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edit themselves ruthlessly first, to spare ruthless editing from the creative director or client. Edit for length and content. Weed out excess words and information that isn't really needed.
13. Polish Carefully Once you've edited and tightened up your copy, review it to add a few finishing touches that will really make it shine. Maybe you'll find that by changing a word here and there you will make the copy more emotional, powerful, and convincing. Maybe you'll find one little awkward transition you could smooth a bit. Maybe you'll find it's just right and needs no finishing touches at all. You'll never know unless you do this step routinely.

14. Never Trust Spell Check Spell check is good but it isn't great. It misses a lot that can be grammatically correct but dead wrong. Case in point. A team in my creative group on a tight deadline released an ad that spell check cleared. The ad appeared in the newspaper with "pubic relations" instead of "public relations". Always read your copy and have some other human read it too.
15. Copy Needs To Be Sold Unfortunately creative people have to be sales people too. Creative concepts and copy usually need to be sold. Prepare yourself to do it. Identify who you're selling to the client, your creative director or an over-bearing account exec. If you organize your ideas, rehearse your pitch, and support your claims with facts, it's usually smooth sailing.
16. Grease The Wheels Let Them Think It's "Their Idea"- Everybody thinks they're "creative" and wants to be part of the creative process. Account execs, clients and creative directors, are no exception. In presenting your big idea, it always helps to make them feel they had some part of it right from the start. Try prefacing your copy presentation with " You gave me a great idea last week", "What you said about perceived value' really got me thinking" or some similar phrase. A little grease goes a long way.
17. Have Fun Life's short so enjoy every minute. Have Fun and your copy will show it!

Learn more about this author, Michael Crozier.
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