As I walked the dogs through the park today, I happened across a guy mowing the grass. I was struck by how happy he seemed. No, not happy. Content. As he smiled and whistled, driving his riding lawnmower back and forth, I started to wonder why. Surely mowing lawns for the city doesn’t pay well. Plus, it’s dirty, smelly, sweaty, and on a day when the pollen count is over 9000, hazardous to your health.
It’s a long walk around the park, so I had quite a bit of time to think about it. As I was leaving, it came to me. Nobody told him how to mow the lawn. His supervisor likely said, “Go mow the grass. See you at lunchtime.” The lawn dude was left to choose the best way to do it. Vertical passes? Horizontal? Angled? The ever-shrinking spiral? All his call. He’s a professional, so why question his judgement?
I hate to admit it, but it’s been way too long since someone told me, “Go write the copy. See you at lunchtime.” Instead, I’m often told what to write, how to do it, and to do it over when I “just didn’t get it quite right.”
Give me a good strategy (tell me to go mow the lawn) and I will choose the path that my way too many years of training and experience tells me is best. When I’m done, I guarantee that the copy (the lawn) will sell for you (be ready for kite flying and whatnot).
Trust me. I’ve mown many a lawn. Don’t look at my horizontal passes and tell me I should’ve done it with vertical, make me do it over, and complain that it’s still not quite right. The more you have me change, the more the end product becomes a patchwork of my idea of mowing, yours, and something the client told you to do in passing.
Oh, and when I bill you extra, please do remember that you were the one who had me mow the same patch of grass three or four times because you weren’t sure how it should look. Before I even started, sitting contentedly in the driver’s seat, I was pretty sure how it should look. Please, please don’t take that away from me. Just once, I want to get through a day of writing copy with a whistle on my lips and a smile on my face.
** A quick note to any potential employers or freelance clients who happen to read this: Don’t take this as an indication that I won’t give you what you want. Rewriting is a critically important part of what I do. All I ask is that when we look at the end product, let’s pull out the trimmer to see if we can’t tidy things up before we fire up the mower again.