Copywriting - Creative Writing (Creative optional)
Posted: 9th Oct 2012
Beware the 'flux'...
My background in creative writing, screenwriting, has been both a benefit and a burden in fostering my career as a copywriter.
Custom building a story, paving a journey for your targert audience is what any writer strives to do. For me, it's the old artistic license that lingers in the background that needs a good tug on the lead and pulled to heel from time to time.
The robotic formula of brief, research, draft, edit, re-draft, gets on anyone's wick on day to day basis (not that I'm bashing my lucky position as a busy freelancer).
It's the 'click' that happens amongst the routine that makes me sit at that desk and power through, and it's this creative flurry when the penny drops and you land that concept, that makes things interesting and prompts the really hard work.
Wading through the creative craziness and mass of unfiltered ideas is the hard bit. Sieving, editing, fleshing out, while effectively echoing the brief, is where the real talent resides. I've built on my 'auto brief recognition', ABF, function over the years, letting my noggin kick in and scan that brief while things start to 'flux'.
I've always favoured the paper and pen over the keyboard, how words look and sound really is important to me. The delay between the ramblings of my mind to the twitch of my fingers acts as a light filter, maybe this is where the ABF does its job.
Whether you're creating sales, marketing, B2B or branding copy getting the words down and naturally communicating the key messages is paramount. Balancing the objective with the creative is where the real job of a copywriter, rather than the wordsmith, is housed.