Working Writers

Working Writers: Matt Ambrose

July 11, 2012, by 7 comments
Matt Ambrose, copywriter

Matt Ambrose, Freelance Copywriter (Living Abroad)

Matt Ambrose, copywriter

Matt Ambrose

Matt came to my attention in the early days of the Underground (he’s one of the earlier UK copywriting bloggers), and since then he’s moved to the small Mediterranean island of Malta, where he takes every sun-drenched opportunity to taunt those living in less temperate locations. For that, I will eventually hunt him down and kill him.

For now, Matt’s making a living and enjoying his life in the process, which makes him an ideal candidate for this episode of Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do?

I’m Matt Ambrose — a six year veteran trading as The Copywriter’s Crucible. Previously I worked at the head office of Argos (UK consumer goods chain). But after stints in various cubicles, I decided the corporate ladder wasn’t for me. So I took the plunge into living by my wits and word processor; I’ve never looked back.

I mainly write B2B copy about software and techie stuff. What I find interesting about B2B is that it’s not always about the technology but what’s going on in the world around it. I recently wrote a bunch of articles about employee productivity software, except the focus wasn’t on the software but on the skills shortage due to our aging workforce. The old adage of selling the hole rather than the drill is alive and well in the B2B world.

A couple of years ago I thought I’d up the ante and relocate 1400 miles south to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Since the move I’ve missed out on a few projects but I love the variety. At the moment I’m writing a book about Malta’s history for one of its tourist attractions, last week I wrote a brochure about a luxury yacht (no time for firsthand research, unfortunately) and I’m about to start working on promotional material for a national boxing event. I can’t imagine how I’d have got these opportunities in my hometown of Milton Keynes.

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

Nothing fancy: Just a battered Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop, MS Word and a notepad. Now that I’m living in Malta I have yet to decide whether to plant roots and upgrade.

I’ve been working on laptops for the last six years now, and I’m starting to forget what it’s like to work on a full sized keyboard that doesn’t hammer out typos and a screen that isn’t going to give me an RSI.

But while I’m shuttling forwards and backwards from the UK a few times a year, portability is a must. The 10kg limit on cabin luggage can mean a nervous wait in customs, so maybe upgrading to a sleek Ultrabook deserves serious consideration.

For staying connected to the motherland, Skype is fantastic. It enables me to retain a UK phone number so prospects don’t get frightened by an international dialing code and IM is great for quick fire questions. I’ve also started using Google Drive and Dropbox for document sharing and avoiding the email merry-go-round where you end up having to amalgamate a colourful mess of track changes.

Any special copywriting or workflow tricks to share?

The Internet is the biggest drain on productivity known to man. I can easily wile away the hours unless I set some strict boundaries. Firstly, I set half day targets, like a 500 word article or collecting together my notes for a brochure, rather than a vague schedule of what I need to get done each week.

I also use a Google Chrome timer so I work in 40 minute chunks. After which I’ll allow myself five minutes to swan around the web and waste as much time as I like.

Despite all these controls, my blogging schedule still goes down the drain.

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

I’ve spent years battling to get on the front page of Google and sometimes wonder why I bothered. The majority of the emails I get just want to know my rates and then don’t reply when I tell them I don’t live in a box and I charge more than $10 for 500 words. I’ve had much better results approaching clients and marketing agencies offline.

My advice to other freelancers is to attend local networking events and approach businesses directly. High paying clients on the Internet are a rare breed.

Just The Facts

Name: Matt Ambrose
Website
Blog
LinkedIn

Working Writers: Tom Albrighton

June 13, 2012, by 2 comments
Tom Albrighton, Working Writer

Tom Albrighton, Freelance Copywriter

I seem to have a thing for U.K. copywriters; today’s Working Writer interview features Tom Albrighton of ABC Copywriting, a seven-year freelancer with a nice copywriting blog and an odd aversion to writing in text editors (spoiler alert!).

Tom Albrighton, Working Writer

Tom Albrighton of ABC Copywriting.

