How to discuss your writing job with your freelance writer

Your writing job is unique because you and your business are unique. Yes I will use previous experience and knowledge from similar projects, but our primary aim is to use your unique written voice.

Alongside your requirements, I will use the following questions to guide our initial conversation. Over time, I have learned that these are the questions I have needed to ask clients as a writing job unfolded. It is simply more efficient to begin with gathering this information at the start of our project together.

The reason I don’t just send you a form to fill in is because the value is in the conversation itself. I record your answers on a form as we chat and refer to them as I work on your writing job.

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to think about this before hand. I know some people prefer to have a think about things before having to explain them to someone else – which is why I have included them here.

BRIEFING QUESTIONS

GENRE:

What do you need me to write? (Blog, sales brochure, ‘How to’ Guide, ‘About Us’ page etc.)

AUDIENCE:

Who am I writing to? (E.g.online customers, staff, new clients)

PURPOSE:

What do you want your readers/users to do? How do you want them to feel? (Join your newsletter, buy your product, understand information etc,)

TONE:

How do you want it to sound? (eg light hearted, knowledgeable, friendly)

CONTENT:

  • What words/phrases do you definitely want in there?
  • Anything you definitely do not want included?
  • Key words, SEO requirements?

Context:

  • Which other businesses in your field would you say are examples of ‘best practice’?
  • What makes you unique? What are you proudest of?
  • What is your key message?
  • Who are your main competitors?
  • Do you have any favourite websites/other media in terms of language style? (This doesn’t have to be in your sector.)