One of the assumptions about writing I've dealt with a lot over the years is that just because I can write books, it means I can write anything. This isn't exactly true.
An example of this is business letters. For a while, I'd be given one of these to write from time to time. When I objected and said I was terrible at business writing, I got the "but you're a writer." Yes, but not of businessy stuff. It's completely different writing than novels.
Those of you who've read my blog for a long time know that I majored in advertising copywriting when I was in college. When I was in school, I was writing copy all the time. Pretty much every day, actually. With this repeated exercise of this type of writing, I became pretty good at it.
Then I graduated and went to work at Northwest Airlines instead of the advertising industry and I stopped writing ad copy.
Fast forward to now. I'm trying to write cover copy for a book. I am struggling because cover copy is advertising writing, not novel writing. Completely different set of writing muscles.
I wish it was easy to switch around with no lag, but unfortunately, that's not the case. So I will write and rewrite this copy and I will inflict it on my friends for feedback and rewrite some more. And pretty much just hope I can end up with something that works.
