WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER STOP LEARNING
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Below you’ll see a very small selection of books I’ve been dipping into lately.
Someone questioned why I would be reading a book about writing better copy in particular, when I’d been a copywriter for around 10 years.
This struck me as quite funny, this idea that we acquire a skill, just use it and never hone it. It’s not unthinkable, of course. I recall a client asking me to spruce up some copy because the previous writer was - and I quote - “a dinosaur” in their approach.
And allow me to be clear, this is no rag on older writers. I have immense respect for the wealth of experience they bring - except for the ones who still recycle the lines that likely felt fresh in the 90s. Which is what I saw had happened in this particular case. The copy was so dull, it was painful.
How do I remedy that? I keep learning. I read, actually, I read a lot. You find inspiration in the most surprising of places. That’s why my reading list is so varied.
Books about creativity, branding, PR etc sit nicely alongside other genres, and I don’t believe it’s totally unrelated. The last round of books I got out of my local library included Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson, No Offence by Meg Talbot and The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montogomery. A memoir focused on leadership, a fluffy fiction story and an account of working with octopuses.
How do I remedy that? I keep learning. I read, actually, I read a lot. You find inspiration in the most surprising of places. That’s why my reading list is so varied.
As a writer, I look at words carefully and find there’s something to be learned from basically anything. Just check out this post with one of the best apologies I’ve ever seen from The Offspring. But reading books specifically about being better at my job, unsurprisingly, makes me better at my job.
So, what have you done lately to keep honing your craft?
