What are your preferred pronouns?

She/her

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Where's your hometown?

Hail from Christchurch, New Zealand. Now living in Atlanta, Georgia

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Tell us a little about your current role.

I'm a Creative Director, verbal identity specialist, and writer. After 23 years working in agencies and client-side, I am now consulting -- and loving it. I am also in the process of publishing a book.

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How did you get into copywriting?

My older sister got into it first. Before that I had no idea copywriting was even a thing you could do. When I graduated she offered me a paid internship at the advertising agency she was working at in Sydney, Australia, and that then turned into my first full time job. For an English Literature major, and someone who had loved writing since I could work a pen, it was an excellent way to earn a buck. And working with my sis was great!

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When you're not writing, what are you up to?

Having deep conversations about monster trucks with my almost-three-year-old son Miles, hatching plans for creative projects with my husband Bruce, cooking, gardening, and spending time in our awesome backyard with the whole fam, including Ice Cube (our Pomeranian dog aka My Fluffy Angel) and Yoko (our supermodel-faced Sphynx cat). That, and being super grateful for this beautiful life :)

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What do you consider the most overused word(s)? The most underused?

I get very bored with politicians saying "Let's be clear". "Wellness" has also become deeply bland through overuse. And, if we did a study on it, I think we'd find the word "okay" is highly ubiquitous. In my own vocab, "awesome", "wild", "super cool", and "hallelujah" are on pretty high rotation, not to mention "be careful" (for my young son). I could stand to change the record more frequently. For underused, I don't hear "bombast" coming up much in conversation lately (probably a good thing considering my line of work). Also "piglet". A very cute word for a very cute creature. All the "-let" diminutives I think would give people joy if they used them more.

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What are you reading, listening to and watching these days?

Reading:
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Please Kill Me, The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Listening to:
The sounds of birds tweeting in all these Georgia trees.

Watching:
All the TV. But have been particularly enjoying:
Beef on Netflix. The Ali Wong, A24, piece of road rage awesomeness. (Road rage is not awesome at all, but this show is.)
The Power on Prime. Starring Toni Collette. A delicious female rage vindication fantasy.
Rage, it appears, makes for great TV (for me).

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What’s your most wanted client or project?

Currently fairly obsessed with creating brands for businesses my husband and I have in the works.

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What do you wish more people knew about copywriting?

70,000-ish years ago Homo Sapiens developed the ability to use language, and shortly thereafter completely took over the world. If you want to run the world, use your words.

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What is one thing you've always wanted to do, but probably won't?

In the spirit of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, I like to think that if I'm not doing it here, I'm doing it somewhere else.

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Where can The Subtext readers keep up with you?

www.clairefalloon.com

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Last call - anything that you'd like to add that wasn't asked?

Read my book when it comes out! (See my website for updates): High Life, How to forget alcohol, be happy, and get high on your own supply.

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