 

Given his preferences and our emails, I believe I’d enjoy having a beer with Tom, though unless he’s in possession of a lot of frequent flier miles and is willing to pay for the beer, it’s not happening anytime soon.

Like most working writers, he’s developed a job-tracking system that helps him stay on top the year’s activity. His ability to get clean audio from a phone call is worth a read (though I hear a lot of people are using Skype for the same thing).

Welcome to our latest edition of Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do

I worked at a non-fiction publisher and a small design studio before I was made redundant in 2005 and decided to try freelancing. Seven years on, I’m still trying it!

After a couple of years trading under my own name, I incorporated as ABC Copywriting. I write all kinds of copy for firms throughout the UK and around the world – websites, brochures, adverts, taglines and so on. I also work with a number of agencies and help academics (often non-native English speakers) with their papers and articles.

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

My work machine is a strange beast. The core of it is a Mac Mini with an entry-level Benq monitor (didn’t want to splash out on a Cinema Display). I used to buy iMacs, until I realised I was throwing away a perfectly good display every few years when all I really needed was a faster processor.

Hooked up to that is an extremely old Apple Extended Keyboard that was originally part of a Mac IIci (ask your parents, kids). It’s a proper ‘clicky’ keyboard, with ALP mechanical switches, and an absolute joy to use. The day I discovered it would work (via a UDP/USB adaptor) was one of the happiest of my life.

I do all my writing in Word. It’s like an old friend who’s changed a lot since you first knew them, but you stick with them anyway. It has its faults, but its strong points outweigh them. I don’t have a lot of time for people posturing about using TextEdit or whatever — for longer copy work, Word is the only choice. And its checking and readability tools are invaluable if there’s no-one else looking at your work before it goes out.

I often record phone conversations as a way to grab hold of raw information from the client. For that, I use the THAT-2, a commercial-standard device that radio stations use to get the cleanest possible sound. Cheaper alternatives are available, but I found them useless. The audio goes into the Mac Mini where I record it with Audacity and export it as an MP3.

Transcribing the MP3s is made far easier and quicker with Sizzlin’ Keys, which lets you control iTunes via the keyboard without leaving your current app. I use F13=play/pause, F11=jump back five seconds and F12=jump forward five seconds; it quickly becomes completely intuitive.

I don’t have a smartphone. Instead I have a super-simple Nokia, which is for conversations and nothing else. I do all the smartphone-type messing about on an iPad. However, I rarely write anything on it beyond the occasional email.

I also have a MacBook Pro that I sometimes use for writing when I want to change venue. I transfer files with Dropbox, which must be one of the best free apps ever published.

Any Special Copywriting or Workflow Tricks To Share?

I keep track of all my active projects in an Excel spreadsheet that shows client, project, status and price. That’s as near as I get to a forward schedule or a cash flow forecast, but it works for me.

For day-to-day ‘to dos’ I use BusyCal. It’s the calendar app that iCal wishes it was. I particularly like the way completed to-dos are automatically entered on the calendar, so you can see at a glance what you’ve achieved each day and each week. It also shows the weather, which Brits are of course obsessed with.

I always enter comments in my text – not as proper Word comments, but as interpolations in the actual text, using a different style sheet. I find this useful for explaining what I’ve done (or why), flagging up issues or requesting additional information. It’s a way of managing expectations and talking the client through the text the very first time they read it.

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

I never learned to touch-type, so although I’m reasonably fast I do make a lot of mistakes. If I could wave a magic wand to put that right, I would.

I’m still using the chair I bought when I started freelancing, which is appallingly cheap and (now) worn out. I don’t mind investing in a decent one, but it’s such a high-stakes decision. How can you tell whether you’ll enjoy sitting in a chair for years and years?

Just The Facts

Name: Tom Albrighton
Website: ABC Copywriting
Blog: ABC Copywriting Blog
Twitter: @tomcopy
LinkedIn: ABCcopywriting

Working Writers: Graham Strong

June 7, 2012, by 6 comments
Graham Strong's website

Graham Strong, Copywriter & Novelist

I first stumbled across freelance copywriter Graham Strong after reading his useful copywriting blog, which he promptly discontinued, turning it into a novel-in-progress blog that was infinitely more interesting. Copywriters who live in more than one writing world are interesting to me, and Strong is one of those people.

