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If you ask me if I am a good writer, my answer will depend on my mood at the time. Some days I think I am a great writer, most days I think I am a writer wanna-be.  It doesn’t help that the feedback I’ve gotten over the years has been very polarized… I am either lauded for my superior communication skills or berated for my absolutely appallingly bad communication skills.

I’m not sure if taking a copywriting class was more of an effort to validate that I know what I am doing or an effort to make up for a lack of skill. Maybe a bit of both. But I spent two days in a copywriting class this week  and I believe it was time well spent.  I didn’t learn anything really earth-shattering but sometimes reinforcement of ideas you had or concepts that you are familiar with being expanded upon can be very motivating.

I feel that I have a much better handle now on writing things like ad copy.  Learning to identify an audience, think about their motivation and write with focus is valuable to someone with a small business and to someone who assists small (and sometimes not so small) businesses with the written materials that they used to represent their business.

I’ll admit that there is a part of me that is seeking a mentor. Someone who will see my writing and believe that I have the talent to go from ‘sufficient’ to at least ‘proficient’ and perhaps onto ‘professional’.  I don’t suspect that writing will ever be what keeps a roof over my head but considered it a compliment when I was recently told that someone believes I would be a very good technical writer.

I still (perhaps mistakenly) believe that some day I will be able to write a novel that is worth reading.  I don’t think I can get there without a mentor.  Maybe I need to start reading more books to get an idea what it is that people think is worth reading.

I struggle with how to approach someone who I respect and who I think could help me to be a better writer, especially when there is really nothing I can offer that person in return (as far as financial compensation).  But I am coming to realize that the likelihood that someone will read what I have written and want to help me to get to the next level is pretty unfathomable.  And so I use an indirect approach and then burn a  few candles, say a few prayers and hope for the best.  It hasn’t worked yet and you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.  And yet, I still bank on insanity working in my favor at some point.

So, I consider the last two days time well spent, if only to have had the opportunity to learn technique from a REAL writer.  I hope to make the weekend time well spent, too.  I guess I can assess that on Monday morning.  Have a stellar weekend!