Is it just me or does working from home mess with your sense of identity as a writer? Some days I don’t feel like a “real” creative unless I’m bantering in a conference room and stress-eating bagels with a team. How do you keep your spark when you’re writing in sweatpants alone?

This is valid but I cannot relate to it. If I’m to get any actual writing done, I need quiet. I need space of my own. Creative fusion is a different task for me than writing.

Remote is the greatest thing to happen to work since money. 🤘

Remote work killed the magic of creative energy.

Don’t agree: crowded trains, crowded work environments, being asked to brain storm in the room, chit chatter, all take away from my ability to think well and deep. I found that I would work at work, and then come home to do even more work. Working from home is now a must for me.

For me, there’s so much unquantifiable magic that comes from being in the office. Hearing a dozen teleconference calls all at once from my desk mates really imbues my writing and concepting with a sort of everyman/voice of the people quality.

When I work from home, I have the space and time to focus on my writing….which is gross. I want to be a writer in the “stress eating bagels” and “bantering in a conference room” sense of the term, not a writer who “writes”. Ugh.

I get tons of writing done at home.

Personally I could not disagree more. Sometimes I want to be in a room with people pushing the work but when it comes to sitting down and writing I can work anywhere and focus most at my home office.

can’t relate. what does bantering and eating bagels have to do with your ‘identity as a writer’? sometimes i like to go to a bar or cafe and write. the change of environment can be inspiring.

Hell no. WFH reminds me I’m more than just a writer.

Bruh. You’re mixing up being creative with being an extrovert. You feel alive in a room full of people because you’re an extrovert. I’d suggest finding other extroverts to hang with and throw ideas around with. And find people who like jumping on calls to talk ideas out.

For me, the REAL writing is done at home. It's where I can get into a flow to solid stretches of time. The office is too damn noisy, distracting, and overstimulating.

Yeah that’s not for me, I find stuff like that excruciating. Even at the office, I’m ok brainstorming and bantering but I need to go off and find a little place of solitude with a chair and my headphones to get any real writing done.

But everyone has their own ideal working situation so no shade.

I feel like a writer when I’m at home. I feel like a corporate schmuck when I’m in an office.

It depends. When I worked in a more fun and conceptual role, I loved being in the office. Now I work in a high volume, churn and burn environment, so being able to lock in and get into a flow at home helps. I think I’d be resentful if I had to go into the office to do work I don’t enjoy or feel like is helping me grow, but the time and money savings from being remote makes it much more tolerable.

Yes! This is the downside. I have lately been going to coffee shops to work and be “in the world”. I also have a few fellow creatives I banter with over text. And anytime there’s a new client, I try to meet in person to have more human interactions.

It makes certain things easier and other things hard.

Not having to put on the daily war paint and shove my ass into work clothes? Makes doing all work easier.

Not being in a room during brainstorming or ideation? Makes doing good work harder.

Not being with a creative team at that inevitable point in a high-stakes pitch process when we’re out of time with a lot to finish, and every single anxious account/client service/strategy employee with nothing to contribute suddenly thinks it’s a great moment to leave their “just my two cents!” and “what if it was more like this??” comments on deck slides/manifestos/adlobs/that have already been pulled apart endlessly and finalized, and then the ECD makes us change things over Teams chat because they’re not in the room sweating right next to us? Makes doing the work at all something i want to quit.

I’ve been working remotely for a few years now (due to the pandemic, as it has been for many of us) and it’s worked very well for me.

That being said, I think a lot of your creative experience and the energy you feel depends on who you’re working with; who your art partner is. This makes a huge difference in what you get to do and how you get it done. You can make it work with the right people, trust me! You don’t have to be in a room for the work to make sense or for the work to “be better.”

If we want to talk about this from a creative metrics perspective, I’ve had work that my art partner (who is also remote) and I have ideated on make it all the way to live pitches. We’ve even been flown in to present creative work at live pitches and have a higher-than-average win rate.

I think I have been blessed to work with some amazing art directors at my first remote job and now my second one.

You can be creative anywhere. And especially as a writer, sometimes being alone and having your own space and quiet that remote work offers helps you elevate your craft.

Also, as the OP mentioned wearing sweatpants at home and not feeling motivated… You can dress up at home too! Just throw on clothes you like and help separate your non-work time from work time to help create that mental shift if you want.

My advice would be to put on real pants.

Just me personally, but I find that copywriters on the whole are more extroverted than other creative roles, specifically art directors. With conceptual work particularly, sometimes talking thru the idea is how you land on a great idea. I miss that in remote work, and the basic social energy and camaraderie of coworkers. I like having friends and people to chat with, even if it does distract me.

But pretty much everything else is better. I don’t miss time lost to horrible commutes, time lost to bs, paying $$$ and having to go out into a touristy area for lunch or anytime I want real coffee, getting up early to do my hair and put effort into makeup, dealing with weird pressure to work late from colleagues and bosses who don’t have families/lives or don’t want to spend time dealing with their families/lives, or the dumb optics of always be at a desk during certain hours. and i certainly, CERTAINLY do not miss trying to write in an open-office setting while either hunched over a shitty laptop, or on a giant monitor blasting my screen contents to everyone who walks by.

I prefer writing alone. It's nice to talk through things with other writers, but you can do that on Zoom if you're not going into an office. I have been remote for three years and while it has certainly been an adjustment, I've been to connect and collaborate with people across the country without issue. Find people who you like and are willing to riff with you and go from there, whether that's in your workplace or outside of it.