I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Wednesday Writing, I consider my writing practice and skills and how to improve upon them.
I’ve recently started doing copywork to improve my writing. I open up my Kindle version of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art on my computer, and type out passages of it into a Google Doc.
More about copywork:
Copywork means exactly what it sounds like: You take a piece of great writing, and you copy it down, usually with a pen, but it could also be typed.
Copying down what other people have written helps develop the connection between your brain, your pen, and your paper—essentially, the formation of words, sentences, and language. It helps with making the tiny details and the nuances of great writing feel like something you’re creating yourself, because you are. Or at least, you’re mechanically producing good writing with your hand.
Elisa Doucette, What Is Copywork (and How to Use it to Establish a Daily writing Routine)
I’m not sure I would really want to write just like Pressfield in The War of Art, as he is a little bit more confident and rough than I would like my style to be. I’m not trying to become a Steven Pressfield War of Art cover artist; I want to develop my own voice. But it’s helpful to understand what rhythm he uses, what constructions he favors, and what word choices he makes.
I’ll have to think about what other writers I might study in this way. Perhaps Daphne Rose Kingma, who wrote one of my favorite relationship (or rather breakup) books, Coming Apart: Why relationships end & how to live through the ending of yours. I think I’ll do some copying of her work today.