Admit It: What Moves You Isn't Just Copywriting

Sept. 9, 2025, 4:01 a.m. Essays

I am Qi Jia, click the upper right corner to follow me and share those unique experiences with me.

There are always people in the comments, articles, and copywriting who cry just by looking at the words, saying that these words are just words, it's not the copywriting that moves you, but the 'self' within the copywriting.I like one sentence:

'You can't bear the bitterness of self-discipline, then you'll suffer the consequences of mediocrity.'The first time I saw this sentence, it felt like it was talking about myself. If I had been a little more diligent and self-disciplined back then, wouldn't I not be in this state of mediocrity, lost in the hustle and bustle?

Let's boldly guess what the person who wrote this sentence was like, might be just like me now.

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Shi Mou Rong said:

'We are all actors, in other people's stories, we shed our own tears.'That's certainly the case. The original writers wrote these words based on their experiences and stories. We feel empathy because we find a little bit of ourselves within them.

When we read them, our inner journey is probably: This is exactly what's happening to me? Then we remember someone, something, or an event, and we realize that someone was really going through a tough time. Ultimately, it's about feeling sorry for yourself, or being lucky.

Some people say there's no such thing as truly empathizing; if a 'needle' doesn't pierce you, you won't know how much it hurts.

That's not true. Maybe you've been 'pierced' by the 'needle', while I've stumbled my way out of the 'thorns'. Although I don't know what the 'needle' feels like, I know it must have been incredibly painful, just like me being 'injured' by the 'thorns' until I was left with no smooth skin, or even more painful.

We interpret these texts with our own experiences; similar experiences create empathy.

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When we realize someone has faced a similar predicament, it's not just that God has been unkind to them; it's that we're not alone. Our minds might find some comfort.

There's also a feeling of finding the image you've been pursuing in copywriting.

I used to think that was just a delusional fantasy, but now I see that someone really did it, so why can't I?

The pain of empathy, or finding the image you've longed for—the meaning of the text is just a few things we give it, we give the text an emotional color, we give the text life. Text never evokes emotion; it's the story behind it, the meaning we give it, quietly pulling on our emotions.

It seems like I understand why Lu Xun abandoned medicine and became a writer—even if it's just a few hundred words or even a few words, it can have a huge impact, and the power of text is immeasurable.