A freelance copywriter for more than 17 years, he’s demonstrated an ability to both make a living and stay sane doing it, and you might gather — after reading his workflow tips — he does so in a fairly orderly way.

Welcome to another edition of Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do (briefly)

My name is Graham Strong and I’m a freelance copywriter and budding novelist. I am a confirmed generalist, mostly for the sake of my own sanity. I am known (in certain circles) for my medical copywriting, though I also write press releases, brochure content, web content, case studies, and pretty much anything else.

Graham Strong's website

Graham Strong's working website

 

I love the fact I can explain the science behind flow cytometry in the morning, and then write about significance of Drew Barrymore’s butterfly tattoo in the afternoon.

I write in a variety of industries including design/build, mining, medical, small business, transcription — even the restaurant business.

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

Last year I moved into a laptop — an Acer Phenom II — running Windows 7. I use a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard and an Asus 32” monitor, which has helped save the ol’ eyes and is great for ebook/magazine/newsletter/brochure layout.

On the road I use an HP netbook, but I am currently experimenting with an iPad using a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and some kind of Office emulator (CloudOn or Documents to Go – not sure of the exact software yet). I haven’t decided how well this will work, but initial use looks promising.

Another important piece of office “hardware” is my ergonomic office chair. I write with my feet up on my desk, which I find saves my back and my legs during hours at the keyboard. (Yeah, I know what it looks like. But try it — your feet and back will love you by the end of the day. Nobody’s peering into my windows anyway…)

I also recently got an iPhone, which I have connected to my email and calendar. It makes taking off from the office so much easier because now I don’t have to find a place with WiFi to check email throughout the day — in fact I can use it as a personal WiFi hotspot for my netbook or iPad as need be. Rounding out the hardware: a Sony digital recorder for interviews.

For software, Microsoft Word is at the heart of all my writing. I actually don’t mind it, though I don’t really put it through any stringent expectations. I use it for writing and that’s about it. I don’t do a whole lot of document formatting in Word (though when I’ve tried, it has driven me nuts). If I’m producing an ebook, I’ll export the text to InDesign.

I use Google Docs for sharing “live” documents.

My invoicing system is pretty basic: Excel spreadsheet to track, Word template to create the actual invoice, and Acrobat to convert it to PDF. I track time using MultiTrack Stopwatch and record it in Timesheets MTS which uses a MS Access database, so it’s easy to do a lot of the functions right at the database level, which I like.

Dropbox for syncing my netbook, Google Calendar for booking meetings/deadlines, Digital Voice Editor 3 (came with the recorder) for reviewing audio files, Google Chrome for browsing, and Thunderbird for email.

My favourite iPhone/iPad apps aren’t that flashy either: GMail for my secondary (backup) email, Facebook, HootSuite (for Twitter). I love Flipboard, though I haven’t used it to its fullest potential. I’m always open to interesting new apps.

Any Special Copywriting or Workflow Tricks To Share?

  1. I keep everything organized by project. Even if I have several “tasks” from the same client, I assign each task a project number, starting with the year, e.g. 122356. I don’t restart the numbers each year. When a project is complete, I move it into an archive folder, again sorted by year, so I can find it more easily when/if I need to in the future.

  2. When writing or editing “by committee” (ugh), I work with the main contact person first to nail down the text, and then send that polished text up the chain as need be. Usually, the main contact person is the expert in this field, so the meat of the text will be correct. That way, the only changes I’m likely to get further up the chain are little nuance changes from an organizational perspective.

  3. I email everything to create a paper trail. If I chat on the phone for two minutes, I follow up with an email. This doesn’t have to be a “mini-minutes” by any means. It could be as simple as, “Oh, by the way, when we talked about this today, I forgot to ask, should we be doing this too?” I don’t do this for every little “how’s the weather” phone conversation, but I find it’s a good habit for those crucial project points, especially things like deadlines and changes in project direction done on the fly.

