A question I was asked: I want to become a master copywriter within the next 5 years. How do I do it?

When we’re young, we’re told practice makes perfect. It’s not quite true.

If you want to become a master copywriter, absolutely, read everything you can get your hands on and write every day. But it’ll take more besides…

• Copywriting is emotional
  You’ll need to be invested in every piece of copy you write. If you don’t believe in it, why should the reader? That means you have to give it your all. Not just your intellect and copy skills, but your heart too. If you can’t get comfortable digging down into the deepest, darkest places in which the human psyche festers, then you can’t be a master copywriter.
• Copywriting is precise
  Copywriters don’t bask in the merry freedom of working in coffee shops, tapping cheerfully away at their laptops, conjuring up words — that’s a fairy tale. The truth is, if you’re a copywriter, you’re in business. You work in sales. Every morsel of content you tease out onto the page must have a clear purpose. To master that, expect sweat on your brow.
• Copywriting is testing
  Confidence for most people loiters somewhere in the middle of self-doubt and arrogance. But when you write copy, you better put trust in your own ability. Grow a thick skin; you’re putting all of yourself out there and it’s open to judgement. Master copywriters learn to defend themselves and their work. Without that, your potential will wilt.
• Copywriting is ravenous
  Writing copy doesn’t pull from the language rules you learnt in school. It comes from a combination of every life experience you’ve ever had. Copywriters are curious and persistent in their quest for meaning. No matter what else is happening in your life, you’ve got to feed your imagination and all sense of possibility if you want to master the craft.

If Yoda could tell you what it takes to be a master copywriter in five years?

Grit, it takes.