Yes, it's hard to write.
When writing for content marketing, the process becomes even more challenging. You don't have time to sit and wait for inspiration or a muse to help you create a fascinating text. You have content plans to follow and deadlines to meet.
Then fear arises.
Raise your hand if any of these whispers creep into your mind as you try to write:
- “A better article already exists. My content is pathetic copy.”
- “I'm not good enough. I can't write better than this [your guru’s name here].”
- “So much information! Can I build it all? I'll miss something vital.”
- “What should I write?”
- “They won't like it. I'll get rejected.”
- “My draft sucks; it's boring.”
- “Johnny writes 1,000 words every day. I'm too slow.”
Writing fears fall into two categories: doubts about your abilities or worry about others' judgment of your work. You can tame the blank page syndrome, Imposter syndromewriter block, or whatever is keeping you from creating great content with these seven simple but effective tricks.
Writing fears fall into two categories — doubts about your abilities and worry about others' judgment of your work, says @LesleyVos via @CMIContent. # Marketing content Click to tweet
1. Therapeutic writing practice
Therapeutic writing will help prevent the blank page syndrome – staring at the screen with no idea how to start a piece of content. Some blame it on a lack of inspiration, while others use darker diagnoses like emotional burnout or even workplace depression. The skeptics are less slanderous, and call it nothing but the fear of writing nonsense.
To beat him, develop a daily writing habit. You may have heard of Morning pages – a system that makes you write (longhand) three pages of stream-of-consciousness text first thing in the morning. Following free writing practices and keeping a journal is also included in this category. If these exercises work for you, great. If not, you can try therapeutic writing.
Keep a journal where you regularly write a letter to a chosen recipient, telling them about daily events that made you angry, sad, anxious or happy. You can post them as short sketches on social media.
In the post below, the author at the handle @heyamberrae pens a A letter to her followers about “experiencing the most extraordinary love” she had ever known.
How can therapeutic writing help in professional content writing?
Practicing reflective writing like this makes you less likely to freeze at that dreaded text marker. You'll conquer the fear of an imperfect draft and use the “write first, edit later” rule we all know (but often forget).
2. Start with a 'Smart Thoughts' notebook
A Smart Thoughts Notebook is not a collection of quotes from gurus and writing influences, although that can be an inspiring practice.
Smart Thoughts Notebook contains the interesting ideas, sentences and facts you learn throughout the day from books, websites, etc. The average person has approx 6,000 thoughts every day but forgets most of the evening, so the notebook will help you remember your best ones. And this list will come in handy the next time you need to write a text but make sure you have nothing to say.
Write down your smart thoughts in a notebook. They might come in handy the next time you're struggling to come up with content ideas says @LesleyVos via @CMIContent. Click to tweet
3. Record your voice
Ideas for creative content, topics and discussions may come to you when you are not near your laptop or notebook. Haven't we all had a brilliant idea caught in the dead of night, only to forget all about it by morning?
Other times your thoughts flow freely – until you try to write them down. When you sit down to summon the right words, you forget what you wanted to say.
It's like this I am, Which I changed to content writing: You imagined a real-life dog, but your writing only produces the socket puppet version.
To avoid writer's block and still get your idea down, write down your thoughts as they come to you. Then transcribe the recording or use the voice typing feature in your writing app. You can build your dictated thoughts into content assets later.
4. Opinion about opinions
This trick can help you overcome the fear that you are not good enough at writing.
After reading an influencer's thoughts and insights on a particular topic, think of supporting or counter arguments. Then, write them down as if you were having a dialogue with that person.
The tactic helps you think critically, develop arguments, structure the facts, and manage your information priorities. It serves you in creating more comprehensive content, whether you write about restaurants, create posts related to goals or exercise Guest blog Reach marketing goals through content.
Writing trick: Read a respected person's thoughts on a topic and write a counterargument, says @LesleyVos via @CMIContent. # Marketing content Click to tweet
5. Mirror your favorite author
Content creators obviously read a lot. As my favorite author, Stephen King, says, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
And as my second and no less favorite author Ernest Hemingway said, “There is no friend as faithful as a book.” Not only these loyal friends can Make your content betterbut they can help shatter the fear of rejection and not being good enough to write.
(thanks: I had both of these fears before I uploaded my first article to the Content Marketing Institute.)
Who is your favorite author, essayist or blogger? Do you analyze their writing style while reading? Do you notice any language tricks they use?
Writer mirroring is among the most effective techniques for developing a writing style. It helps improve your vocabulary, add some alternative writing tactics to your content creation toolkit, and conquer your fear of criticism.
(thanks: Once I learned that Stephen King received 30 rejections before his book Carrie was published, there was no room for fear of “not good enough”.)
6. Read the news and niche resources
The daily habit of reading the news and niche blogs brings benefits to content writers. These include:
- Better cognitive skills and brain function
- Enriched vocabulary
- New ideas for content creation
- Inspiration for writing style
But be careful: this trick won't work if you read everything and everything. Make a list of professional resources that inspire and educate you at the same time.
(thanks: I learned the art of web writing from Mann Handley and John Morrow. And Henneke Duistermaat's works help me feel the beauty of English and make peace with my inner critic. Additionally, her list of writing fears inspired me to create this article.)
This tweet from Henneke describes how she used to think of herself as a writing jerk and pondered why she couldn't be as confident as others. But she found that writing fears are normal—the fear signals that you're out of your comfort zone and writing something important.
I used to think I was a writing idiot.
Why couldn't I be as safe as everyone else?
But I discovered: writing fears are normal.
Fears are a sign that you are out of your comfort zone and you are writing something that matters.
So, dance with your fears >>> https://t.co/PLoSQw2bei pic.twitter.com/Y4jpu72Wld
— Henneke Duistermaat (@HennekeD) November 3, 2022
Who is on your list of resources to follow?
7. Staying in a professional space
An excellent practice to crush fears and self-doubts for content writers is to stay in the professional space. Attend seminars, attend conferences or webinars, attend local meetings, connect with interesting people on social media, etc. These interactions can prevent you from reaching a level and improve writing productivity.
Social participation can stimulate Happy chemicals in the brain to satisfy the need for excitement. This excitement serves as an inspiration to write more and to “forget” imposter syndrome and other writing fears for a while.
Ready to say goodbye to your writing fears?
Fears (blank slate, failure, rejection, writing crap or not being good enough) act like little animals, gnawing at your writing ego and preventing you from enjoying the content creation process.
Once you name your beast, you can arm yourself with one or more of these tricks to help you crush them.
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Cover photo by Yos F. Kalinovsky/Content Marketing Institute