All my life, I’ve been struggling with balancing my inner businesswoman and my inner freedom-loving artist.

I failed to be a journalist. The job didn’t pay much, and I needed money.

I failed at building a career in advertising. I worked in agencies for almost five years, then got out at the same moment I was offered a creative director job. I was empty. Mentally devastated. And I left.

I failed to downshift. I spent four months in Mexico; mostly in a small Mexican surfer town with its endless cumbia, mezcal and golden pieces in the sand. I was broke, recovering, free. And I left.

I failed to be an entrepreneur. It would be easier to blame someone else - the people who screwed me up. But the thing is, I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur. It was an illusion of freedom - heavy and unreliable.

I failed to be a writer. I haven’t finished any of my books - even those based on great ideas. Even ones that could possibly change my life.

I failed to combine being a businesswoman with the free artist inside me.

Finally, I failed to fail.

Your own truth makes you a better copywriter

Back in 2009, when I was starting out in my precious Ukraine, I felt like a 13-year old teenager - a bit awkward, a bit angry, always anxious, and never satisfied.

With a big desire to write and be a journalist, I wanted to investigate, uncover the truth and break down the walls between genders, generations and cultures.

In that teenage society, I looked like an idiot. I still do, when I argue for world peace, equality, equity, emotional education and the importance of freedom over the forces of hatred.

Only now, I realise that putting forward views as a life guide and following my own choices made me who I am. 

A better human, and a better professional.

If someone asks me what is the most important part of copywriting, I would say it’s finding your own truth.

A copywriter’s most valuable quality is life itself

I believe that everyone can do anything as long as they’re emotionally capable or ready for it.

My copywriting courses often had students and applicants who were deluded by the image of a writer. Free-spirited, admired, with a big house on the lake and sophisticated, artsy friends. Somewhere between Truman Capote’s eclectic genius and Carrie Bradshaw’s lifestyle.

I can’t blame anyone for that image. I’m a mature woman, and I still feel like I’m Carrie when I’m elegantly crossing traffic in my high heels.

The only thing they forget to include in that image is the work itself.

Truman Capote was a public figure who moved with Hollywood stars and the most famous people of his time. He was openly gay, and while writing his absolutely insane ‘In Cold Blood’ he was refused interviews in Kansas. People didn’t want to talk to him because of his “extraordinary” behaviour.

Capote was an alcohol and drug addict, he was hard to handle, and his job was his life.

With Carrie Bradshaw, we see how she is just hanging out and dating men; randomly writing pieces for her newspaper. But the thing is, hanging out and dating men was actually her job as a journalist. You can’t write a good piece about dating if you’ve been with the same person since you were 15.

A person who creates stories does not just sit and write. You must struggle through everything you write about. It’s about making life choices based on your decision to be who you are:

A person with writing skill who is looking for their place in the world.

Copy writing comprises different skills - from writing to analytics - but it has the same vibe as every other type of creative work. I strongly believe that you can’t be a copywriter if you’re not ready to fight your fears, experiment, travel, communicate and have your own views (or at least try to have them).

At some point, your rebel mode will slow down. But once a rebel, always a rebel (or maybe, at least, an old hippy).

First, learn how to write. Then how to be a copywriter

There is a slightly visible line between being a copywriter and a person with compulsive graphomania.

Writing down obscure words won’t make you a good copywriter, but having your own voice will. 

Finding this voice can be your biggest challenge.

Crafting it can be your life-long job.

Do you know how many times I thought I’d screwed up and shouldn’t be a writer of any kind? But when I got a sense of my own style, I found peace (well, this ‘peace’ sometimes gets pneumonia and takes sick leave, but I try to hold tight).

How can you find your own voice?

I often compared writing to jazz, because they both come from the same holes and hills inside us. I’m not sure if Charlie Parker ever said it, but I tend to believe it:

“First you try to play like others, then you play like yourself.”

