copywork (n.) — copying great writing word for word until its instincts become yours.
Copywork trained Franklin, London, and every great copywriter: retype masterful prose until its instincts become yours. Full passages from Fitzgerald, Austen, Poe, and Doyle — speed and accuracy scored live, progress saved as you type. Your first one is on this page.
91 passages · 50 writers · 10 techniques · no account needed
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The Gettysburg Address (opening) — Abraham Lincoln
Click the passage and type — the timer starts with your first keystroke
Copywork is the practice of copying great writing word for word — by hand or by typing — until its rhythm, structure, and word choice stop being things you notice and start being things you do. Before he was Benjamin Franklin, he was a teenager with a stack of Spectator essays, rewriting them from memory and checking his version against the original to find his faults. Hunter S. Thompson typed out The Great Gatsby — the whole thing — to know what it felt like to write that well.
That's still how working copywriters train today. When you retype a sentence, you can't skim it. You feel where the writer chose a short word over a long one, where the rhythm breaks on purpose, where the hook sets. Do it daily and it becomes instinct.
This site is copywork adapted for the keyboard: 91 hand-picked copywriting exercises across 10 techniques, typed as typing practice paragraphs with a live speed and accuracy score, and a daily challenge to keep the habit honest.
“Copy out the greats until you can hear the difference between what you write and what they wrote. Then close the gap.”
The method, in one sentence
Each chapter isolates one thing great writers do — then has you type the passages that do it best, from Ecclesiastes to Ogilvy. Chapters 1 and 2 are free, and so is the first level of every chapter after them.
01
Rhythm & Cadence
Free
How writing feels when read aloud. Sentence variation. Musicality of prose.
5 passages
02
Clarity & Simplicity
Free
Say more by saying less. Straight, unornamented, deliberate writing.
4 passages
03
Curiosity Hooks
First level free
The opening line that forces you to keep reading.
5 passages
04
Emotional Resonance
First level free
Writing that hits you in the gut.
5 passages
05
Persuasion with Structure (AIDA)
First level free
Use Attention, Interest, Desire, Action to lead readers to conversion.
4 passages
06
Conversational Tone
First level free
Write like you talk — relaxed, real, relatable.
4 passages
07
Storytelling as Persuasion
First level free
Draw readers into a narrative that teaches, sells, or transforms.
4 passages
08
Specificity Over Vagueness
First level free
Use details to build trust, credibility, and vivid imagery.
4 passages
09
Power Through Repetition
First level free
How repeating a phrase builds momentum and memory.
4 passages
10
Call to Action
First level free
Endings that move the reader to do something — not just read.
5 passages
17 of 44 levels free · the rest is $39, once
Pick a writer and type through their best pages — full passages, not pull quotes, each annotated with the moves worth stealing. Every collection is free to browse.
Ernest Hemingway
1899–1961
Short words. Hard cuts. Nothing wasted.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1896–1940
Sentences that shimmer without losing their spine.
Jane Austen
1775–1817
Character revealed in dialogue, irony in every clause.
Mark Twain
1835–1910
The plain American sentence, perfected.
Edgar Allan Poe
1809–1849
Obsession engineered into rhythm and repetition.
Charles Dickens
1812–1870
Portraits built from relentless, exuberant lists.
Arthur Conan Doyle
1859–1930
The hook, the withheld fact, the reader leaning in.
Jack London
1876–1916
Cold, concrete detail that does the feeling for you.
Every day the whole site types the same passage, so every rank is earned on identical text. The weekly board wipes every Monday — one good session can put you in the top ten. Beat Hemingway's house pace before you worry about anyone else.
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Free
$0
— 17 levels across all 10 chapters
— The daily challenge & streaks
— Live WPM and accuracy scoring
— Autosave — resume any passage where you left off
— The public leaderboard
Pro
lifetime
$39
once. Yours forever.
— All 44 levels — every chapter
— Unlimited daily bonus rounds
— Every technique, fully unlocked
— 14-day money-back guarantee
Copywork courses charge $120–$300 to hand you the same method. This is $39, once.
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