Tonya Tee Is Bringing the Human Back to Copywriting

Tonya Tee launched Writing Waves weeks before the world shut down. Six years later, the Los Angeles County copywriter is answering the AI boom with research, empathy and what she calls her Empathetic Red Pen.

Tonya Tee opened the doors of Writing Waves, her online writing and editing boutique, on March 1, 2020, with her first client already signed and a business plan nearly two years in the making. Within three weeks, California issued its statewide stay-at-home order, the contract was rescinded, and the company she had dreamed about for years came to a sudden stop before it had truly begun.

What happened next is why Tonya Tee is part of Bacon Magazine’s National Entrepreneurship Month spotlight series. Rather than close, the Los Angeles County native, who calls her home base “Hollywood’s backyard,” doubled down on the craft, the research and the human connection that would set her apart in one of the most crowded fields in the creative economy.

An Accounting Eye With a Surfer’s Soul

Before Writing Waves, Tonya spent decades working in education accounting while writing short stories and poetry in her spare time. Spreadsheets and fiscal workflows gave her a discipline that now shapes every project she touches. “There is nothing fundamentally creative about spreadsheets and fiscal workflows,” she says. “However, I learned indispensable discipline: every detail matters, every line must account for itself, and structural clarity is non-negotiable.”

Her lifelong love of writing, paired with intuitive people-watching and unwavering empathy, became the other half of her brand, which she calls her Surfer’s Soul. Bridging those two worlds gave her a distinct edge in the copywriting market. “When I write, edit, or proofread, I am never just stringing words together,” Tonya Tee explains. “I engineer a deliberate, strategic framework designed to guide each reader into meaningful action.”

“Writing Waves is the answer to microwaved messaging.”

Tonya Tee

Copy With a Heartbeat

Writing Waves serves business owners who value realness balanced with research-backed authority, along with authors, content creators and the passionate people Tonya affectionately calls “scatterbrained storytellers,” visionaries with brilliant concepts who want a skilled editor to polish their projects before publishing. The company’s tagline, No Wave Is the Same, speaks to the custom approach she brings to every client.

As generative AI floods the market with fast, low-cost copy, Tonya Tee has positioned her business as the human alternative. “Generative AI might be convenient for a quick, rough outline, yet the digital sea is now flooded with robotic copy that lacks emotion and relatability,” she says. Without templates or AI prompts, she shapes ideas into high-converting copy, compelling manuscripts and clear messaging, from simple calls to action to complex launch strategies, with a goal of turning “casual scrollers into loyal shoppers.”

How Tonya Tee Rode Her First Big Wave

The early months of the pandemic tested everything she had built. “The initial shock was real. I was in fight-or-flight mode,” she remembers. Determined not to quit, she became laser-focused on keeping her online business open and leaned into mastering the fusion of human empathy and digital communication, even without knowing when the world would reopen.

By December 2020, Writing Waves had earned $185. For Tonya, that one client, one project and one invoice became proof of concept and a philosophy she still lives by. “When rough waters hit, don’t panic,” she says. “Breathe, focus, accept the shift in direction, and ride the wave until you can navigate a new route.”

The 80/20 Blueprint for a Strong Start

Her advice for first-time founders is rooted in preparation. She applies a version of the Pareto Principle to launching a business, investing 80% of the time in researching the industry and 20% in executing. She followed that formula herself, spending almost two years on market research and five months executing her launch, which helped her look past an overcrowded copywriting market and focus on what made her different.

“I truly believe if your foundation is solid, you can build anything,” Tonya Tee says. “Your expertise, plus individual personality, is your competitive edge. Own it. Market it. Stand by it.”

“Connective storytelling powered by consumer psychology, human nuance, and deep research will always outperform an algorithm.”

Tonya Tee

Next Up, Hollywood Scripts

Tonya describes the arrival of generative AI as the “big earthquake” in the copywriting industry, one that cost many writers their jobs and cost her clients. She treated it as an awakening. Writing Waves has expanded its Empathetic Red Pen services to include script proofreading and formatting for screenplays, TV pilots and episodic content, giving the independent screenwriters in her own neighborhood a meticulous partner before they pitch.

As a self-described compassionate narrative ally, Tonya Tee catches industry formatting errors and smooths out dialogue snags and continuity hiccups so writers walk into the room with their strongest draft. Alongside the expansion, she continues to offer her core writing, editing and proofreading services to clients nationwide, and Writing Waves is welcoming new small business and creator collaborations.