Early in my career I had a potential client call me and ask if I had any experience writing package copy. You mean like “Net Wt. 12 oz.,” I asked? I was joking, of course, and went on to say that I hadn’t but thought I surely could. She said she needed someone with experience and hung up. I think it was for a paint remover.

More recently, I was approached about writing a brochure for a private golf club here locally. “Do you play golf?” the woman asked. The simple answer was no. However, I grew up playing on a par 3 course. I have a set of clubs. I know the rules and the lingo. I know my *?# from 18 holes in the ground. But in the end she went with someone who was a real golfer. Funny, considering that since then I have worked on projects for a major corporate golf sponsorship, an international golf tournament, even several brochures for a maker of golf clubs.

So my question to you is this: do you want a golfer or do you want a writer? A good promotional writer can write about almost anything, mold the message for any medium, and all the while make you believe he lives and breathes golf. Of course, I have limits. I describe, inform, entertain, persuade, and sell. If you need highly technical writing about molecules, say, or you want a writer to write in depth about quantum physics for an audience of scientists, then hire a technical writer or a scientist. Please.

Writers, graphic designers, anybody who engages in a creative profession or, for that matter, approaches his job with some amount of creativity are, by and large, a versatile lot. That’s why it is unfortunate when they are pigeonholed. For many people, their expertise actually holds them back, keeps them doing the same old things and keeps them from getting new challenges. To be creative you need the opportunity to face new challenges. It is often a new challenge that fosters the greatest creativity.

As a freelance advertising and marketing writer, I am a generalist. I know a little about a LOT of subjects. I learn what I need to in order to make the job a success. Write what you know. That’s not the same thing as write what you’ve always known. I learn all the time, on the spot. I work hard to know what I’m talking about, and better yet, to sound like I know what I’m talking about.

My only real expertise, then, is writing, itself. And as a freelancer, I can’t afford to be a duffer.