JOHN HARRISON +
featured articles
Journal
A Writer's Manifesto
London, 12th April 2025
Imagine something you want. It could be investors, a new job, a vote for your party, belief in a mission, a relationship, trust, customers for your product, clients for your service. Anything. How do you get it?
Copywriting : Foundation
Atomic Copy
London, 5th July 2024
Atoms are both the building blocks of all life, and the smallest, irreducible unit of matter. Just like good copy. It should say everything you need to say, in a single irreducible unit. All the meaning. All the soul. In the fewest words.
Copywriting : Foundation
Atomic Author
London, 21st December 2024
The thing is, we call it the written word and writing, and ourselves writers. So sadly, for most people, that’s where it ends. With care free, messy, drunk, abundant copy, where all ideas are good ideas.
About
While the sun bronzed me, pulling the ocean from my skin, I relived the morning’s adventure beneath the waves.
Above a swaying, fleshy forest a turtle calmly flew alongside me and a neon fish whipped between crags. Everything had been so peaceful.
My 11 days of peace on Kuredu island were just enough for me to realise I didn’t want to go back to the manufacturing mess ups, scattered supply chains, and physical stock of my young luxury menswear label.
I thought my retreat from fashion would be a comma in life, but it had become a full stop. The next sentence began can I write my way into a copywriting job?
Copywriting
Copywriting : Foundation
Your Reader
London, 12th April 2025
You’re in a perpetual battle. Copywriters are really, copyfighters. And you can’t control any of it because your copy interrupts their life when you press publish. There’s no ready to read button for them to press.
Copywriting : Principles
The Point
London, 12th April 2025
You’ll also hear me talk about these things, because they are important. But you can be entirely specific, using psychological triggers and powerful words, in time tested templates and still die a perfect death.
Copywriting : Principles
The Worst Case
London, 12th April 2025
We’re lazy so we don't want to write much. We’re vain so we focus on ourselves. We’re selfish so we want our reader's time and money for nothing. And we’re busy so we would rather it all didn't take so long
Copywriting : Principles
Write Fire
London, 12th April 2025
The spark in writing is your first sentence. It needs to catch attention. Let it sit alone, in the spotlight of the white space around it. Put it on trial. Let it demand your judgement as to whether it's worthy of leading.
Copywriting : Principles
Roll The Dice
London, 12th April 2025
Expecting a first draft to be good, is like rolling ten dice and expecting ten sixes. You might get a few but you won’t hit all ten. Understanding that is half the battle. Said more plainly, your first draft is your worst draft.
Copywriting : Principles
The Corners
London, 12th April 2025
Just write whatever comes easiest, next. The more small pieces you put together, the more obvious the spaces in between become. Just because a reader starts at the beginning, doesn’t mean a writer has to.
Copywriting : Principles
Write To Doris
London, 12th April 2025
If you start with Dear, you'll surely work your way to it has recently come to our attention that and perhaps on to additionally, it was interesting to note that, finally winding up at Yours Sincerely, and no reply.
Copywriting : Principles
Craft The Art
London, 12th April 2025
But the more you do it, the more the writer learns what the editor dislikes. And the more the editor catches the writer in the act. Until, first drafts start to look like second drafts, then third drafts, then fourth drafts.