Let Yourself Embrace That Initial Messiness

The First Step Is Harder Than The Rest

We copywriters spend fifty percent of our time researching the content we write about. Only the other fifty percent is writing.
Every copywriter has made this mistake several times—they want the copy to be perfect on the first try. I was one of them.

Downfalls I Faced:

• It killed my writing speed, My deadlines were never achieved.
• It wrecked my creativity—I was chasing perfection.
• My natural flow while writing was completely gone when I spent much time correcting the first sentence.

It fools you into thinking you’re “crafting,” when really, you’re avoiding what’s coming to your mind because you think it needs to be perfect.

So,

1. Let your first draft be completely terrible
   Yes, I mean completely messy. Rambling. Unusable. But raw.
2. Perfection is your enemy
   On the flip side, writing a bad first draft does something powerful:
   It gets the idea out—and that’s what matters most, because the first step is always harder than the rest.
3. Ideas are gold—even when they’re wrapped in chaos
   Use your initial draft as placing all the puzzle pieces out on the table.

It’ll appear like craziness at first, but you have all the parts—you just need to put them in the right order.
Once that messy version is on the page, the magic begins.

You can now:

• Rearrange for clarity.
• Edit out fluff.
• Cut what doesn’t serve your goal.
• Tighten your message.

Let it be ugly. Let it be wordy. Let it be weird.
Copywriting is rewriting.
It’s shaping. Refining. Elevating.

The most powerful copy you’ve ever read?
It probably started as a chaotic brain dump, too.
Great copy isn’t born—it’s built.

So next time you sit down to write, remember:
The first step is permitting yourself to suck.
That’s how you win.

Every great piece of writing had its rough beginning. Let yourself embrace that initial messiness.
You’ll find that through the messy draft process, you’ve already gotten the most crucial part out—the idea.
The rest is just polishing.
It’s part of the process, and it’s what leads you to your most authentic and powerful writing.