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Home » What’s the Difference Between a Copywriter and a Copywriter?

What’s the Difference Between a Copywriter and a Copywriter?

A lot of people consider themselves to be copywriters or creative writers, even though they may not be. It is definitely a broad church. For some it may be a way to get their creative juices flowing and for others it may be a career choice. There are certainly tricks of the trade that can be applied regardless of whether you choose to be a creative writer or a copywriter.

The Creative Writing Process

If you are a creative writing student, then you will no doubt be familiar with this phase of your studies. The creative writing process is often described as the “art of fiction”. Essentially, you will be taking a genre of writing and exploring it from a different perspective. For example, if you are writing a novel, but you feel that the world you are creating is more relevant to daily life, you might consider exploring how to make the story more of a “how to” guide. You will then have to transform your insights into actionable copy. This might involve writing a few paragraphs of fiction to get the feel of it, but then you will have to turn your attention to the nuts and bolts of actual copywriting. You will need to take into consideration the exact words that potential customers are most likely to use and how they want to be persuaded to make a purchase. Learning to apply the “genius” of creative writing to actual copywriting is a valuable skill to have. It will serve you well whether you end up in creative writing or copywriting.

The Difference Between Creative and Copywriting

Although creative writing and copywriting are often considered to be synonymous, they are, in fact, quite different. Creative writing is often thought of as “free-form” writing, where anything can happen, and often does. You will not need to adhere to any particular format or style guide when writing creatively. Some of the greatest creative writers in history didn’t even use spell check, so you might as well shut off that little devil on your phone and let your fingers do the walking. 

Copywriting, on the other hand, is very much “hard-nosed”. You will need to adhere to a style guide and make sure that your story follows a roadmap of some sort. You might have to stick around for multiple drafts before you are completely satisfied with the end product. However, once you have developed and polished your script, you will be able to apply the same basic techniques to any piece of content that you choose, regardless of whether you are writing a pitch, a press release, or even an ad. The style guide for copywriting can become quite extensive, but it will always come down to the same thing: make sure that the reader is retained from start to finish and that they come away feeling as though they have learned something new. Creative writing can be applied to any field; all you need is a notepad and a pen.