  4. I always befriend administrative assistants. I’m generally a pretty polite, friendly guy anyway, but I’ve seen people ignore or (worse) condescend to assistants. As Julia Roberts would say, huge mistake. If you’re working with anyone in a C-level or similar position, admin assistants can make access to them as easy — or as difficult — as they like.

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

I’m pretty happy where I am at the moment, with a few exceptions.

For example, I wish I could say I’m a Mac person, but I just can’t justify spending all that money to convert. The hardware is a big enough chunk, but when you factor in all the software, it’s a big hit to take. I may compromise by getting one of those nifty PC ultrabooks I’ve heard so much about.

I’ll also say that there are little nagging things, especially software-wise, that could be ironed out. I wouldn’t call myself a Windows person, but there isn’t a viable alternative (for me — I know some people like Linux, etc. but too much work for me)

That being said, I can’t envision a better system – I’ll just know it when I see it.

Oh, one other thing. I’m scouting treadmills that I can convert to hold a laptop or perhaps my iPad/keyboard setup. I figure if I can do an hour or so of work everyday while on the treadmill, I’ll be doing myself the world of good.

Just The Facts

Graham Strong
Copywriting website
Novel blog

Working Writers: Daryl Lang, Senior Copywriter

May 31, 2012, by 4 comments
Daryl Lang

Daryl Lang, Shutterstock Senior Copywriter

Daryl Lang

Daryl Lang

I’ve been less than complimentary about the state of the copywriting blogosphere, so when I found Daryl Lang — who writes the independent and thoughtful Breaking Copy blog — you could say I recognized his thinking:

Yet while all this is happening, the conversation about copywriting has been hijacked by people pitching products and services of dubious value. Do a search for “copywriting blog” and most of what you’ll find are businesses selling technology products, like online courses, search engine optimization and quick-fix marketing schemes.

Lang is a senior copywriter for Shutterstock, and in the interest of wanting to get things done, he’s indulging in a social-media free summer. Welcome to this issue of Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do (briefly)

I’m Daryl Lang and I edit a blog about copywriting called Breaking Copy. At my day job I’m the senior copywriter on the in-house creative team at Shutterstock, a stock image and video site. I started out as a newspaper reporter, worked as an editor at a trade magazine for photographers, and also edited catalogs and product packaging for a home products company.

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

At work, they have me on a Macbook Air with a big Apple display. It’s a good setup because we often have working meetings in conference rooms, where it’s helpful to have a laptop in front of you. At home, I use a Mac Mini hooked up to an old Sony monitor and a big HDTV on the wall. I’m not picky about computers, but I’m a bit of a snob about my keyboard at home — it’s a Unicomp Spacesaver M. So nice to type on.

I use fairly standard software. Microsoft Word or Apple Pages for writing, BBEdit or TextWrangler for code, Adobe Creative Suite for graphics. I use WordPress for my blog and I use Google Docs when I need to collaborate on a document.

Probably my oddest habit with computers is keeping a log of all the work I do in one, giant plain-text file. I start a new file every January. It comes in handy to have a list of everything I’ve done and when I did it.

Any Special Copywriting or Workflow Tricks To Share?

Strictly speaking my job is to write, but doing it well requires a lot of additional skills. The hardest part is getting everyone working on a project aligned in support of the best possible copy. I need to convey the idea that, “We’re serving our customers better if we say it this way.”

It helps me sell a copy concept if I can show it in layout. For example, if I need to show how a new promo line will work on one of our websites, I’ll mock it up in HTML and show it in a meeting using a web browser, so my colleagues can read it in context.

If we’re working on a display ad, I’ll use Illustrator to comp up a quick design so everyone can see how all the elements work together.

I can imagine an idealized scenario where I’d just write words and leave the design and code to the people who are best at it. But then there’s reality, where everybody has to get creative to make sure our ideas get realized and we’re shipping quality work on schedule.

