women working togetherOk, enough public wallowing about the sad, sad end of a really special relationship. (Private mourning is still allowed, you know.) Back to the business of writing about my writing business.

I have a very unusual relationship with a big client of mine. The woman is a very harried, very hard-working marketing department of one who is always overwhelmed. She passes a lot of review and original work to me, but we’ve figured out an even better way to work together. To help her really clear her to do list, we get on the phone together for HOURS to power through her projects. Yesterday we were on the phone once for 140 minutes straight,  then a brief break and another 60 minutes. 200 minutes on the phone! But we got through three major projects that she can now officially mark as done.

I have to say I really enjoy the collaboration. Most of my work is completely solitary after I understand the project. They email to say, “I need ‘this.’” And I open a blank document, turn off email and produce “this.” Then I send back an email that says, “Here is ‘this.’ Let me know if you need ‘that.’” And on we go.

But with this client, we open a web meeting, take over each other’s screens (which is always funny because both of us are control freaks who want to run the screen). We take breaks for coffee, and we share little stories about our lives.

It’s unusual in the world of the freelance copywriter, but, in this case, it makes us both very happy.