Authors who can make a line spread by word of mouth—David Ogilvy, Steve Jobs, Lei Jun, Ye Maozhong, Huayu Huasheng, Eugene Schwartz—all have the same line in mind when they put pen to paper:
The reader's attention is three seconds borrowed. My job is not to make them understand my product; it is to drive one line into their head within three seconds, so they carry it away, say it verbatim whenever they have the chance, and feel they want to become the person in that line.
This iscopywriterwork, not the work of a teacher on a podium, nor the work of a translator. A translator builds a bridge so the reader understands; a copywriter drives a line into the reader's head so they remember it. AI defaults to being a translator—laying out product features, usage instructions, and technical principles for the reader to see—and as a result the reader's head is stuffed with information, but the desired feeling is not produced, because no one ever drove a line into their head.
The following sections explain what actions a copywriter specifically takes. The last section explains when this approach will fail and a translator should be brought in to write.
Don't talk about "what it is"; talk about "what the reader will become"
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, he didn't say "5GB hard drive MP3 player"; he said "1,000 songs in your pocket." When Lei Jun introduced Xiaomi, he didn't say "8-core processor"; he said "young people's first phone." Nüwa.skill doesn't introduce the technical implementation; it says "let Jobs, Musk, Munger, and Feynman all work for you."
A translator's first question is "how does this thing work"; a copywriter's first question is "what kind of person will the reader become once they have this thing?" The former is information; the latter is an image. Readers pay, like, and share not to obtain information, but for the version of themselves in that image.
Specific action: before writing each paragraph of copy, ask yourself—"After the reader finishes this paragraph, who have they become in their imagination?" If the answer is merely "the reader learned one thing," rewrite it.
Write a line that can be said verbatim
"just do it," "young people's first phone," "a man should be hard on himself," "let Jobs, Musk, Munger, and Feynman all work for you"—what makes these lines great?The reader can say them verbatim after seeing them once.
Something spreading does not depend on the reader "understanding and relaying it"; it depends on the reader "remembering and copy-pasting it." If a line cannot be said, then no matter how reasonable it is, it cannot spread. The "mouth" in "word of mouth" refers to the reader's mouth—you need to make that mouth able to produce a sound exactly like yours.
Specific action: after writing a line you think is brilliant, close your eyes and try to say it without missing a single word. If you can't, it isn't short enough, smooth enough, or sharp enough—revise it until you can say it.
Start from the reader's desire or fear, not from the product
A translator starts from what the reader is already familiar with. A copywriter starts from what the readerwantsorfears—these two are more ancient, more fundamental, and require no prior understanding.
- "Let the masters work for you"—desire: I want to become that kind of person
- "996 blessing"—fear: I am being exploited
- "If you don't watch this ten-minute video, you'll regret it"—fear: missing out on something
- "Full refund if not satisfied within 30 days"—fear: being scammed
Desire and fear are two fuel tanks, and most good ads start burning from one of them. Starting from product features is a common failing of all engineers and AI—features are the thing you know best in your own head, but readers do not open your copy for the features.
Specific action: before putting pen to paper, first answer two questions—"What kind of person does the reader most want to become right now?" "What kind of person does the reader most fear becoming right now?"—and choose one of these two answers to start writing from.
Give the reader an identity, and assign it high
"Young people's first XX"—you are young. "Founders are all using it"—you are a founder. "Make a master work for you"—you are the boss. "Everyone who buys an iPhone gets it"—you are someone who gets it.
After reading a passage of copy, what is in the reader's head is not "Is this product good or not," but "What kind of person am I if I buy this thing." Giving the reader an identity is telling them: "If you buy it, you are this kind of person."
And assign it high. "Make you smarter" is not as good as "make smart people serve you"—the latter jumps the reader up a level. Nüwa.skill does not give the reader the identity of "learning from a master," it gives the reader the identity of "calling on a master"—jumping directly from apprentice to boss. When readers choose an identity, they instinctively choose the higher one; the higher you assign it, the more they buy it.