Another important trick is knowing when to send an email, versus when to make a phone call or pay a visit in person. Use email for delivering complete work and for easy conversations with no potential for negative judgment. Make voice contact as soon as you sense something might be going awry. You can often avoid many hours of frustration by speaking to someone with your own voice, as a human being, rather than typing at them. This is true whatever kind of work you do, but it’s especially true with writing, since it can feel subjective and personal.

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

I want more hours in the day. There are many perks to working in-house like I do. You get to know everything about a brand, build relationships with other creative people, and enjoy the security of a steady job. But I wish I had more time and energy to explore side projects or freelance more.

Just The Facts

Name: Daryl Lang
Company: Copywriter, Shutterstock
Breaking Copy blog

Working Writers: Paul Lagasse

May 22, 2012, by 8 comments
Paul Lagasse

Paul Lagasse, Freelance Writer

I first stumbled across Paul Lagasse on his Sotto Voce blog, the entries for which are sometimes written on a typewriter and posted as images.

That led me to his Channel 37 blog, where he posts pulpy serialized science fiction stories. Clearly, this is a man places some value on the writing process.

Paul Lagasse

Paul Lagasse

When I realized he wrote for a living, he seemed a logical choice for the Working Writer series. It turns out he doesn’t send his clients typewritten pages (hey, a guy can dream), but his workflow should prove interesting anyway.

Welcome to this issue of Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do (briefly)

My original career goal was to become an historian or archivist, so I earned a BA and MA in history and followed up with an MLS. Naturally, I discovered I didn’t have an academic temperament, so I took a chance on a career in writing. I’ve been a full-time self-employed writer/editor since January 2001.

After hours, I write science fiction for the web serial fiction site Channel 37, which I co-founded with my friend Gary Lester. I’ve written two books: a young-adult historical novel called Seeing Through Clouds and a humorous historical novella called Invasion of the Orb Men. This year, I’ve set a goal of getting my fiction published in at least a couple of recognized outlets.

I’m a Connecticut Yankee by birth and it is my spiritual home, but I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I ended up in Maryland, where I’ve lived for just over 20 years now. Annapolis is my current home base, and I hope to stay in this city for a long time — unless it’s to move back to New England.

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

I am a fanatic about using the minimum number of rugged, reliable tools, both digital and analog.

At the home office I use an early 2008 MacBook (256GB HD and 2GB of RAM), which is running OS X 10.7.4 and hating every minute of it. At my desk, I hook it up to an inexpensive ViewSonic external monitor and use the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad. In the field I take notes on an iPod Touch plus Bluetooth keyboard. I will probably upgrade to a Windows 8 tablet for field work when they come out.

My word processor of choice is Nisus Writer Pro, but for complex projects where heavy formatting is required prior to layout, I use MS Word. I use iStudio Publisher for print layouts. For graphic design, I rely on three programs: Lemke Software’s GraphicConverter, Omni Group’s OmniGraffle, and BeLight Software’s ArtText.

Along with a handful of small specialty apps for photo formatting, color picking, etc., they do pretty much everything Photoshop can do while collectively costing less and being much easier to use.

Because no writer should ever be without paper and a pen, I also write with a 1943 Parker “51″ vac-fill fountain pen. In the field, I carry a Zebra 301 Portable ballpoint on my keychain and a stack of 3×5 cards in a Brigade Quartermasters Notesaf™ 3×5 Tactical Tablet Holder.

Any Special Copywriting or Workflow Tricks To Share?

My computer workflow relies on a few key apps: Cocoatech’s Path Finder is like the Apple Finder on steroids. It’s a very well-designed file management tool that I’ve tweaked to serve as a basic project management tool as well. Indev’s Mail Tags and Mail Act-on are plugins for Apple’s built-in Mail app that let me manage my e-mail workflow as efficiently as Path Finder lets me manage files.

It’s a carryover from my archives days, but I have established an easy-to-use file management system that lets me purge paper and electronic files and e-mails regularly. A few years ago I formalized the process into a system I called PaperJamming, which I wrote about on my blog.

I came out with the system along with some Hipster PDA templates at the peak of the whole Lifehack movement about five years ago, and its fifteen minutes of fame brought my site far more traffic than anything related to writing.

