





Many friends and people who are getting to know me ask: What is your job? - Copywriter and voiceover artist. Self-employed, of course. And then it starts: Wow, you can work from anywhere and you just lie on the beach and write your texts. Awesome, I’d love to be that free and flexible. I mean, anyone can write!
Anyone can let write texts!
Humm, well, I can work from anywhere, but a desk, (several!) notebooks, stable internet and telephone connections and so on, are essential in any case. Working from the beach? Hmmm? I just think of millions of grains of sand crawling into every hole of my beloved laptop and making trouble there. Honestly, besides the dangers of sand and water, where is the focus when you see nothing but sea and you have to work at what feels like 100 degrees. So dear people, it is not that simple.
A small note: I actually wanted to write a text today with tips for starting your own business. But somehow a completely different topic came up. That's why the tips are coming next week.
The myths of being a copywriter
In fact, I can arrange everything very freely. I work as I please. Yet many people think that I just sit around and hit the keys. Oh wonderful, even I like this idea. Getting up in the morning, making coffee (uh, I don't drink coffee), writing a little bit and the day is done. Even though I enjoy writing incredibly much and I love to immerse myself in new topics, most of the time it's just work. Nothing with pink-instagram-star-filter and have a look at "My digital lifestyle". Like in any other job, there are days that are just annoying. In contrast to: I'm lying comfortably in bed and writing a few words, it usually looks more like this:
The everyday life of a copywriter - or at least mine ;-)
I try to plan my week on Mondays as best I can. (but mostly I can't) When I get text requests, then the real job starts. If not everything is clear at first go, the first mail with the job is followed by others in which important details are clarified. I talk to some of my customers regularly on the phone so that we really get 100% to a perfect text. Before I even write the first sentence, I read through the information material or have to do some more research. (So nothing but working on structure). Since I am an absolute fan of lists and notes, I need at least 2-3 A4 pages of notes for each job. And when everything is clear, I have practically inhaled the topic, then it starts. What I really like about it is that I can get lost in it so nicely. A topic that takes up all your time. Almost like a meditation with an alert mind. Well, and then I just write, sometimes for days on the same topic. I think about what language my target audience speaks and what images they should have in their heads when they read my text. The thing about writing is that there is always a lot of conception and a lot of preliminary work regarding structure, layout and content.
When the texts are ready?...
...then I leave them for at least a day and then go through everything again. The customer decides if I made a good job in the end. But the few times I really got stuck with a client, after four years of writing texts, I can count them on one hand. Of course, sometimes there are little e-mail ping-pongs because "something" isn't perfect yet, but that's also possible to manage easily. You're simply there for your customers, and the best way to do that is by e-mail, skype, telephone, WhatsApp, Messenger and what ever! ← Whereby this is also another topic I will write about here soon!
Writing is fun!
Yes, it is, but like any other job, it is sometimes tiring, unfulfilling and perhaps annoying - at least at times. Especially for people who are just starting to write copy, "becoming a copywriter" can be a pretty long way to go. Where do new projects come from? What else do I have to learn? How does it all work at all, with independent work?
But these are all nice topics, which I will take up here bit by bit. If you have a topic from the areas of self-employment//text writer//voice-over that interests you in particular, then write to me at info@wenigerblabla.de
I am looking forward to it!