This week I decided to write a post that would give you answers to the top 3 questions I get asked by writers about writing great content:
- How do I start/stop writing?
- How do I create interesting content every single day?
- How do I turn technical writing into plain language?
I love all these questions! So, in this post, I’ll give you some great tips on kicking these niggling problems to the kerb. Let’s go!
How do I come up with interesting content all the time?
When you write for a living, sometimes the inspiration well runs dry. It’s Monday morning and you have to write this week’s blog post—and you’re completely out of ideas. How can you fix this problem?
Well, the truth is that this problem started long before Monday morning!
The key to not running out of inspiration is planning—specifically, higher level planning. If you write content all year round for different media, you need a planning day. Lots of paper and pens, a whiteboard and coffee. And you need a calendar because, at the end of the session, you need to schedule your content plan for the coming weeks, months or however long you decide to plan for.
You can’t be chock full of inspiration every day, especially when deadlines are coming at you left, right and centre. Planning means you need to be big-time inspired for only one day.
How do I stop/start writing?
So you need to write this week’s blog post, but the blank page is staring at you mockingly. Or, you do get inspired, write like a machine until morning tea and then just can’t stop writing. Does that sound familiar?
Usually, both these problems occur due to a lack of structure from the outset. Instead of writing until you run out of things to say, you need to work out the structure of your piece beforehand.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post, first determine your message and then the 3 or so points you’ll make to support that message. Decide what you’ll discuss in each section. Think about how you’ll wrap it up. Decide whether you need a call to action. Create a skeleton for the piece. All of this will help you start writing, as you’ll know exactly what to write.
Then establish how many words you’ll need in each section. This will help you stay within a set word limit and stop writing. It’ll also create tighter writing because you’ll have only a certain amount of space in which to make your point.
Structure is like a map. It gives you direction to keep you from wandering off the path or having no idea which step to take next.
How do I turn complex language into plain language?
For many of us, this is common because of the industries we write for. If you have technical content that you need to communicate to a general audience, the solution to your problem involves really knowing your reader. This problem isn’t actually about the content—it’s about them.
You need to shift your mindset from ‘I need to write this’ to ‘I need to communicate this’.
When you speak, you do it automatically. For example, when you explain to a child why the sky is blue, you don’t use the same words you would use for an adult. Similarly, when you turn technical language into plain language, you just need to know exactly:
- who your reader is
- what they already know about the subject
- why they’re reading your piece and what they hope to get out of it
- how they would prefer that you speak to them.
Once you know all this, you can develop an appropriate ‘voice’. You know what level to pitch the content at, what tone to adopt and what words to use (and avoid).
Many writers with this issue focus too much on rewriting the content. Shift your focus to communicating the message and you’ll have a much easier time of it.
The moral of the story
The task of writing isn’t just about the writing—it’s also about the pre-writing phase. And the more of this you do, the less stress you’ll feel about the actual writing part.
And it’s also about the reader. Never forget that you write for a real person—which is very easy to do when you’re a busy business writer with a ticking clock. I hope this helps!