There’s one thing we can all agree on: writing slumps can fuck off. Opening your laptop, staring at either a blank page or the half assed words you wrote yesterday, then mentally disappearing into the abyss is a rite of passage for more writers. Especially those of us who offer copywriting services as a huge part of our jobs.
If you’re not a writer and you’re here because you’re nosy about me specifically or writers in general, please know this: no one can work at 100% capacity all the time. No one is creative all the time. And as with any job, sometimes we just need a fucking break.
So here are some books I can recommend all about writing, storytelling, and psychology as well as some writing techniques to help you think differently about the way you write and who you write it for.
First of all, my qualifications
Who the fuck am I to offer this advice? The quick version is that I:
- have worked as a copywriter for 11 years
- studied Creative Writing at uni twice (once for an undergrad and once for an MA)
- wrote my MA dissertation about narrative techniques and how storytelling is changing in the age of social media
- have recently started working on a book about this very topic (we’ll see if it goes anywhere, could just be an ADHD hyperfixation, who knows)
Book recommendations for (copy)writers in a slump
If you’ve followed me on social media for any length of time or have ever had the misfortune to ask me about my favourite books, you’ll know all about this first one.
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Will Storr is one of my favourite non-fiction writers. Having written fantastic books about propaganda, extremism, and us vs them culture online (see The Heretics and The Status Game), in 2019 he turned his attention to storytelling. Why we like it, how we’re psychologically hardwired to pay attention to certain tropes and techniques, and how it is used to persuade people (of anything from dangerous misinformation to this is the best product for your needs).
The Science of Storytelling changed the game for me. It came at the perfect time for my MA dissertation and is something I have been using in my copywriting career ever since.
He also released a sort of continuation of this book in early 2025 called A Story Is A Deal. It’s on my TBR but I haven’t read that one yet so can’t provide my thoughts either way.
Your Story Matters by Nikesh Shukla
Most people know the name from The Good Immigrant, a collection of stories and personal essays about the immigrant experience in the UK that Shukla edited. I first came across his work when, you guessed it, I was researching novels about social media and identity for my MA dissertation.
And along comes Meatspace. To this day, one of the weirdest, most surreal, and gut wrenching novels I’ve ever read. So, in 2022 when I heard he had written a book about writing, I was all in.
Even better, Your Story Matters focuses tightly on the why of it all. The book includes exercises and prompts to help you develop your ideas, how you want to write it, and why this is the best use of your time and perspective. It allows for a lot of digging into why this matters which can be a huge win for copywriters trying to find tone of voice and messaging for customers.
The Twittering Machine by Richard Seymour
Ok this is a more off-kilter choice. The Twittering Machine is for the “the internet/capitalism is ruining everything and I’m part of the machine” crowd. But this book provides an insightful look into what has happened to the meaning of words, information, stories, and connection now that the digital world has democratised both literacy and creation.
Everywhere you look there are more articles, headlines, tweets, books, and videos than ever before. My favourite quote from the whole book is this:
What have we written ourselves into? And how do we write ourselves out of it?
Gives you a good general vibe for the whole book.
Book recommendations from the gang
I asked copywriters in my network for their recommendations, and this is what they suggested:
- Ed Callow and Mel Barfield both recommend Dan Nielken’s A Self-Help Guide For Copywriters – “a practical focus on strategies for thinking rather than the actual writing. As a group, we’re predisposed to the kind of overly harsh self-critique Dan talks a lot about”
- Jessica Bryan, copywriter at Amplifi recommends Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whippie, Squeeze This– “he doesn’t sugarcoat what working in marketing is like. He talks about bad briefs, client feedback, and office politics but still makes a real case for doing smart, respectful, audience-first work”
- Ben McKinney, Client Director at Copy or Die and host of the Indie Business Club podcast recommends Andy Maslen’s Write To Sell – “it’s the first [copywriting book] I read and still the one I return to the most”
- Beth Carter, Founder of Lemon Squeezy Marketing recommends Joe Moran’s First You Write A Sentence – “This is a brilliant book for anyone who wants to improve their writing. Even if you take nothing from its content (you will), the writing is outstanding. I frequently had to pause and savour the way Moran’s sentences sing”
Huge thanks to everyone who reached out to offer suggestions. There were a few more suggested on this LinkedIn post if you want some more ideas.
I think it says a lot about me that the three books I recommended don’t have a direct connection to copywriting but more storytelling in general. But that’s what two degrees in Creative Writing will get you!
Bonus: a writing/editing technique you can implement now
Ok sure, not everyone wants to read a whole ass book to get out of a writing slump. So maybe try this instead.
The Fern Leaf Theory
Back in 2015, I am in my second year of my undergraduate degree and a rather wonderful, enthusiastic, and very scottish man named Mike has control of the classroom. Mike is my university lecturer, teaching us all about the precision and care that needs to go into writing a short story.
In a short story, every word counts. Especially within the limits of a university assignment where you have, at most, 2,500 words to create a complete narrative arc with satisfying character development. It’s a tough call.
The same can be said for copywriting. Whether it’s ad creative, an email subject line, or website copy (my particular speciality), everything has to flow with everything else. You have so little space to get a lot of information across. So, picture an excitable scotsman explaining the following:
- Look at a fern leaf. It is beautiful and concise. A fern leaf is not wasteful, it is intentional
- The whole shape of the leaf is mirrored time and again within its structure
- The whole leaf is the same shape as the individual branches of the leaf is the same shape as the teeny tiny micro leaves on the individual branches within the leaf
- Everything forms the same shape. Everything comes together to create one cohesive shape. Or in our case, a narrative and a character.
And in our case as copywriters, the messaging, the brand, and the ultimate goal of conversion. (You don’t know Mike, but picturing a non-specific enthusiastic scotsman delivering this lecture to you will hopefully help it stick in your brain the way it has in mind for the last decade).
While you can use this for any type of creative and sales-focused copy, I recommend it specifically as an approach for website copywriting. Ad copy and email copy are often ephemeral. They are temporary and fleeting. Website copy sticks around for a long time, usually years. Sometimes too many years.
So next time you’re writing website copy, alongside the SEO and the UX of it all, think about the fern leaf. Does every word, every sentence, every heading, and every bit of button text point in the same direction? Not just conversion but do they all tell the same story of the brand you are representing?
More quick resources to help with website copy stuff
If you’re looking for a few more quick hits of information that don’t require more than 5 minutes a piece, I’ve got some recommendations for you. You should know, I wang on about copywriting a lot.
- 5 ways website copy impacts your conversion rate
- How long does website copywriting take?
- Less is more: effective copywriting and the lies SEO tells you
- Conversion, messaging, and building trust through your website
- 404 pages: turning shitty UX into a good experience
- How much website copy do I need?
p.s. I wanna clarify that there are no affiliate links in this blog. I’m not interested in that. I just wanna recommend good books to people who need them. All of the links go to bookshop.org, Waterstones, or the author’s website. You will never catch me linking to Amazon. For my friends in the US, anything available in Waterstones should also be available at Barnes & Noble.
If you can get these books from your local library, even better. They are essential resources for our communities.
