Two weeks of awesome writing

These past two weeks have probably been my best of the whole year. I love writing and copyediting and I find it very rewarding. But, work has been slow. I've loved this loaded period and the mixed bag of writing assignments.

I wrote two blog posts for client A - one on activities for children over the festive season and another on choosing gifts for women. These were fun to write.

I wrote two informative articles for a new project that I'm working on with Celliers (more on this in a few weeks).

I wrote two product-focused media releases, also for client A, where I paired product content with activity content. I also wrote a lifestyle-themed release, also with a product focus. One of the most fun was re-working content written by someone else - I've done a few of these for them this year. I haven't dealt with this client contact for very long (she started there in June-ish) so when I got back the following from her, I was chuffed.

"How are you this amazing? Your writing abilities are incredible!"

I copy edited and re-wrote website content for a friend, pulling off the old content, which was informative and interesting but too wordy, and making it nice-nice. This was a super project to work on.

I had a blast writing a profile article on a farmer for an industry magazine. He won an award and the mag asked him for an article on himself. It is really difficult to write about yourself - I even find it challenging to write my own releases about my events; and so he gave me a call. I shot off a bunch of questions to him, he replied with bullet point notes and I turned it into an article. He sent a copy to an industry-involved friend to get feedback and the response was, "Kan nie beter nie". Nice.

On Wednesday afternoon client A sent me a note asking for "an emergency media release". Two hours later they had the first draft - I was waiting for comments from one other person, which needed to be included. Submitting the finished piece in the morning I received the following response, "Thank you. Such a lovey, touching piece. Felt like I was 100% part of the team".

I also wrote a couple of news stories for FEAT, certainly a blog or two and some quick copyediting of website content for a friend's new business venture.

Writing is a bit like being an artist. Here, on this blog, I write for myself. I write to record events and memories and to have a place to write. I'm not too fussy about the writing and I rarely copyedit - I just write and post. Writing for other people, for me, is very satisfying. I enjoy creating something that fulfills a need. It also requires greater concentration too. I can blank out for hours.

Writing is one of those things that people too often think they can do themselves. To type an email to a friend, that's fine. But for public content, having someone with better skills to look over it, really makes a big difference - not only to the quality of the content but to how the content makes you come across.

When work is slow, it is so easy to doubt your ability. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting my head around these diverse writing projects. I'm feeling a lot more positive and upbeat and stimulated, enriched by the reward that comes from creating, completing challenging projects and gaining happy clients, who have had a weight lifted from their shoulders.