writing routine there’s a step missing:

His copywork practice.

“You know Hunter typed The Great Gatsby?” Johnny Depp told The Guardian in 2011 after studying him for the role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “He’d look at each page Fitzgerald wrote, and he copied it. The entire book. And more than once.”

Why? 

Depp tells us the reason Thompson, as well as great communicators like Jack London and Benjamin Franklin, never skipped their copywork:

“He wanted to know what it felt like to write a masterpiece.” 

The benefits of copywork for budding writers

Copywork is a method of improving your writing skills by copying existing texts by hand. It’s a hands-on, practical way to study how great writing works. 

When you do copywork, you witness how the masters keep readers hooked, construct plots, develop characters, and flaunt their unique writing style.

It’s recommended to do copywork by hand so you can study the writing at a thoughtful pace, so you can ask questions like: how is the writer moving the action, setting the scene, and keeping me stuck to the page?

There are many benefits for writers to adopt this practice:

• Learn from the greats: Some believe learning from classics can thwart or standardize your writing. Ridiculous. If you’re going to ‘break the rules’ in your writing, you must understand the rules you are breaking and what actually works. Learn how great voices were developed so you can find your own.

• Develop your writing ‘voice’: Sometimes, a writer’s style makes you say ‘I wish I’d written that.’ Copywork is a way to understand this magic so you can adopt it yourself, and turn your own writing into a mosaic of your favourite styles.

• Enrich your vocabulary, metaphors, and similes: Take it from someone learning Spanish - the best way I’ve learned new vocabulary is by reading. By using copywork, you’re going the extra mile - you’ll learn how to use these new phrases and later use it in your own writing.

How to start doing copywork

Now we know the what and the why, how can you put copywork into action?

1. Choose your writers

Pick writers that best compliment your desired writing style, medium, or the next project you’re working on:

If you’re writing a romance story, you might pick Jane Austen or Nora Roberts.

If you’re a copywriter, you’ll want to study David Ogilvy and Gary Halbert. 

If you’re a rapper, you’ll want to learn from Little Simz or Kendrick Lamar.

Which writers have impacted you most, and who’d be a pleasure to study?

2. Pick a book

You will need to think hard on the ‘why’ of the book you’re choosing to copywork from.

I’m currently writing an absurdist fiction story with an unreliable narrator.

So I’m copyworking from The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, a seriously odd novel with a narrator that is not willing (or able) to reveal much about the situations around him. The story is otherworldly.

Thank god my handwriting hasn’t been seen in public… until now 🙈

Understand the ‘why’ of what you want to imitate, and make your choice.

Don’t worry too much about length—you can pick a poem, or short story, or an ad to start your habit before working yourself towards War and Peace.

3. Set your schedule

It’s worth building copywork into your routine—but be realistic.

Start small, with short passages.

If you feel you can do more, then continue. 

Consistency trumps intensity with everything. 

Remember: this is a method to study the greats so you can improve your own writing. But it shouldn’t be the replacement for creating your own creative work. Prioritize that if you need to pick between two.

Free copywork courses and resources

There are courses and resources online to get started with copywork in as little as 5-minutes a day:

• Copywork365 is a newsletter that sends you a famous, well-written ad every day. If you work in marketing or advertising, this is a perfect resource to study how great copywriting hooks readers.

• Eddie Shleyner’s ‘Fascinations’ microcourse helps marketers develop great hooks by learning from legends. Check it out if you want catchy and intriguing titles.

• Internet Archive is of course the largest resource to access published books on the web. If you’re cash-strapped, you’ll find the majority of history’s most legendary writing on there for free.

Imitation, to innovation, to mastery

Copywork isn’t like taking the answers from your friends’ schoolwork. There’s no award for doing it. No exam to pass. It’s a pure study of the written word through action.

Every day, we are surrounded by unique writing, engaging writing, dull writing, simple writing, complex writing, writing for advertising, writing for fun, writing for instruction, writing to tell a story.

The beauty of copywork is that there’s something to learn from all writing—and you’ll know it when the ink marks the page.