A day in the life of a writer
Charlotte Booth • 26 January 2021
A day in the life of a writer
Even I have this image in my head and I have been a writer for years and know it to be nonsense.
Let's be honest, who remembers the last time they used an old-fashioned typewriter with daisy wheels and ribbons? Well, exactly.
My life as a copywriter is sadly far removed from this ideal. My desk faces a wall and has two large screens, a series of scented candles and my Bob Ross talking bobblehead for inspiration. Oh yes, and post-it notes. Lots of them.
My desk has to face the wall. If it faced the window I would never get anything done as I would be watching squirrels, birds and the neighbours' cats strolling through my garden.
As I write for a living I do have a work routine, but there are some days where I am not in the 'mood' to write so my schedule goes out of the window. Although I always deliver everything on time.
In the morning I generally proofread any manuscripts, web pages or books. I'm not sure why I do this in the morning - I just prefer it that way.
Then after lunch it's blog, website and case study writing time. I have two ways of doing this. Some items I will write, proofread and send within a couple of hours but there are others that I write and then save until the next day when I will edit, proofread and send. There's no real logic to this, it depends on my feelings at the time and whether I need to think a little bit more about a subject.
There are some days when I can't write but that doesn't mean I am not working. I will set the page up with headings, keywords and rough ideas and save it. Then I let my mind ruminate on the topic until I am ready to write. I think of this as 'baking' - I've put the cake into the oven, and it will slowly bake until I am ready to put the icing on. Oh yes, writers eat a lot of cake.
One thing that people can find surprising is that writing for a living is a lot more tiring than you'd think. When writing I am 100% focused, and if I am distracted by my email or social media it takes a while to get back to it, so I try to limit distractions. Hence no window. With such focused work it can also be hard to focus for more than four or five hours a day.
When the world was open for business I would take some work outside. I would proofread in coffee shops, and research blogs whilst in the library and ruminate on things whilst walking around the shops or a museum. I always had a notebook with me to jot down ideas as they come to me (I have never got on with notes on my phone. I always forget I have written them). I look forward to being able to work in different places again.
Being a writer is not a glamourous job and we do spend a lot of time in our heads - whether writing for pleasure or business. But it is a wonderful job and I feel privileged that I am able to do this every day and get paid.
There is nothing more amusing than checking out mediaeval artistic renditions of lions and other heraldic creatures. These beasts, grimacing and gurning are a strange juxtaposition of human, animal and demon and as far from the cute image of Alex from the Madagascar franchise or in fact a real lion as you could possibly get. There are three main reasons mediaeval lions are so ‘bad’ and un-representational; The artists were following a very tight brief. Some of the artists may never have seen a lion, and were following the descriptions they were given. These lions were representing heraldic principals of bravery, nobility and authority; all very human characteristics. When viewed through this lens it becomes more understandable why they look the way they do, but they are still ‘not right’ and not a great tool for learning about lions. Generative AI is very similar to an uninformed but talented mediaeval artist. There is a element of intelligence but at the end of the day it is following a brief, with no actual ‘knowledge’ of the thing it is producing. As an example, if you prompt your generative AI (ChatGPT and the like) to produce a blog for your new product or service, aimed at your ideal customer avatar you will in all likelihood get a mediaeval lion out the other end. Sort of recognisable, and sort of not. This is because AI doesn’t know what a customer is (ideal or otherwise), has no idea what your product or service is and does, and has no true understanding of how this service or product will serve your ideal customer and their needs. Of course, AI is pulling all the information available from the internet to help with its answer but there is no understanding there. There is no determining fact from falsehoods or even which websites are trustworthy and which are not. So, it skims the internet and puts together content which suits the brief as it understands it. This is then when the actual work should start as this content shouldn’t be used in the raw. It should be edited and tweaked by a human who DOES understand the brief, has been a customer (ideal or otherwise) and can imagine what your ideal customer will feel when using your product or services. We are in a world now, where we have generative AI promoting products and services to humans, when it has no concept of what a human is and how it thinks, meaning the marketing department are in fact more important than ever for ensuring content and copy is aimed at humans and human emotions. You could argue that the world would be a more entertaining place if there were more mediaeval lions in it, but it wouldn’t be a great environment for learning, or for basing purchasing decisions on. If you want to maintain the human element in your content, then I would love to help . Explain the brief, your CTA and your ideal client and I will know what I need to ask to get a clear idea before writing. Then you can rest assured your content was written by a human for a human and we can leave the mediaeval lions to the museums.
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