Many writers imagine that if you have a good writing voice and a strong opinion about the serial comma, you’re qualified to work as a professional copywriter. The humility comes from the knowledge that a true pro is always improving, expanding, and refining. The pride and confidence come from hours of deliberate practice - the kind of work that expands your abilities and challenges you to grow. Serious craftspeople are humble and proud at the same time. It comes from research, craftsmanship, and seeing the difference you make to your audience. Confidence comes from putting the work in to become a genuinely authoritative expert. It’s always struck me as odd that many of the most capable writers are also some of the most insecure.īut it doesn’t need to be that way. No matter how clever or perfectly poetic we may find a phrase, if it doesn’t serve the audience, it goes. Novelists, copywriters, and content marketers all live in service to our audiences. But also with language that meets their needs, language that clarifies rather than prettifies. Serving them with truthful, beautiful words, yes. Professional writers work from an attitude of serving their audiences. Writing for self-expression can be high art, pursued for the sake of your own experience of truth and beauty.Īs soon as money changes hands, though, the audience - the reader, listener, or viewer - becomes the focus. Whichever word you choose, it’s about refusing to settle for weak writing, because the words matter. I could have just as easily used Compulsion, Obsession, or Bullheadedness for this section. If you don’t love language and your topic and the act of putting words together, none of the rest of this really means anything. For the passion of getting the words right: the head-scratching and the pacing around the house and the endless drafts that aren’t quite right yet. There is no substitute for the love of writing. This might seem squishy, but if you’re meant to be a writer, you know what I mean. In the time I’ve been writing professionally, I’ve noticed some necessary traits, abilities, and strengths that make the difference between life as a well-paid writer and life as someone who likes business blogging but can’t seem to get paid for it. If writing is your profession and your passion, you can accept crap assignments for crap money and crap treatment. Text, video, audio - it all needs great writing if it’s going to be worth spending our time on. The technology to produce digital content exists because we think of blog post ideas worth sharing. ![]() Penny-a-word assignments, clients who don’t pay, disdain for our craft, and disrespect for our profession.Īnd yet, look around at this digital world so many of us spend our lives in. Smart, capable writers grimly pass around war stories on Facebook. You should find something practical to do with your life. If you’re a writer, you might have heard this most of your life:
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