The Seven Stages of Copy.

 In "As You Like It," Shakespeare demarcated the Seven Stages of Man. There's a reason the Bard was called the Bard. He was, way more often than not, dead on. I was thinking about his Seven Stages and about writing, and way below, after all the high-falutin' Elizabethan crap, I've written my Seven Stages of copy.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Here are the Cliff Notes:

1.     First the infant,/Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

2.     the whining school-boy, with his satchel/And shining morning face, creeping like snail/Unwillingly to school.

3.     then the lover,/Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad/ Made to his mistress' eyebrow.

4.     Then a soldier,/Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,/
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,/Seeking the bubble reputation/
Even in the cannon's mouth.

5.     then the justice,/ In fair round belly with good capon lined,/
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,/ Full of wise saws and modern instances;

6.     The sixth age shifts/Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,/With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

7.     Last scene of all,/That ends this strange eventful history,/Is second childishness and mere oblivion,/Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

It occurred to me yesterday as I worked from home on a long, defining piece of copy that there might be Seven Stages to writing for advertising as well.

1.     First comes the thinking. What’s the hook, how do I organize this and find meaning in the morass of a client’s mind.

2.     Second comes the organization. What do I need to cover to structure a persuasive argument.

3.     Next there is the typing. The actual putting down of words on a page, of checking your sources, finding facts and details.

4.     Fourth comes the re-reading and the re-writing. The line by line building of your story or case.

5.     Fifth is the closing of your computer. The proclaiming the copy done. When you put it away for an hour or for the evening.

6.     Then comes the marination, the turning over what you’ve written in your head. Pulling some things, pushing others. Wondering how you can make things better, funnier, more interesting, simpler.

7.     Is the re-re-writing. Taking your marinated thoughts and applying them to your work. To make it better.

Sometimes these seven steps take me ten minutes. Sometimes they take a day or two. But regardless, that’s how I work.

It ain’t Shakespeare.

But it’s a living.