Become a Better Writer in 1 Week? Challenge Accepted

How do you become a better writer? What happens when you try to write a year's worth of Copywork in 7 days? Can you get better at writing by copying?

When I looked up ways to improve your writing, one exercise popped up everywhere as a recommendation. To become a better writer, you have to copy the great ones. This is known as “Copywork”

This was practiced by many famous authors throughout history and is an exercise many still swear by today. For the sake of documenting this, and out of my own curiosity, I wanted to see if I could do this daily writing exercise, but condense an entire year's worth of work in just one week’s time.

The author I chose to study was Seth Godin. He’s the author of 19 best-selling books. He’s a prolific writer who posts to his blog every single day, which has over 7500 entries.

Chapters
0:00 My Writing Challenge
0:39 What is Copywork?
1:33 My plan to do 1 year's worth of writing in one week
2:24 Day one of my one-week writing challenge
5:19 Unexpected problems in my one-week writing challenge
6:52 The adjustments I made to improve my process
8:57 Something magical happened when I started writing for myself
11:08 The results of my one-week writing challenge
11:35 What did I learn from copying Seth Godin?
12:57 My process to get better at writing
14:35 The benefits of Copywork. What happens when you develop a habit for writing?
16:03 How to overcome writer’s block by Seth Godin
16:34 Challenge me. What do you want me to learn next?

📚 Resources and Links

Follow Matthew Encina
Youtube: @MatthewEncina
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook: @matthewencina

===

Want a deeper dive? Typography, Lettering, Sales & Marketing, Social Media and The Business of Design courses available here:

—
Love the content? Become a sustaining member for $5/mo today.

BOOKLIST –

Kits & Proposals:

Visit our website:

FREE resources:
—
We love getting your letters. Send it here:
The Futur
c/o Chris Do
1702 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
USA

—
AFFILIATE LINKS*

🙏 Support The Futur by purchasing through our affiliate links:

✍️ Sharpen your skills by taking a course, using our affiliate links:

🎧 Do you like the music? Check out the music libraries we use in our affiliate links below:

*By making a purchase through any of our affiliate links, we receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us on our mission to provide quality education to you. Thank you.

—
Host: Chris Do
Content Director: Matthew Encina
Producer: Mark Contreras
Cinematographers/Editors: Stewart Schuster, Ricky Lucas, Jona Garcia
Social Team: Elle Money, Alex Burlui
Typefaces: Futura, DIN, Helvetica Now, Calibre, Knockout, Champion Gothic

[qbjgept]

I'm currently doing a semester's worth of designing in one day

[AntonWongVideo]

Procrastinating students reading the title be like "Yeah, that sounds about right"

[necromaster]

Normal person: I'm gonna make content
Matthew: I'm gonna make content out of me learning making content and making content

[SaraBrunettini]

I loved watching this video. So I watched it twice. I read books everyday but I've never felt confident at publishing articles or posts online as English is not my first language. However, I didn't let it stopping me from writing. Remember "Just write poorly, continue to write poorly..." So in January I decided to start writing short posts on Instagram to improve my writing skills and build confidence. Three months later, I started to write scripts for YouTube and today I spend an hour every morning writing content for my videos. Building this routine wasn't easy but it becomes easier one you get started! Matthew is a great example for all of those who have a great story they want to share but are too worried about the execution. Thanks for this video!

[AR-yzxu]

This inspired me to start writing. Something that I have been meaning to do for the longest time. Also as a reflection, diligently pursue things that I want to better myself at. By working on them EVERY SINGLE DAY. Thanks for inspiring and good luck with your writing!

[Mushba.]

first off, BIG YES TO THE WEEKLY CHALLENGE SERIES
secondly: Such a good video, as always! But really loved this because I could relate to this because you just gave a name for what I've been doing since i was young.
I've been a fiction writer since i was an adolescent and part of the reason i picked up that skill was because i was doing a subconscious version of copywork. I'd just observe and try to write like the Austen novels i read.
While i may not be a best selling author (for now!), i can tell anyone reading this comment that copywork / learning from observation/imitation is a very valuable way to learn (and a skill to acquire) as a writer and artist.
Also, I love how thoughtful you are when sharing your experiences. It's a rare quality. I also think picking Seth Godin was such a good idea because your observations about his writing got me to thinking how his writing is very suitable for the social media platform/age.
keep up the good work @thefutur <3

[ShirleiBarnes]

Mathew I loved this video especially when you said that you have many articles as draft because you were scared to publish it. This is not something easy to share with others. I also loved your progress, how you changed your goal, and as you relaxed your enjoyment changed. From quantity to quality 👏🏼

[kuyajosiah]

Great practical advice! Looking forward to the rest of this series!

Of all the creative mediums most channels speak about creative writing always seems to be the one that's overlooked. We need more of it.

[godwin_njoroge]

Love how honest this was. Thanks for challenging us Matthew

[ayezaabid]

Our supervisor is making us do 3 months worth of thesis project work in one week. It feels impossible at the moment but this is giving me inspiration.

[amandasprague]

this is exactly what I needed to hear as a writer. one thing that helps me when I can't concentrate is head phones or ear plugs.

[IliePandia]

Oh, yes, more of this please. I love that you are so intentional with personal growth and you're looking for effective ways to do it. Also big fan of Seth's.

[RonaldCortez]

Great video! I've never heard of the "Copywork" exercise before. Its inspired me to try it myself!

[DANAMIONLINE]

"…Build a habit of practice." These words resonated with me because it takes the focus off the result and places it on the process. Thank you for this video. The notion of copywork is new to me. I have the thought to copywork books of the Bible to learn different writing styles and to inject scripture into my mind as an alternative way of reading scripture.

[DenokLestari]

really appreciate your time, making this video.. and still, Matt is my role model :)

[mackenlyjones]

Sounds like a really good series idea!

[motionbynick]

i absolutely love your videos matthew. Such a relaxing and refreshing style. you should definitely make a series 🤘

[garyvoigt]

Definitely need more videos of you learning new skills. Watching these inspires me to learn along (or after) with you. 🤙🏼

[Jamesviolaofficial]

Nice to see you adjusted your goals and expectations as you progressed. Great vid.

[melindalivsey]

This was so good Matthew! Thank you for thoughtfully sharing what you learned with us.