A day from a copywriter’s life, shared by Alexandra Mitoi (Jazz)

Faster, better, harder…I’m in a never-ending competition with myself and time. Someone once said that you have time and energy to do everything you have in mind; you just need to really truly believe in it. Good joke, Mr. I Don’t Remember Your Name.

With these thoughts stuck in my head, look at me once again trying to jostle all the things I have to do and all the things I want to do in one single day.  It’s 1 A.M. As usual, I had a plan for the day. As usual, it proved to be pointless.  But that’s the beauty of working in the creative department. I can let myself go with the flow. After all, this is what I do for a living.

Let’s go back in time 18 hours ago. It’s 7 A.M. and it’s time for me to wake up.

I’m a morning person. It’s not a birth gift, it’s a skill I’ve managed to develop in the last few years so I can have time for what’s essential: petting my family, running to the gym, running to the office, catching random conversations for valuable insights or just surrealist stories from the 300 bus, which enter the category “When I live in Bucharest”, reading a book (very important for anyone who wants to call himself a copywriter) and being up to date with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Vine, maybe Instagram, only if I have one of those lazy days.

It’s 9.30 A.M. and I’m already settled in my comfy copywriter chair next to my noisy Tourette (not yet) diagnosed art director, my obnoxiously loud junior copywriter and my perfectly normal art director (thank God). So I’m ready to roll. Meetings, briefings, debriefings, call conferences, brainstorming, crisis, studio recordings; they all have to happen now. Nobody will tell you this, nobody will prepare you for this, but, in order to make it through the day as a creative, you have to juggle with all the things other people need from you and still save some time to dig up ideas, get excited about them, watch whatever the internet has for you that day (probably other stupid things, but hey, maybe from here you will get the next great idea), procrastinate, read something nice, read something useful; and the most important, be silly. Yes, it’s a dream job, talking, thinking and browsing all day long, but the thing that really gets me paid is that I manage to transform this blabbing into valuable ideas for real brands and clients.

Now back to the story. My phone shows 7.30 P.M. when I decide to call it a day and go for a drink and some brainstorming with my friends from work. We all know how brainstorming after work looks like! Hopefully, this time we have managed to change a few words about the project…between “Did you see that movie …or the last campaign from…or the new viral…or the GIF with…or that girl who was …or that pair of…”

At 9 P.M. I’m already home, but my day doesn’t stop here. My kid is loaded with beautiful silly questions and a new brief. He’s bored of all the stories we have and he would fancy a new one with a blue-yellow frog. Of course, my horse! Let’s invent a story and I hope you are so tired and fall asleep after “Once upon a time…”

It’s 1 A.M. and I have to finish writing an interview. The deadline is tomorrow and I didn’t miss a single one in 6years since I’m a copywriter. I will not start now!

Alexandra Mitoi is Senior Copywriter at Jazz, Romanian independent advertising agency.