Why Are You Motivated To Write?
Confessions of a 25 year veteran copywriter
I’ve always felt compelled to write.
Yes it is a compulsion.
As a copywriter with 25 years’ experience penning prose for companies such as British Airways, Prudential, Harrods and B&Q - I’ve always made a living writing.
Before that I studied English at university, then at Postgraduate and Masters level, and wrote screenplays and poetry in my spare time.
Yes, I was that kid.
I then wrote a book that was published in my early twenties, worked as a freelance journalist for the BBC for a bit, and made one of my screenplays into a short film that was sold to HBO Europe (yes I’m bragging a little).
And still I kept writing.
I wrote copy for my own projects, copy for my own websites, copy for well - everything.
I wrote copy for clients. Firstly brochures and ads (I’m old and started when things were pre-digital).
I then moved onto websites, and SEO, and sales pages and blog posts.
The platforms changed but I still just kept writing away.
I carried on as low cost writers started ‘spinning’ SEO content for websites to rank in Google.
I carried on as my £300 day rate was undercut by people charging $10 a page.
Then I carried on as AI tools started writing well (Jasper), then very well (the first instance of ChatGPT), then better than me (the latest incarnations of Claude and ChatGPT).
I then briefly thought about stopping.
Then I stopped thinking about stopping and just got back on the horse and started writing again.
I brought more personal stories into my work to create more trust and authenticity. Something an AI can’t do yet - until it can.
I even started using AI for research, outlining and editing (but not the writing itself).
And even when a machine can completely emulate me and ‘out-write’ me and be better than me - I’ll still write.
And see that em dash above?
Yes I put that there myself not an AI - and these ones too - because if it’s good enough for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway it’s certainly good enough for me.
Yes I did just compare myself to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway - in a good way.
And yes I’ve got kids, and a mortgage and bills to pay and blah, blah, blah.
But in truth that’s not what really motivates me to write.
I write because I always have.
I write for therapy.
I write because I’m compelled to.
I write because I’m not that good at anything else.
I write because maybe it will make me a better writer.
I write because maybe it will make me a better person.
I write because I might be able to help others write.
I write because it moves me.
I write because I live it.
I write because I love it.
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Writing rant over.