Robert DeNiro doesn't have to do this, right?

Today's post is inspired by comments in a Reddit thread. Find it here.

I took an acting class in college. In a life before this one, I had dreams of being a comedian and actor, and I've always loved being on stage. There was something genuinely freeing about a script, a set, and an audience, and when I saw I could get Gen Ed credits for doing something I already loved to do anyway, I jumped at the chance.

Turns out, there's a big difference between acting as a hobby and acting as a craft. I was shocked by how much paperwork our professor assigned us. For example, she wanted me to drop every. single. line. from a given monologue into a table and write out specifically what I would be doing with my body during each. and every. line.

"To be," step forward, look up and off into the distance

"or not to be?" place left hand on chest, look to the ground slightly to the right

"That-" raise right arm with index finger pointing, look to audience on stage left

"-is the question." sweep gaze over the audience, stage right.

I found it maddening. Robert De Niro was not inputting each and every word in his scripts into a Microsoft Word table before he stepped out of his trailer—why should I?

To me, acting was something to be worked out live, in-person, and on the stage. The only "homework" I thought I'd be getting would be to read scripts, practice monologues, or watch examples of great acting. I could never understand what this professor's goal was, and I fought her process the entire time.

I ended up failing that class.

In the Reddit post linked above, the user is struggling with writing exercises that have been assigned to them as part of a copywriting course they're taking.

I'm filling the IVOC research template, but some of the comments that I'm seeing get me confused. Where do I place [my audience details]? Some come under desires, some under notions, and some fit into [two or more] categories, or none at all.

First off, I'll be honest: I do not know what the IVOC research template is, and I've never taken a copywriting course. Every time I look into them, I'm surprised by how many exercises and frameworks and templates people feel they need to learn. I've never heard of most of them—but when I take the time to learn them, I see lessons and insights I've learned naturally over my own career. I just never had a name for them.

And then, I'm reminded of how incredibly hard the first few years of my copywriting and content strategy career were, while I was learning all of these lessons the hard way (often face-first, at not-insignificant personal expense).

And then, I think back to my failed acting course in college.

My professor wasn't trying to force me to take acting out of the round and into a word processor—she was trying to get me to think deliberately about something that had always been instinctual for me. Where will I place my hands, my gaze, my feet as I say this line? My instinct is to point—but with which hand? Why that hand? Would my character point with that hand, instead of the other? Why?

Of course Robert De Niro wasn't running his scripts through a word processor—he's Robert De Niro. He doesn't need to, because he's already learned how to think about all of this instinctually.

And buddy, I was not Robert De Niro.

At this point in my career, I don't really worry about the IVOC research template, or RIOA, or the 4 U's, or whatever other framework copywriting students are using to learn the craft. That's all become instinctual to me, much the same way asking how his character would point has become instinctual to Robert De Niro.

But man oh man, the first few years of my career would've been a whole lot easier had I taken the time to think about copywriting this way.

My response to the Redditor was twofold:

A. Don't stress too much about getting these research templates perfect. The important thing isn't to get them "right", but to understand what they're trying to teach you.

B. Keep trying to get them right, because as you do, you'll build these skills into your instinct. Eventually, you won't have to do them, because you'll be doing them without thinking about it.

And if this career works out for you, down the road you'll have so many clients to write for simultaneously that you won't have time to do these exercises in the first place. You'll need it to be instinctual, otherwise you'll crash out and get your real estate license.

Are you taking any classes like the Redditor is taking? Are you working through any frameworks like this?

Are you a little further along in your career, but still find yourself using old exercises to break through the wall?

I'd love to hear about them in the comments—and honestly, I still have some I use anyway.

If this is your first newsletter from me—hi, I'm Sean! Copywriter, content strategist, and longtime freelancer. Inkspiller is my newsletter where I write about what it's like to build an independent business, and Enthusiast Media is my agency.

Blots and Drops

• Will A.I. writing ever be good? - Max Read
  • Answer: No
  • Reason: It doesn't have to be
  • Reaction: I'm so tired, man.
• Why big companies squander brilliant ideas - Tim Harford
  • A fascinating read about why having a brilliant idea doesn't mean you'll be able to effectively use it.
  • I'm thinking about this a lot right now with how AI is fundamentally changing marketing, media, content, and basically how humans interact with information.

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