I’ve also tweaked out a Numbers spreadsheet to track invoice status, expenses, business checking, and taxes. It started as a simple invoice tracker but over the years I kept adding features to it until, now, it serves as my business dashboard.

It took me a few years to develop a paper system that was as efficient as my computer system. My notebooks and files all use the Rollabind ring system, also marketed as Circa by Levenger and Arc by Staples.

It’s a cross between a spiral notebook and a three-ring binder; pages can be pulled out and swapped between notebooks and folders very easily. You can create a notebook for a special purpose (a one-day conference, say, or a long-term project), and then break it down or merge it with other notebooks when you’re done. My whole file system, from cradle to grave, is “on the rings.”

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

I’m on the cusp of some big decisions right now regarding my hardware and software. I definitely need a faster laptop (which doubles at my desk computer when coupled to an external monitor and Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad). It’s about five years old and having a hard time keeping up. Right now I am waiting to see if the refreshed MacBook Pro line is worth holding out for, otherwise I’ll get a refurbished late-model MBP instead.

Until recently Mac OS X was a Swiss Army Knife. Lion introduced a slew of non-optional features that hinder my productivity, and if Mountain Lion continues that trend, then I’m going to have to face a choice there too. So I’m waiting until Mountain Lion and the new MBPs come out before I do anything.

It’s a weirdly unsettled place to be, and I’m unhappy even considering a major hardware and software switch when I’m so busy.

Just The Facts

Name: Paul Lagasse
Company: Active Voice Writing & Editorial Services
Professional website
Writing blog
Channel 37 sci-fi blog

Working Writers: Matthew Stibbe

May 10, 2012, by 10 comments
Matthew Stibbe

Welcome To My Working Writers Series

I’m fascinated by the work habits of writers.

I’m addicted to the “The Setup” site, and have consumed all of John August’s “Workspace” screenwriter interviews.

Sadly, copywriters are poorly represented in the writer’s universe (there are some real and imagined biases that account for that), and I thought it was time to shine a spotlight on a handful of working copywriters. And by “working” copywriters, I mean writers who rarely get to enjoy the luxuries of writer’s block, sloppy work or a byline.

Good copywriters play in a merciless arena of ideas and tight writing, and writers who thrive in that space are probably worth a little study.

First up in my Working Writer’s series is Bad Language’s Matthew Stibbe — author of what is probably the only copywriting blog from the mid-aughts still in my RSS reader. Copywriting blogs tend towards transparent self promotion, yet Bad Language has remained a sometimes funny, always authentic look at copywriting and marketing.

Matthew Stibbe

The umbrella site for all Matthew Stibbe's sites (not a bad idea)

 

Stibbe’s English (so he sounds funny but writes well), and works with blue-chip clients like Microsoft and HP.

Not a bad place to start. Welcome to Working Writers.

Tell Us Who You Are and What You Do (briefly)

My name is Matthew Stibbe. I’m CEO of Articulate Marketing where most of my work is business-to-business copywriting for large tech companies, including Microsoft, Symantec, HP and LinkedIn.

My background, hopping on one leg, is: history at Oxford, a decade making computer games and a few years as a freelance journalist. When I’m not writing, I’m flying, learning Dutch or running my other business, Turbine.

I have a writing blog and a flying blog and I’m a contributor to Forbes.com.
 

What Hardware & Software Do You Use?

My main day-to-day writing machine is a bit of a frankenputer made up of bits of other computers glued together. It has a five year-old motherboard but 16GB of RAM and a new SSD plus two huge 1920×1280 screens of hinged arms.

Why I like it and why I keep nursing it long after it’s sell-by date is that it is completely silent. It has a double-walled aluminium felt-lined case, an enormous but silent fan and a graphics card with a huge brass heat sink. Silence is the best working environment for me.

It runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (hey, I work for Microsoft, what did you expect?) I do almost all my writing in Word, after nearly two decades of hard wired habit. I use an Apple USB keyboard after I wore out two Microsoft ergonomic keyboards in as many years. It’s not so much the durability or the feel of it (though both are good) but it’s just really quiet when I’m typing so that works really well when I’m taking notes during a phone interview.

I have recently swapped my trusty HP notebook for a MacBook Air. The HP is okay (and their new Folio 13 is very good indeed) but the Air is the most beautiful laptop I have ever owned. It’s fantastic and I love it deeply.

I’m a connoisseur of ultraportable laptops and most of them have been disappointments. The OQO, Libretto, tiny Sony Vaio, the 1995 HP 200LX, two Newtons, four Pilots and many more have all been through my grubby paws but only the Air has really delivered portability and functionality in the same package. (Although the old Toshiba Portege 3440CT did a pretty good job in its time.)

I use some others pretty regularly: Balsamiq for UI mockups, OneNote for note taking, Outlook for task management, Live Writer for blog posts. I’m slowly moving to hosted cloud apps for routine business stuff and I’m loving Freshbooks for invoicing and Capsule for CRM. I use Microsoft Office 365 for email hosting and it works really well. And Dropbox, but you’re already using that, aren’t you?

I have an iPad which is great for reading. Every aspiring writer should be a greedy reader and I have the New Yorker, Atlantic, Wired, Economist and Kindle on my iPad. I also like the Readability app. Not sure I could write a long article on my iPad but I’m thinking about how I might be able to use to mark up or edit documents via Dropbox.
 

Any Special Copywriting or Workflow Tricks To Share?

Three big breakthroughs in my working life:

  1. Ruthless task management. I have a good list that tells me all the time what I need to be working on and when it’s due. I have had this since I was 15 but it’s evolved from a school notebook to a carefully curated Outlook task list.

  2. Document parsing. I studied history at university and learned, mostly by practice and enlightened laziness, the ability to read through a lot of material quickly and soak up the bits of information I needed. Also, for larger more formal projects, the ability to take notes and clip out the bits of data I need for references. This makes large projects much easier.

  3. Doing interviews on the phone rather than schlepping out to see people and then taking notes while I’m talking so I don’t need to write a post-call transcript. When I was a journalist this technique literally saved me two or three days a week. Even as a copywriter, interviews are a valuable tool and this approach means I can do a bunch of them without spending a lot of time on the process. There’s nothing like talking to an expert to get a project kick-started.

I don’t know how useful this is as advice. If you want some advice, I think my best tip is to learn to concentrate. Getting up early and writing in the morning is also helpful, but again, I already wrote about it.
 

What Pieces of the Puzzle Are You Missing?

Context switching between jobs is a big issue. It takes a while for my brain to Alt-Tab between one client’s project and another. So when the phone goes and I have rewrites to do and two or three little things to do in a day, I’m much less productive than when I have one big project and the whole day (or week) to do it. So I love it when clients give me big chunky projects to do. It’s not just the money, it’s the chance to really get up into top gear and put get motoring.

What I’d love is two or three screens with the resolution and size of the new iPad 2.5. It would be easier on the eye and better for reading.

I think my perfect setup would be three iPad-style screens plus a computer that is as quiet as my current one but much faster. However, I suspect that in two or three years, I’ll be running very little local software. It’ll all be in the cloud and all I need is a great screen and a great keyboard and a good Internet connection.

The biggest non-technical problem I have is that my intellect knows it has to write because of deadlines or mortgage payments but my ego doesn’t want to. The more I write, the more I sympathise with Ezra Pound’s gentle satire:

THE LAKE ISLE
O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Give me in due time, I beseech you, a little tobacco-shop,
With the bright little boxes
piled up neatly on the shelves
And the loose, fragrant cavendish
and the shag,
And the bright Virginia
loose under the bright glass cases,
And a pair of scales not too greasy,
And the whores dropping in for a word or two in passing,
For a flip word, and to tidy their hair a bit.
O God, O Venus, O Mercury, patron of thieves,
Lend me a little tobacco-shop,
or install me in any profession
Save this damn’d profession of writing
where one needs one’s brains all the time.