Enjoy this 612-word “Micro-Interview” with copywriter, Andrew Boulton.
Thanks, Andrew.
Let’s get started:
"Do you have a work routine?”
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The only consistent element of my routine is that the desk is always the very last resort. I walk, swim, loaf, mooch and otherwise distance myself from anything that feels too obviously like ‘work’. It’s the only way anything meaningful emerges from my imagination. There is, of course, a dash backed to the cursed desk when the words are bubbling out and are in danger of blowing away on the breeze.
"What do you wish you'd known about your work when you first started?”
I wish I’d know that copywriting existed. At school, writing was the only thing I cared about/was decent at, and yet the ‘best’ advice I got was that I should go into journalism (which is hard and badly paid), write a bad novel or, get this, teach English. I got lucky and stumbled into it, but how many brilliant young writers are slipping through this one enormous but easily fillable crack?
“What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”
That the most damaging misinterpretation you can have in this game is to mistake ‘Something went wrong’ with ‘I did something wrong.’ You are responsible for the words on the page (and, yes, for persuading other people those are the right words on the right page). But there’s so much chaos and ego and politics and uncertainty in the wider marketing world, it would be madness to take too much responsibility for any of the so-called failures that come your way.
“Has anything helped you shorten your craft's learning curve?”
Reading. Or, rather, enjoying to read. If I’d not always been such an enormous book nerd, I don’t think I could have done this job – or at least I would have done it far more sloppily than I do it now. I’ve learned long ago that you shouldn’t ever really ascribe essential behaviours or ‘requirements’ to a profession like ours, but I think it’s far harder to do well as a brand writer without having a deep and varied pool of alphabetical inspiration to draw from.
“Do you have a book recommendation?”
My recommendations for copywriting books are boringly predictable, but only because those books are so very, very valuable – Dan Nelken, Tom Kemeny, the excellent Gyles Lingwood (but you all know this already). I do like to seek out inspiring books about writing from different fields and a current favourite is Susan Bell’s The Artful Edit. Reader Come Home by Maryanne Wolf is also incredibly useful (and entertaining) for any copywriter.
“Any parting piece of advice?”
If you became a copywriter it’s most likely because you didn’t want to do a grown-up job. But if we don’t remind ourselves on a daily basis that this really is a uniquely weird, joyful, rewardingly silly thing to with our adult lives, copywriting can start to feel like that grown-up job, and that’s a difficult ditch to clamber out of.
