I’m finishing up some copy this afternoon, fighting back a yawn (and the call of my bed) after getting just 4 hours of sleep last night.

Why did I get such little sleep last night, you ask?

Because I was driving back from a wedding at the tippy top of Washington state, and didn’t return home until about 1:00 this morning.

Just as I’m about to doze off into my third micro nap of the day — sitting upright at my desk — the other copywriter on my team Slacks me this message:

“ugh I hate when those ‘anonymous animals’ just hover inside the doc when you're trying to make edits lol”

He follows up with this rather fitting gif.

My response:

“lol they’re the creepiest of animals tbh it’s like … what are you doing in there, anonymous narwhal?! please do not lance my copy with your majestic horn”

He quips back:

“lol, right? it's like they're just waiting to unravel it all …”

His response reminded me of something that virtually all copywriters struggle with, including me:

The fear that our copy will be torn apart within minutes of a client reviewing it.

Now, I believe there are MANY ways to overcome this fear (or at least get used to dealing with it).

They include, in no particular order:

• Research

• Experience in the field

• Experience in a specific industry you’re writing for

• Relative stress and deadlines

• Current workload

• Rate of pay

• And much, much more

And these are all areas that you can immediately begin working on improving. Or at least recognize that there is a problem that will just take time to solve.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I don’t have a product to sell you that can fix these thingsThat’ll change over the next couple of months, of course, when I launch my first product.

In the meantime … you can sign up to my email list for strategies to help you get a leg up on the anonymous narwhals waiting in the shadows.

David Patrick