Someone asked me, “What was the best career compliment you ever received?”

 

This is what came to mind IMMEDIATELY…

 

While I was still attending local networking meetings, a young gentleman who was interested in getting into the copy and content writing fields asked to see some of my writing examples.

 

I sent him a variety.

 

The next time we saw each other in person a week or so later, he came over to where I sat, looking baffled.

 

He asked me point blank, “How do you DO that?!”

 

I had no idea what he was talking about at first, so I asked, “Do what?”

 

He told me, “Reading what you write is like watching an expert stone slinger skip stones across a lake. You go from place to place in your copy and content with such effortless beauty. How do you do that?!”

 

I was struck dumb by the compliment … and by the thought that he expected a response.

 

I wish I had the answer to his question

 

My best guess is that what I do comes from decades of writing prose, poetry and fiction before I ever decided to become a copy and content writer.

 

It also comes from being a voracious reader.

 

You have to love words, psychology, excellent craftsmanship and people to write the way I do.

 

But mostly, you have to love dancing with words, massaging them, getting them to communicate what you want to say with the least number of hitches and hiccups.

 

It isn’t easy, but it’s FUN when you’re a wordsmith, when you respect words, when you have a decent thesaurus in your head, and when you just know that enlisting a rhyme or an alliteration or breaking a rule of writing is exactly what’s needed to drive your point home in the most compelling and powerful way.

 

It takes practice, playfulness, and patience

 

It gets easier and faster the more you do it, but it’s always a challenge to make the next piece as good as, or better than, the last one.

 

And that’s always my goal. To be even better tomorrow at what I do than I am today.

 

But that’s just too much work for a lot of self-proclaimed copy and content writers.  Too many want to microwave their way to the top, to find some pole to use that will propel them up and over the high hurdles that the rest of us had to get over the old-fashioned way (by actually learning the craft over a number of years/decades).

 

Templates tempt people to cut corners

 

Most wannabe writers want to find a template and hope to mimic someone else’s massive success by putting their information where the winner put theirs, in exactly the same way.

 

Templates bore me to tears. If I liked templates, I’d be a fair to middling baker or cook. (And the best bakers and cooks don’t use templates, either.  They use recipes as guidelines, not straitjackets.  So do good copy and content writers.)

 

All I know for sure is that my copy and content works and, more often than not, it works spectacularly well.

 

But that’s partly because I choose clients I truly adore and want to help. I get drunk on their passion for their product or service, and the words just start presenting themselves to me, offering themselves in a variety of ways so I can pick and choose the best combinations to make the magic happen.

 

It isn’t a science. It’s an art and a skill that one has to develop.

 

No two copywriters or content writers write the same way. Each is unique.

 

The challenge is to find the one that can speak to your audience in ways they’ll welcome and embrace.

 

Excellent writing = riveting communication

 

When it comes to copy and content creation (which can actually distance people instead of welcoming them in, if it isn’t carefully crafted), good writing seems to disappear because the communication is so intimate, spot-on for the target audience, and clear that it feels like the writer (or the writer’s client) is sitting across the table from the reader sharing something in person that’s for them alone (not hordes of “customers” or “audiences”).

 

I have received scores of career compliments, but the one above is the one that resonates with me most. It explains what my goal is each and every time I put fingers to keyboard for a client.  I want their customers to come to them as easily and as beautifully as a well-slung stone carries itself out into a lake.

 

When I do that, I know I’ve succeeded.