Create your own Thesaurus

I’ll admit that when I think of copywriting, my original thoughts often wander to “copyright” which is a lot of legalese. Copywriting on the other hand is the act of writing copy or text for the purpose of marketing or advertising. You can do this for a product, business, person, opinion, or an idea. I explain it to those who question the profession like this: the words you read when you visit a website? The “About Us” the “Company History” the “Services” pages – those are all forms of copy to be written for clients. *Light bulb*

Now you may be saying to yourself, “plenty of people can write.” That’s quite true. But have you ever scoured the Internet and noticed just how poorly written some webpages are? Where there is a problem, one must create a solution. Mine?

Curly Q Media (check it out – become a client).

As a writer, especially when you’re writing for multiple businesses, you must be flexible with your words.

Flexibility in our words is often one area largely impacted by writer’s block.

So tell me: what words are tripping you up regularly? Share it in the comments below.

For me, it’s the word “said”. It’s so easy to use, especially when you’re quoting someone. But it’s boring, especially when you use it five times in a 500-word article. Trust me. The thesaurus, by the way, offers little assistance to this particular plight.

How do I push through overuse of words? Easy: I create my own thesaurus. Whenever I come a across a word that I feel I use too often, I open my notebook and I write it down. Then, I spend about 5-10 minutes brainstorming other ways to express the same thing. For instance:

Said (this is straight from my notebook, folks)

Spoke

Mumbled

Retorted

Shared

Breathed

Exhaled

Gasped

Lied

Cried

Muttered

Yawned

Laughed

Your turn. What is a word that you would really love to start using less?