In the blink of an eye, my world has changed in the most exciting and scary and amazing ways.
As well as writing fiction, I’ve been helping a friend out over the last few months with some copywriting. It’s the kind of thing you do, as a writer and a friend. “Hey, Cate – could you just help me out with this guide I need for my website?” “You know, Cate, I’ve written this article but it would really help if you could cast your eyes over it and make it brilliant.” “If I’m putting together a manual for my training course, what would work well?”
So, I’ve been helping out and I’ve been happy to do it. He’s a friend and he’s growing a business and I love to write and he doesn’t. In return, he’s been helping me out with some of the things he’s brilliant at and which I can’t do for myself. Then, a couple of weeks ago, he rang me. “Hey Cate – you know this new product we’re planning to launch? Would you write a short guide for it? Not just as a favour, but the business will pay you.”
It changes everything, when that happens. I couldn’t just say, “Sure, what do you want?” and have a chat, knock something up and not worry about it. It meant putting together a proposal – the brief, dates, prices, copyright agreements – the lot. It meant that I needed to meet deadlines and quality standards (I’m usually pretty good about stuff like that anyway, but this time it mattered). It meant that I was going to need to register with HMRC (UK tax authority) and update my website with business writing pages (that one is still to do, as I write this!). Suddenly, I’m a professional writer.
And, you know what? It feels amazing!
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