I needed to find it once more with English. It’s my third language and, as you can imagine, writing in Ukrainian and Russian is dramatically different from writing in English. And I found it adorable that writing in English reminds me of writing in Ukrainian — they both share eccentric ‘nakedness’.

When a part of your job is to know a language professionally, it’s hard to forget your fears when working in a new one. You’re afraid you’ll distort meanings, sound like a fool, and be worse than you are because of your inferior vocabulary.

But when you have a wall, you can put paintings and flowers on it, and transform it into a gallery.

Being a copywriter is more complex than simply comprehending words. It’s understanding the context of the subject to its heart and revealing the emotion.

What can you do to make your voice emerge?

Make your words dynamic and add opinions. Be specific, be loud when needed, whisper when you don’t want to show off. Start a conversation, and don’t try to be perfect. People are not perfect, so why do you want to be better than them?

A story hides in action. Don’t try to describe it. Try to make it alive.

Yes. You need to do more than write

Sometimes, I feel like words come from nowhere.

I can say that the air in the mountains smells like a drying wind, and there are no particular algorithms I use to create this comparison. Sometimes, my mind just works like that. It’s open to ideas.

But when your job is basically to create, you need to find ways to organise your mind. Imagine that you have a week to come up with a naming. People pay you money to do that. You can always think of something basic and use your power of persuasiveness to sell the idea.

Here’s what I recommend:

Do the research. I don’t mean just understand the brand, audience and values — that’s a given. Do personal research. Listen to acid jazz, spend an hour on Pinterest, read poetry, articles or even mythology.

Pay attention to ideas and words. Write all of that down in your hipster moleskine notebook and save it for the right moment. I once came up with a name that combined words from lyrics by The Beatles, and many times I’ve gotten an idea after noticing a similarity in absolutely different areas. For instance, I once came up with a connection between amber, sun and Mireille Mathieu (and transformed it into a name).

Follow a routine. At least, come up with a routine when you need to be super creative. Get a good rest, try to work when you’re most productive, in the place where you feel most productive. Go to the swimming pool, do yoga, throw a party if needed. Try to open your mind.

Once I needed to come up with an idea for a children’s story. I was struggling and went to the old Soviet swimming pool to clear my head. When the REM song “Losing my Religion” started playing on the radio, I suddenly found the main quality for a character. Courage.

Use creative techniques. I usually go with ‘associations’ or the ‘reverse method’, which helps me implement the required emotion in an unexpected way. It’s like portraying recruitment as a could-be love story, because “all you need is to find the right person.”

You need to find a way to fulfil yourself

When you’re a copywriter, you know some weird stuff.

I could probably conduct a lecture about fish breeding and how potatoes are transformed into chips. In my advertising years, I’d need to switch from cheap beer to expensive perfumes, and from tampons to smartphones in a few minutes…

I feel like I’m the ‘Billy Milligan’ of copywriting; sometimes supercharged with new information, and sometimes dead inside because there’s nothing left to articulate. But even in those moments when your brain is burning and everything inside is dying, you still need to create, right?

To make it work, I usually remember three things:

1. Something that drives you.

2. Something you have deep knowledge about.

3. Something that ‘strikes’ you, and makes you care.

For me, I’ve chosen these:

1. Travel. I can always use my experiences in different countries and with different people to build a story.

2. Music and comedy. I’m a music nerd, and this knowledge helps me find metaphors, words, sometimes even slogans and naming ideas. Comedy (stand-up, TV shows) taught me how to create jokes in my own way.

3. Social issues. My rebel mode is on every time someone tries to discriminate or spouts some bullshit. Understanding it, motivates me to explore politics, law, psychology more - and basically, it allows me to understand people better.

Your job is to tell stories

How can you do that if you don’t have one?

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“All my life, I’ve been struggling with balancing my inner businesswoman and my inner freedom-loving artist — and not letting myself realise that I can be both.”

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