I started reviewing gigs for the local paper when I was sixteen, and I haven’t stopped since. The truth is that I am unable to go to a gig without writing up a review in my head, whether or not I’ve actually been commissioned to write one. I guess I’ve got an urge to tell people about the experience, however amazing or disappointing it may be.
At the local paper I was also given a fortnightly column, and soon I started getting called in to write features and do interviews during weekends when the permanent staff couldn’t be bothered working. I obviously hadn’t had any formal training back then, but with hindsight I’ve realised that I found my journalistic voice very easily. Interestingly enough, it was after having read one of my columns back then that a family friend, who had plenty of experience of hiring and working with copywriters, turned to me and said: “You should be a copywriter.”
The skill of the copywriter, or one of them, is to find the appropriate voice for a particular audience and media. This makes copywriting slightly different from journalistic writing, and significantly different from writing a column. Having studied creative writing at university, I find it a real treat when every now and again I get to be opinionated and use my own, unique voice.
You could say that journalism and copywriting are two branches of the same tree, and I have veered towards the latter lately. Yet, I’ve got years of journalistic experience, and I have been trained to conduct surveys and interviews, and write news stories as well as features. I have edited other people’s work and read almost everything there is to read about storytelling. I started out as a reviewer, and I will always be one.
