How I changed focus

I hadn't realized how long it was since I last wrote a post! One of my sons is setting himself up as a consultant and I linked him to one of my earliest posts where I worked out how much to charge per hour. A lot has happened (good stuff) since 2014, so where to start? 

In the summer of 2015, I saw a post on LinkedIn from a friend of mine asking if anyone out there did English microcopy. I looked up "microcopy" and realized that I had been doing it for years. As a product manager, I always defined the interface and what to write where. For more about microcopy see What is microcopy?.

This company had heard about microcopy from Kinneret Yifrach but she doesn't work in English, thus the post. We met up, she told me more about today's microcopy and how first we would define the voice and tone of the brand. This was something totally new and fascinating. We decided to work together for this project.

I learned so much, especially in defining the brand personality and how to use that when creating microcopy. Today's writing is much more conversational and liberating. I went on to do the microcopy for two more projects for this company. Kinneret also entrusted me with translating her book, Microcopy - the Complete Guide, into English.

I'm no translator and told her so, but she was so disappointed by the results from real translators that she asked me to try one chapter. Which I did. Kinneret has her own personality and way of expressing herself, which by now I knew really well, and I attempted to keep that in the translation. She loved it and so did other people she showed it to, so I ended up translating the whole book. I got paid for this and don't receive anything for each sale, but still, it remains the ultimate guide to microcopy and I strongly recommend it.

I haven't gone into the translating area, only sometimes when a client needs me to translate web content for use on a site I'm corroborating on. What I have delved into, with some success, is microcopy. I define the voice and tone of brands, I create the microcopy for products and occasionally write content for websites. I still do technical writing, but it is a smaller portion of my workload. 

One last thing. What's the difference between microcopy and UX writing you ask? I don't know if this is the official differentiation, but for me, microcopy is writing when you have defined the brand's voice and tone, whereas UX writing is more generic. It still sounds good, follows all the rules, but without a defined personality. 

I'll write more posts about how I progressed after this first job, and what brought me to create my own website.