Who am I anyway?
One of my roles at Corporation Pop is that of company writer, a role that has developed over time as a response to the fact that I write outside work too—plays, articles, short stories and I’m having a crack at my first novel.
Writing for work involves penning all sorts of things including website copy, press releases, scripts for apps and virtual reality experiences, chatbot responses, blogs like this one and social media posts.
When any writer takes to the keyboard two of the most important things to remember are: Who am I? and Who is my audience? Sounds pretty straightforward, no? But you’d be surprised how many personas I find myself adopting, and how different each of those can be.
If it’s me, the individual, then that’s easy enough, I know what I sound like. Then there’s Corporation Pop’s company voice which, after three and a bit years, I know pretty well too. That being said, a bio for the website is obviously going to differ from a news release for a business publication or a write up for one of our many projects.
When it comes to writing for a client, though, that’s a whole other ballgame. For example, one client asked me to write chatbot responses for children with a serious illness who need to know precisely what’s happening to them and what their treatment involves. That often includes delivering information with complicated but necessary medical terminology to an audience that could be as young as 8 years old. In that role I became the friendly, fun but reassuring avatar, who they could rely on to be honest and knowledgeable and, importantly, someone their parents could trust is a safe pair of hands.
If I’m writing a questionnaire for a survey or a piece of market research, then it needs to be unambiguous and concise but I also need to consider whether it’s being read online by a medical consultant or out loud, over the telephone, by a call centre worker interviewing a window fitter. In such a case there’s little room for creative input but a tone needs to be maintained that reflects our client and clarity is key.
Most recently, I’ve been writing scripts for a virtual reality project for schoolchildren, commissioned by Manchester Metropolitan University and Health Education England. In that case I had two different types of writing to deliver, the first was for an authoritative voice over to accompany a fly-through of the human body, and the second to create several real-life scenarios in which characters interact with each other in medical situations—having an x-ray, picking up medication at the pharmacy, an appointment with a dietitian, and so on. I had facts to include, client guidelines to follow and a consistency of style to stick to throughout. As you can imagine, that was a million miles away from blogging or writing for a chatbot, and top of my list of considerations, as always, were: what do I need to sound like and who am I communicating with?
Knowing me, knowing you — a-ha…
If you’re looking for someone to develop your app, website, branding project or VR experience and you want a company that can deliver copy and scripts as part of the package, get in touch—we can help.
