A Professional Copywriter’s Favorite Hack: The Bad Words Doc
You sit down to finally finish up that website page, that Instagram caption, that sales email – and nothing. It’s not that you don’t have ideas, it’s that you have so many your head is spinning.
Worst of all, you don’t know if any of those ideas swirling around your head are even good – and they’re bogging down your brain, taking up space reserved for the actual good copy you want to use.
What you’re describing isn’t a unique-to-you experience. We all deal with it – professional copywriters especially.
It’s frustrating, but it’s avoidable – and if you can convince your brain to drop the bad ideas, you can usually free up space in your brain and open the door for better ones.
But how do you do that, exactly?
Enter one of my favorite copywriting hacks – the Bad Words Doc™.
LIL KEY TAKEAWAYS: THIS BLOG AT A GLANCE
The Bad Words Doc is your idea dumping ground. Every awkward sentence, weird metaphor, or half-baked thought goes there.
Your brain isn’t great at writing and editing at the same time. When you stop judging every idea immediately, creativity flows a lot easier.
Writing ideas down clears mental clutter. Your brain doesn’t have to hold onto every thought, so it can focus on actually writing.
Messy ideas lead to better ones. Some of the best copy starts as a sentence that feels a little questionable.
It keeps your writing momentum going. Instead of getting stuck on one sentence, you move it to the Bad Words Doc and keep rolling.
What’s the Bad Words Doc?: My Fave Professional Copywriting Hack
Writing anything – especially words for your brand that have a specific job! – isn’t always a fluid, easy process.
You’ve heard of scrap paper, right? It’s something you can take notes on, jot things down on, or brainstorm ideas – but without any real pressure. That scrap paper isn’t going anywhere – it’s just for you and for your brain.
Well, in the digital age, we all need our own version of scrap paper.
Meet the Bad Words Doc™(OK, it’s not really trademarked, I’m just messing around).
The Bad Word Doc is basically a spare document that acts as scrap paper. You open it up everytime you’re writing something and it gets to be a separate entity where you can brainstorm freely without bogging down the actual working doc.
There’s no rule about what goes on the Bad Words Doc. You also can call it anything you like – Bad Words Doc is what I call my digital scrap paper. And you can bet that every time I write anything (even an Instagram caption!), I’m opening up a spare doc, titling it Bad Word Doc, and using it as my free-for-all brainstorm.
I write down ideas (good and bad), notes, taglines, phrases – whatever my brain comes up with! That way I can have an idea, jot it down, and move on without expending mental energy to hold onto it.
Sometimes we get so caught up in a thought or a phrase or a word that we CANT let it go.
And because we can’t let it go, we’re not giving our brains to think up more (maybe better) words to connect to our dream people.
But we’re so dang afraid to let that old idea go. What if we forget it? What if it was THE ONE?
No need to set it free to see if it comes back to you. Give it a home, just not inside your brain.
The Bad Words Doc is the spot for all your rejected lines, words, phrases, sentences — feel free to fill it up. Then let your brain roam free to write words for your dream people that hit ‘em in the feels & inspire ‘em to take action
Why the Bad Words Doc Works
The Bad Words Doc works because it taps into something very real about how our brains handle ideas.
When you're writing copy, your brain is trying to do two jobs at the same time:
Generate ideas
Judge those ideas
That’s how brains work, but it presents a problem. Creativity and editing use two totally different mental processes, so when you try to do both at once, you usually get stuck on one idea without the freedom to move forward.
Let’s say you write a tagline for your new offer.
You know it’s not THE tagline – but you also know it could be edited to work. You want to try other ideas on for size, but you also don’t want to forget that first idea. So your brain ends up trying to brainstorm while expending mental energy to hold onto that not-the-best idea.
So, then you get nowhere.
The Bad Words Doc solves this problem by giving your brain a place to park ideas without judging them yet. And there’s actually some brain science behind why this helps.
Your Brain Has Limited Space
Your working memory – the part of your brain responsible for holding thoughts while you work – can only manage so many things at once. When it overloads, focus and creativity are the first to drop. So, if you’re trying to:
remember an idea
decide if it’s good
write the actual copy
and keep track of what you're doing next
…your brain starts to feel like a browser with way too many tabs open (you can relate, right?).
Writing ideas down and giving them a home that isn’t your mental space lets you clear out that mental clutter – without the risk of losing your OG idea.
It frees up cognitive space so your brain can focus on the actual writing instead of trying to hold onto every thought.
Writing Things Down Reduces Mental Noise
Brain-dumping ideas onto paper or a document helps reduce the mental clutter that makes it hard to concentrate and think clearly.
Your brain stops worrying about remembering the idea, because the idea is safely stored somewhere else. You can breathe, let it go, and know that you’re not going to miss out if that idea was, indeed, the real winner.
That relief means your brain can go back to doing what it does best, making connections and generating better ideas.
Messy Ideas Lead to Better Ones
Creative thinking thrives on something called divergent thinking, which is basically generating lots of possible ideas before narrowing down to the best one. The Bad Words Doc creates the perfect environment for that.
You’re not trying to write the perfect sentence or anything, you’re just encouraging your brain to explore ideas without pressure. And sometimes the weirdest lil idea could lead to the best copy – but you had to let your brain get there first.
How to Use the Bad Words Doc: A Step-by-Step Guide
The radical beauty of the Bad Words Doc is that it’s ridiculously simple. Here’s how I use it when writing copy – but also, literally anything.
Step 1: Open Two Documents
Before you start writing anything, open:
• your actual working document
• your doc that will become your Bad Words Doc
Think of the Bad Words Doc as your idea parking lot.
If a sentence doesn’t work, move it there. If a random idea pops up, drop it there.
If you write something weird but you’re not sure how it relates – take it to the Bad Words Doc.
Nothing gets thrown away.
Step 2: Name the Doc
No, this isn’t frivilous or silly! It’s an important part of the creative process. Have a little fun with this! You can call your doc anything – what will you name it?
A few ideas to get your brain juices going:
Step 3: Dump Every Idea Without Judging It
Here comes the fun part. Whenever an idea pops into your head – even if it’s incomplete or sort of unrelated – throw it into the Bad Words Doc.
Examples of things that belong there:
Alternate headlines
Messaging points
Analogies and concepts
Phrases that could work later
Random ideas
Taglines that are iffy
Your only rule here is: everything is allowed on the doc.
Step 4: Keep Writing Without Interrupting Yourself
When an idea doesn’t work, instead of stopping and obsessing over it, you can simply move it to the Bad Words Doc and keep writing. You don’t have to run with the first idea that sticks in your brain – but you don’t have to completely ditch it and forget it, either.
That keeps your creative momentum going. In my opinion, nothing kills writing flow faster than getting stuck trying to fix one sentence for twenty minutes.
Step 5: Revisit the Bad Words Doc Later
Once your main draft is finished, go back and scan the Bad Words Doc.
You’ll often find:
a better headline idea
a phrase that suddenly works perfectly
a sentence that just needed a tweak
Some of my favorite lines of copy for clients (and for myself) have come from revisiting the Bad Words Doc after the pressure of writing was gone.
Some of my most ridiculous and never-to-be-used ideas live on the doc, too. But you’ll never see it! And that’s the beauty of the Bad Words Doc.
Why Every One Should Have a Bad Words Doc
Professional copywriters don’t write perfect first drafts.We write messy drafts and then edit the hell out of them.
The Bad Words Doc is a quick way to make that process easier for everyone – especially if you’re not a copywriter.
Instead of trying to keep every idea organized in your head, you give your brain a place to unload everything. And when your brain isn’t busy holding onto a million ideas at once, it can finally focus on what matters most: the words you need to write to connect with your people.
