The problem with sitting down to create that all-important, badly-needed new content for your blog or website is right there in the motivation. It’s all-important. It’s badly-needed.
Take the pressure off. There’s no way you’re going to say what you want to say when you have so much riding on it. Words lose their meaning, and phrases become gibberish.
Easier said than written. Here are a couple of methods I use to keep the good stuff coming, even when it feels like it’s all stopped up.
Make An Outline When in doubt, line it out. Making an outline can help you in a couple of different ways:
1) It’s easier than writing. Outlining only requires thoughts. It doesn’t need anything else that goes into good writing, like syntax or grammar or diction. Get your thoughts out there, and the other stuff comes.
2) It’s a way to organize your ideas. Even on small pieces like short blog posts, it’s worth outlining what you have to say. Hell, I could outline twitter updates if I was really stuck.
Don’t Stop For Mistakes O.K., total disclosure: I used my delete key 4 times while typing this sentence. Five (I just spelled “sentence” wrong). But I’m not the one who’s stuck.
This was one of the most difficult hurdles to get over as I began writing copy. I was a chronic editor. Editing as I went gave me little, perfect sentences that took 30 minutes a piece.
Save the editing for the end by turning the spellchecker off as you write. Just keep your cursor moving. When you finally look up, there’ll be a big lump of clay on your page ready for molding.
Keep It Short Nothing sucks the life out of writing like tying together ten thoughts between the capital letter and the period. Make life easy on yourself and write like you’re in third grade (just for the first draft).
What I mean is, there’s a huge difference between what you have to say and how you should say it. If you’re stuck, go with what. Worry about the how later.
You can say the what with simple, direct sentences. I use the voice of Rocky Balboa in my head when I’m doing this. Hey, it gets the job done. What I end up with on the screen is usually exactly the gist of what I’m trying to say. I just go back and clean it up when I’m done.
Besides, no one is going to read big, wordy, Faulkner-esque copy anyway. Most people read on a seventh grade level.
Keep these three tips in mind as you sit down, and again, take it easy on yourself. In fact, think of these ideas as tools you can use to do exactly that. And before you know it, you’ll be done.
Tags: content marketing, Copywriting, Social Media