I need a backspace button for my mouth

Because sometimes, the filter just doesn’t work

As a trained copywriter, I’ve learnt to ‘write as I speak’. It’s a vital skill for creating engaging copy that keeps people reading. So, writing as I speak has now become second nature for me.

But what it’s also done is messed with my brain to mouth filter. Seriously.

I now tend to speak as I think. Words just pop out of my copywriting mouth and blah – there they are.

And unlike my copywriting, my mouth doesn’t have a backspace button. Dammit!

My copywriting brain filter fails

I’m putting this out there for some fun. And I’d love for you all to share your brain filter fails below. When have you wished your mouth had a backspace button?

Dude at the bar: My boyfriend’s in IT

Me: Oh, so he’s boring then

Hubby (motioning to a building site): I wonder what that is?

Me: A concrete building

Hubby: I just saw a possum out the front yard

Me: Was it real?

Hubby (watching a car driving past): I wonder where they came from?

Me: Up that way (pointing from the direction they came)

Sales guy in the supermarket: You look friendly

Me: I’m so not (while smiling)

And there are heaps more. It’s a matter of hearing something and saying the first thing that comes into my head. Sometimes it feels like I’m merely stating the obvious, but it’s also answering the question, right? I say it how it is (not always my most brilliant moments).

Perhaps copywriting has become engrained in my being

I did set myself a mission this year. To boom at copywriting and keep doing what I love. My brain is finally fully hard-wired as a copywriter.

Is this a copywriter’s curse?

I see the world in copy, and I now speak as I think!

You see, when I’m writing copy, I start by blurting everything out of my brain and onto the screen. It’s like having typing diarrhoea. My creative mind goes blah, my fingers type like crazy, and a Word document gets filled with words.

But unlike my mouth, Word has a fantastic function. My much-loved backspace button.

After my typing diarrhoea stage, I leave the copy for a while before going back and slashing and burning all the shit out of it. And believe me, there’s heaps of that after the initial blurt stage.

All you’ll hear is tap, tap, tap, tap (that’s the backspace button going crazy), then silence as I think of something brilliant to say. Then tap, tap, tap, tap as I get the right words out.

The backspace button is a copywriter’s best friend

Before you think I’m a pathetic loser who has no real friends, I do… I just love, love, love, that I can backspace what I write – unlike what I speak.

Enough of my blah, it’s your turn to have some fun. I’d love to hear the moments when you’ve blurted something out of your mouth before it was caught by your filter.

Who’s playing?