Way back in college when I was an English Major with dreams of making a living as a writer, I wrote more than my share of painfully awful short stories, as well as a number of equally horrendous stage plays.

I did, however, manage to win a trip to the annual Cranbrook Academy’s Writer’s festival with my play: “Goat Leaves the Tree.” (The title’s likely the only memorable thing about this script.) I took great pride in having been so honored, but that faded once I discovered the following year my success was due primarily to having been the only play submitted – proving once again, simply showing up is more than half the battle.

But the lasting value to me as a writer was that the process of writing “Goat” taught me a valuable strategy for writing extremely fast.

It was the first script I ever wrote where I’d fully embraced the idea of outlining the play down to a “Beat-by-Beat” level. A “Beat” is simply a key moment in the storyline – a character makes a discovery, an unexpected event takes place, a decision is made, a battle is won, and so on.

Before “Goat,” every script I had written (and every story as well) had been essentially a stream of consciousness effort. Blank page, start writing, not sure where I’d wind up. But with “Goat” I invested serious thought and effort into laying out every single Beat in the story.

With all the Beats complete, I then started writing dialog and scenes… and was astonished at how fast I was able to complete the entire script. Far faster than anything else I’d ever written before.

And this lesson holds true for writing copy as quickly as possible.

  • Always work from a PLAN.

Yes, you can write copy starting from a totally blank page and nothing else. But it’s a whole lot easier if you have at least some kind of plan in place, which can include things like:

  • Details of the offer
  • List of objections
  • Basic sales letter template/outline
  • Scarcity you intend to push
  • Social proof you can include
  • Etc. you get the picture

Having these in place BEFORE you start typing cannot help but make the effort easier and MUCH faster.

Next time you’re working on Killer Copy, take a moment to make sure you already have at least some kind of plan in place.

Write on.

-Jack

PS:  Click HERE to get my 3-Step System for Easily Creating KILLER Headlines that grab attention and instantly connect with your customers. Perfect anyone who needs to grab attention to sell their products and services. It makes writing headlines SIMPLE – even if you HATE to write sales copy.

Best of all, it’s my gift to you. CLICK HERE now to get it for FREE.