2nd July 2020 … Copywriting and me!

Copywriting and me!

I’ve been doing this course online since the start of Lockdown. I really hope I can eek a freelance living out of this one day! It’s really exciting.

Every time I send off my projects, I get a buzz! I’m a 46 year old man, but the thought of waiting on a grade from my tutor after I’ve really enjoyed creating an SEO piece or an advert for a watch or a jam maker or a non profit business is just well, for want of better words … Exciting!

I reckon it’s probably wrong to send us all to university and college in our teens and 20s. I guess there are some people out there who’re really driven by academia and pleasing their teachers etc. But at that age, LOL! I did the work. I got a 2:2. “A Desmond!” I’m not an idiot! But, no real effort went into it! I went to college to get away from home … Partying on government grants, probably annoying all the hard working northern locals whose Saturday night kicks were found outside chip shops when some lone, maybe stoned, probably drunk long hair walked by the window – obviously a student! “Get him!!!!!” (or I bet sometimes accidentally her) they’d cry as they ran outside and laid the boot in.

Now, it’s a kind of professional pride here. I’ve paid for the course so I don’t wanna muck it up! Sure! But, I’m also really enjoying it! If I’d known I could’ve studied writing real, practical stuff back in 1991 instead of having to master essay styles to speculate on why Dean Moriarty was the way he was in On the Road and maybe having to compare his character to that of the narrator, Sal … Jeez! I liked some of the books on my undergrad course, yes indeed … But I preferred meeting girls in student bars and singing in a band and going to all night parties when the rest of the world slept for work! And, an American Studies degree never really did for me!

Now, is the time to study. Now is the time to get serious. That’s my story anyway.

I guess you could read this in your 20s, with your first class degree in hand, all happy with yourself. You did well and you also think you had something of a life at uni too … But, I’d disagree. I’d disagree and I’m really, really sincerely sorry for saying this but you had to pay through the nose for something your parents’ generation (X that is) got for free … In debt to the “Student Loans Company” forever! How’s that fair?! It’s not.

I wasn’t capable as a young man. I’m sort of now only just waking up from my extravagant youth, growing up a bit… I’m sorry millennials. That’s all I can say. I’m not taking the mickey. I genuinely think you got dealt a bum hand in many ways! But, I’m jealous of you all too! ‘Cos I’ve finally found a potential source of income that I could really love, and you guys are in the best position to go get all the jobs!

Anyway, enough. I’m gonna do a shout out here to the CMP –

https://ww2.collegeofmediaandpublishing.education/

I have taken 3 Lockdown courses with them. Their tutors are all prompt, thorough and really know their stuff. They’re all experienced industry pros in their respective fields. And, for a bunch of online courses – I’ve struggled to study off the computer before – the work is really accessible and challenging and interesting! I’m now a qualified copy editor and proofreader WITH DISTINCTION. I wasn’t before Covid-19 shut us all down! And, hopefully I’ll soon be a copywriter too! And, maybe even a blogger… ;op

If anyone reads these two posts I’ve put up today, they’re just thoughts n stuff really. I guess in the past I’ve been a bit egocentric and just stuck stuff up on this blog about my books and poems except when I posted about one poem from Taylor in Texas that I really liked!

The CMP course has taught me that blogs are successful if written with the audience in mind … Durr … The exact opposite of what I’ve been doing, using it as a sales pitch for:

[image error] I absolutely love this cover! It makes me think of that French thing … “Le Petit Prince” (The Little Prince) every time I see it!

Another big shout out to my illustrator –

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauracoppolaro/

But, that’s not all I am … I love trying to engage and trying to make people either agree with my rants or at least laugh at or with me!

So, the time has come. Answers on a postcard please (millennials won’t get that reference) – Let’s see if my latest blogs have improved on the pre-Lockdown ones …

And, if so, I may just have to keep writing them daily!

Cheers

Stephen ;o)