The Art of Storytelling: What Creative Writers & Copywriters Have in Common

Creative writers were the storytellers before “storytelling” entered the marketers’ Urban Dictionary of Buzzwords—alongside “narrative”—during the tail end of this decade. Case in point:

Google Trends graph: "Content Marketing Storytelling"

But we've learned to share the word. Because here's the thing:

Storytellers make great copywriters and copywriters make great storytellers. In fact, many famous writers of your favorite novels used copywriting as a gateway into the publishing world. Fan of The Great Gatsby? F. Scott Fitzgerald started as a copywriter. 

James Patterson quit his desk job as a copywriter to focus on his stories, eventually becoming a best-selling thriller and non-fiction writer. 

Hemingway often wrote about his money-making journalism stints.

Not all famous writers trade glitzy New York desk jobs writing 10-word slogans to pursue 200-pages of fiction. But it’s proven to be a commonly interchangeable career. 

It's obvious why: We just want to write. As Hemingway aptly puts:

“I have to write to be happy whether I get paid for it or not. But it is a hell of a disease to be born with. I like to do it. Which is even worse. That makes it from a disease into a vice."

-Ernest Hemingway

I get it. I graduated with a degree in Creative Fiction Writing in Los Angeles. I didn’t spend my nights drinking warm whiskey crying over the character I just killed. I wasn’t trying to be Buckowski (but perhaps I did visit some of his reading nooks while in the city of angels). 

I just liked telling stories. And reading them. I drank up every word. 

Ernest Hem, himself

I’m not comparing myself to the likes of Hemingway (although I maaaaayyyyy have also moved to Spain and developed a drinking problem). 

But I did, like many others, cross over to the copywriting world years ago. (Although, unlike Hemingway, it was indeed to make money. A girl's gotta eat.)

So I understand a little too well how O.G. storytellers and copywriters are, in fact, very different professions.

Creative writers tell stories based on what they know.

Copywriters tell stories based on what their target audience desires.

Creative writers live for the craft.

Copywriters live for the conversion.

Creative writers, well, create. Copywriters assemble pages with words.

We must admit, however, that there are overlaps. Otherwise, why would so many creative writers (the elite and the everyday) learn to copywrite quickly and naturally?

What Creative Writers & Copywriters Have in Common

Frameworks

Back when storytelling was called narrative, one of the most commonly used literary techniques to learn was (and still is) the use of a framework. We regularly see them in every written art form: novels, poems, plays, films, television, opera, and musicals.

Imagine the main narrative as a picture frame. It provides the structure for the story: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Now imagine secondary stories placed inside of the picture frame. A writer can put a second or third or really an unlimited number of stories within the context of this frame. All of these stories are held together by the main narrative, the frame essentially connects what would otherwise be unrelated stories.

As do copywriters. Some of the first you'd learn? The “PAS” framework—Problem-Agitation-Solution: to hook the audience into knowing that I am talking to them and I am here with some wonderful solution to their problem that they need to buy. Or the "AIDA" framework—Attention-Interest-Desire-Action: to captivate you to listen to me, pique your interest and inspire you to take action.

Being really, really, ridiculously good at knowing what people really want—AKA getting candid responses

OK, maybe we’re not exactly psychologists or indigo children, but writers need to put in the work to get to the root of desire. 

Back when I was crafting fictional characters, if a character of mine had a hobby that I didn’t have, I would speak to people who did have specific knowledge on the topic.

I would visit places that would inspire my story's setting... to get the setting just right.

A common practice of fiction writers is to eavesdrop (in the most non-creepy way possible). It's important because there is not a bigger telltale sign of an inexperienced writer than one who writes dialogue like this:

“Are you going to go to the store without me?” she asked.

“Yes, I want to go alone,” he replied. 

People don't talk like that.

We tend to think we know what people would say and what people would do. But we get it all wrong.

That's also why copywriters need to conduct research to get messaging right on a sales letter, for example. They need to interview sales reps, read feedback from customers, and look at what people say about competitors when everything is candid!

It's true, writers aren’t always pen and paper. We’re not afraid of getting our hands dirty on the ground floor. 

Copywriters, good copywriters, can spend hours on research not only finding out what people say but mining for the exact words of your audience says so we can connect with them best.

Good copywriters and marketers don't just *think* of a tagline, they research and become inspired by what their market really does and says.

Brevity.

Just get to the point, we don’t care about word count anymore!

We’ve mastered the art of sentence variation. Like this. Because people get really tired of reading the same sentence pattern over and over again. 

It’s one of the most transferable skills storytellers have that work best for copywriting. We’ve learned to play with sentence structure, sounds, and getting things to slide off the tongue. (If you don’t believe me, read that sentence again.) 

To be fair, copywriters need to learn clarity and brevity whereas fiction writers believe three paragraphs to describe the pale moonlight on a lover’s back is far too short. 

But the skill of moving someone down the page with intrigue is vital, whether you are writing a 10-page thriller or an epic landing page. 

We know the importance of point of view. 

Creative writers spend an absurd amount of time deciding which point of view to use. Will it be written in the third person? Or should I go with the first-person perspective because that’s what I’m most comfortable writing? Or do I dare an omniscient point of view for a 1984 vibe?

Choose one and stick with it. Mess that up and everything gets muddy. You lose the trust of your reader. Your editor bleeds the page with her red pen.

Funnily enough, creative writers almost never take the second person point of view, “you.” It’s uncomfortable to read in an imaginative story.

But for copywriting? It’s gold.

You want the reader to feel that they are in the scenario you are dreaming up so they scream in their head, “yes, yes, that’s totally me!”

Make it all about the customer. It's not about how great your product is or how wonderful you are at what you do. Is there any place in the copy you can switch the word "I" to the word "you"? Any headers you can add in the word "you"? 

There's a world of difference between "My Product is great. I created it because I wanted to help people feel better," and "You’ll be feeling so limber, you’ll fall in love with this product. You’ll take it with you on vacation because you can’t stand being apart. You’ll replace all your children in your will. You’ll run away to Trinidad because society doesn’t accept your relationship.”

Alright, I got carried away but you get it.

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

That’s something my first creative writing teacher told me that stuck with me throughout the years. While it may be Biblical, it’s to say every plotline has been borrowed a million times over again. 

What you write is not new, but your ideas, experiences, and voice, are all your own. That’s what makes it worth reading.

I see this worry come up with new blog/article writers who Google their keyword, become instantly overwhelmed by the amount of content already on the subject, and bounce.

Put your spin and style on it, and now it's new.

You have to know the rules to break them.

Unlike English majors who studied rhetoric or literature, creative writers aren’t afraid to break the rules of writing. We have a phrase that goes like this: “You have to know the rules to break them.” We are all capable of following the AP style guide to a T, buuuuut we, like, really don’t wanna. The key here is that every time we break a r-u-l-e, it’s with purpose. 

Bring it on.

And when it comes to selling with words, the rules of copywriting are all topsy turvy. We break writing rules all the time to make a page easier to read.

Want the best of both worlds rolled into one? Hire a copywriter with a creative writing background. *Cough, cough* *nudge, nudge*

Cover photo by Nicole Wolf on Unsplash