Specific action: before writing each sentence of copy, ask—"Who does this sentence make the reader feel they are? Can it be moved up another level?"
Concrete defeats abstract
- "At 60 miles per hour in a Rolls-Royce, the loudest noise comes from the electric clock"—defeats "Rolls-Royces are very quiet"
- "1,000 songs in your pocket"—defeats "large-capacity music player"
- "7*24 hours of ox-horse labor"—defeats "round-the-clock automated execution"
- "Sun-dried for a full 180 days" (Chubang soy sauce)—defeats "traditional craft"
The translator agrees with this one too, but for a different motive: the translator uses concrete details to make the readerunderstand, while the advertiser uses concrete details to make the readerhave a picture. Pictures spread; abstract adjectives do not.
Specific action: whenever you write an adjective ("powerful," "efficient," "easy to use," "professional," "intelligent"), replace it with a picture, a number, or a name. "Powerful" is not a picture; "replace clauses in 3,000 contracts with one click" is a picture.
Steal words others have already raised
Neither way of stealing costs money, but both are extremely powerful:
Borrow ancient stories—the two words "Nüwa" carry an entire product introduction. The ammunition depot in Chinese culture: Nüwa, Pangu, Yu Gong, Kuafu, Wukong; in the West: Prometheus, Sisyphus, the Trojan Horse, Noah's Ark. One word pulls in thousands of years of story to endorse you. Huayu Huahu calls this the "cultural matrix."
Move words in from other fields—take words from field A and use them in field B. "Distill a person" (a word from AI moved into the workplace), "human version control" (a technical term moved into ways of working), "996 blessing" (a welfare word used ironically about labor), "involution" (an academic word moved into daily life). That awkward feeling of "this word should not appear here" is itself memorable—that moment of awkwardness is the hook you drive into the reader's head.
Both areborrowing words someone else has already cultivated to give you presence, which is 10 times easier to remember than inventing a new word yourself.
Specific action: when you want to promote something new, first ask two questions—"Which myth / folk story protagonist is doing something similar?" "Which other field has an existing word I can borrow?"
Assert, don't argue
"This is the best," "Young people are all using it," "Everyone on Earth knows it," "proved that distilling a person is feasible."
In marketing, the moment you reason, you lose. Reasoning is dilution—every reason you give, the reader gets one more chance to refute it; when you assert directly, the reader either believes or doesn't, with no middle ground for haggling. Good copy is made of assertive sentences; reasoned sentences are rare.
This is not encouraging lying; it's sayingemotion and identity are not built by argument. You don't change who you are because you heard a rigorous argument; you gradually believe because you repeatedly hear a certain assertion.
Specific action: circle every "because," "therefore," "the reason X is because Y" in the copy, and ask "Can this argument be directly replaced with an assertion?" Most can.
Coining words, repetition, and awkwardness are weapons, not flaws
- "just do it" doesn't say what to do—grammatically missing an object
- "Think different" is grammatically wrong (should be differently)
- "Born for fever" has a vague meaning
- "yyds" is not a word
- "Far ahead" is nonsense
These are allnot shortcomings. They spread precisely because they are not neat—a neat sentence passes right through after reading, an unneat sentence gets stuck in your mind for a moment. That moment of sticking is remembering.
Note that this is completely opposite to the principle of writing expository or technical documents. Translators require every word to be smooth, precise, and interpretable—because the goal is to make the reader understand. Advertisers, on the other hand, deliberately create snags and misalignments—because the goal is to make the reader remember.The same tool, two opposite uses, never mix them up。
Specific action: after writing a line of copy, if reading it out loud feels "too smooth," be alert instead—smooth means forgotten at a glance. Add an irregular word, a repetition, a deliberate misalignment, to make this sentence snag.
