When is writing, copy?

It’s a question that rattled around my head when I woke up on Sunday morning – a sure sign that I need to get out more on a Saturday night.

I spent much of this weekend working on a spruce-up for my website, and adopted the industry standard term ‘copywriter’ when describing the services I provide. In truth, it’s a term that unsettles me a bit. We habitually refer to writing as copy or text, and broader storytelling techniques (video, podcasts, social media posts) as content.

We’re also quite accustomed to seeing design templates laid out with Lorem Ipsum to designate where the text fits into the layout. It reminds me of a graphic design colleague who used to wind me up that my ‘text’ was getting in the way of his design vision. I used to hit back that he was just providing the window dressing for my journalism… all banter of course, but it speaks to a wider point.

I can’t help but find the term ‘copy’ a bit reductive. As if the stories it tells, the truth it communicates, are simply a commodity for the marketing industry.

Stories rule the world

Am I just being a precious writer-type?

Probably, but hear me out. I challenge you to walk out the door right now, stop a random person in the street, and ask them what copywriting is. I think you’d be stunned how many people won’t have a clue. It caught me off guard when I launched this business and several people who don’t work in media looked at me a little baffled when I said I’m a copywriter. It was a kind of humbling process to shuffle about and eventually say, ‘I… um… write stuff… for people…’

Why do we hesitate to simply say writer? Are we referring to some subconscious hierarchy with creative writers at the top and copywriters somewhere in the murky commercial underworld? Dickens was paid by the word, so that’s a problematic distinction for starters.

Our Stone Age ancestors didn’t carve copy into the walls of their caves. Text is not the bedrock that inspired thousand-year-old religions. Content isn’t whispered round the campfire by torchlight or softly spoken to sleepy children at bedtime. Stories are.

There’s a Hopi American-Indian proverb that goes ‘Those who tell the stories rule the world’.

When you think about it, it’s absolutely on the mark. Story is faith, myth, legend, philosophy, politics and power dynamics, for better or worse. Even science is not exempt – the story of the apple that clonked Newton on the head is as famous as the physics itself.

Striking gold

Story is also at the heart of every business, and it’s what we aim to capture in marketing. We communicate a business’ story through its branding, visual identity, advertising and social media. Often, that story is what makes a brand feel human and relatable, building customer loyalty far more than the product or service itself.

I often write about the importance of being human in communications. The ‘people’ stories are generally the ones that draw readers’ attention. Those are the nuggets of gold you can uncover during an interview for an article, and will often be the hook I grab to open with a bang.

That’s a skill that AI has yet to master, from what I can see.

Like everyone else, I’ve been astonished by the speed of the AI movement and slightly unnerved by the quality it can produce. Do I use AI to transcribe articles and automise daily tasks? Absolutely. Do I find AI summaries helpful at the top of search engines? Sure, with careful source checking. But AI can’t touch the distinctly human ability to empathise with someone’s story, to find the humour that elevates a narrative, to tease out the idiosyncracies that capture our hearts.

So here’s to the storytellers, and the worlds we create.

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash