Entrepreneur Days Photos Shows Many Of the Top Internet Marketers Before They Became Famous

A long time ago, I thought I might become a screenwriter. In the Hollywood sense.

(I guess anyone who writes to be read on someone else’s computer screen could be called a “screenwriter”… but… I had something else in mind at the time.)

Agents and lawyers and stars, o my! Hey, it hasn’t happened yet and, the more I learn about the way Hollywood works, the more I think I’m in the right business as a copywriting mentor and educator (and copywriter).

Anyway… one time I took this screenwriting class in Marin County, California. It was back in the ’90s, and we had the most interesting assignment — one that would work exceptionally well for copywriters, too.

The assignment was basically to snoop.

Yeah, snoop.

We were supposed to hang out somewhere in public, with a notebook and a pen, and eavesdrop on conversations. Then, transcribe them word-for-word.

It’s an amazing exercise in tuning up your hearing. You’d be surprised how you don’t hear exactly what other people are saying, the way they are saying it — until you really start listening, that is.

The purpose of this exercise was to discover the way people actually say things. Word for word. In real life.

So that when you wrote your movie dialogue, you’d have a base of authentic talking to draw from.

Most amateur dialogue sounds corny and awkward. It’s neither entertaining, nor believable.

Movie dialogue is not exactly what people say in real life, either — it’s stylized, compact, rhythmic, clever, sometimes memorable and profound.

But it starts as authentic speech, and gets refined — goes Hollywood — from there.

Now… how does this all relate to copywriting?

Simple.

Good copywriting is the spoken language in written form. I was the first person to say that, back in 1999. In the first five minutes of Killer Copy Tactics, the audio/workbook program that Mark Joyner’s company aesop.com put on the Web.

Some people still haven’t gotten the message about spoken language in written form. So I’m putting it out in this free format, for all to see.

You might want to try some public eavesdropping yourself. Amazing exercise.

Just don’t be too obvious about it.

Paranoid people might get the wrong idea.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin’s Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti’s Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

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