Put the product into an ongoing change
"Colleague.skill proved that distilling a person is feasible"—what is this sentence doing? It tells you: "This is not a new invention, it's the second step of an ongoing change." The reader unconsciously shifts from "Do I dare be the first to use it" to "I don't want to miss this trend."
Seth Godin says: before selling a product, first tell the reader where the world is heading. Steve Jobs at every launch event would first tell you "what the era is becoming," and only then the product. Lei Jun said "even a pig can fly if it stands at the wind vent," first throwing out the term "wind vent," then putting Xiaomi into it.
An isolated product has to be evaluated by the reader; a product placed in an ongoing change only needs to be accepted by the reader.
Specific action: before writing product copy, first write a sentence "what is happening in the world now"—make the product look like the inevitable result of that change, rather than an independent choice.
Make the first step so small you don't have to think
- "Just enter one name"—not introducing a ten-step process
- "Just do it" — this is not teaching you how to train
- "One-click summary" — this is not explaining the principles behind it
- "Enter your email for a free trial" — this is not asking you to sign up for an account and fill out a form
No matter how complex the process behind it is,the first step you ask the reader to agree to must be so small they can't refuse it. Once the reader agrees to a small action, their mindset shifts from "should I agree" to "what's the next step" — these are two completely different states.
Specific action: the thing you ask the reader to do at the end of the copy must besomething they can finish in 3 seconds, not an abstract promise. "Enter your name" works, "Start a trial" works; "Buy now + sign up for an account + choose a plan" does not — break it apart, make the first step so small they don't have to think.
Choosing the right approach: when to be a translator, when to be an advertiser
All the principles in this skill,will backfire when used in non-marketing contexts：
- Writing technical documentation with coined terms / awkward phrasing → readers can't understand it
- Writing a README for engineers using the "make a master work for you" routine → they think you're bragging
- Writing instructions for AI using assertions without reasoning → AI can't make judgments when it hits edge cases
- Casually chatting with friends while stealing myths / terms from other fields → people think you're putting on a show
- Writing explanatory articles that make the first step so small they don't have to think → readers feel brushed off
Conversely, writing ad copy using the translator's approach also backfires — explaining "what it is, how it works, what features it has" and you get scrolled past in 3 seconds.
The writing context determines whether to use the advertiser's approach：
- Contexts that need the reader totruly understand(tutorials, technical documentation, explanatory essays, architecture explanations, instructions written for AI) — none of the principles in this skill apply; switch to the translator's approach
- Contexts that need the reader toremember / follow the trend / do something(ads, headlines, slogans, launch events, product promotion pages, WeChat official account openings) — this skill is exactly where it belongs
A complete piece of product content often needs both — for example, a product promotion page: the big headline at the top is the advertiser's job, the feature descriptions below are the translator's job, and the button the user clicks at the end goes back to the advertiser. Switch approaches across different sections; don't write the whole thing with one approach.
Before writing, ask yourself: is this piece of text meant tomake the reader understand, or tomake the reader act? Choose the wrong path and the more skilled you are, the further off you'll be.
After writing, take a quick scan
- Is this copy about "what the product is" or "what you will become"? Rewrite if it's the former
- Can the most important sentence be said exactly as written? If you close your eyes after reading and can't say it, rewrite
- Does the opening start from the product's features, or from the reader's desires / fears? Rewrite if it's the former
- Can the identity you make the reader feel they've become be pushed up one more level?
- Have the adjectives been replaced with images / numbers / names?
- Is there a myth / legend / cultural IP you can steal, or a term that already exists in another field?
- Can the reasoning sentences be replaced with assertions?
- Does the text read "too smoothly"? If it's too smooth, add a hitch — a coined term, repetition, a deliberate mismatch
- Does the product appear in isolation, or is it placed within an ongoing change?
- Is the thing the ending asks readers to do an action they can complete within 3 seconds, or an abstract promise?
- Is this occasion really one where an advertiser's techniques should be used? Or should one act as a translator?