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The copywriter’s guide on writing a blog using only the letter ‘a’(translated version)

A trick I recently picked up from copywriting expert Caroline Hampstead, was to try limiting yourself as a writer. By introducing rules, you force yourself to take unusual approaches to your copy, which can have interesting results.

A few examples of limiting include only using 3-word sentences, removing the letter ‘i’ from your copy, or writing in a particular tense.

I think we can take things further.

To push creativity to the max, I decided to take on a new challenge. Writing a blog with all of the letters replaced with the letter ‘a’.

This is that blog, and this is my guide on how to make it remain interesting.

1 – Vary line length

This one’s important. By varying the length of the lines, you’ll end up with a blog that remains interesting, only insofar as it’s interesting to look at. Admittedly, it’ll become uninteresting very soon after, but we’re still only on the first trick.

2 – Use extra punctuation.

Aside from punctuation, your options for this blog are pretty limited. For that reason, use punctuation at least as regularly as you usually would, if not more. I can list at least 7 punctuation marks off the top of my head, and only one ‘a’.

You do the maths.

3 – Vary sentence length

Write short sentences. But also spend more time writing long sentences with extra unnecessary words crammed right in there. The reader won’t know what they mean, but you’ll have some measure of control over urgency and pace.

These tools are vital parts of your arsenal when you don’t have access to any letters other than ‘a’.

If you have to really emphasise a point. Write. It. Like. This.

It’s grammatically incorrect, but so is writing a blog using entirely the letter ‘a’.

4 – Start with an initial blog written with all of the letters and translate it into ‘a’s.

The big reveal. Is it shocking? Do you feel cheated? Probably not, because there’s a good chance this is written entirely using the letter ‘a’.

By writing this as a regular blog, albeit one all about writing using only the letter ‘a’, it’ll still look like a real blog after translating it. This is a result of all of the tricks listed above.

The truth is, when you submit a blog using only the letter ‘a’, people are going to assume you’ve just written: aa aaaa aaa aaaa aaa aaaa aaaa. And that you’ve not actually done any work.

This is why it’s so important to make your blog resemble a real blog as much as possible. You don’t want the boss to think you’re a pisstaker. This could be your career on the line.

5 – Consider whether this is the best option for you

Thinking back to Caroline’s class, limiting yourself was just one enabler for creative writing. Importantly, it was not the only one, and even more importantly, she did not suggest using just one letter.

Think about the article you’re creating and decide if you should really be doing this, or if you’re doing it because you’re a moron.

Thanks!

Oscar

@Oscar_Frost12

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