Business 101: Overcome Writer’s Block
Hi Beth Barany, here,
Blogs are a fun way to communicate in short bursts. Unlike a website, a blog is ever changing. Thus you can write as often as you want. Sometimes, though, you may be stopped by writer’s block or fear. I’m here to tell you can overcome writer’s block and you really, really need to.
You have your blog up, but now you’re faced with the prospect of populating it, of writing your posts. Ack! Writer’s block rears its scary head. What do you do now?
Breathe. It’s not the end of the world. If you need to, walk away from your desk, get something to drink, stretch. It’s important to realize that this is something you can overcome, that you can face.
Writing is like any other habit. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes.
You can face writer’s block.
First, though, you need to do a quick analysis or check-in of your blogging goal or purpose, your motivation, your challenges and your strengths. Why? Knowing where you stand will give you ammunition to face writer’s block and start writing with ease.
Now, come back to your desk and open up a blank Word document. Start by writing your goal or purpose for your blog. Most business owners writ blogs to promote their businesses and show a more personal side of themselves.
Our blogs are also a way to foster a dialogue with our fans, potential clients and prospects, as well as with allies and the general world.
Next, write why a blog is important to you. This is your motivation, your fuel for when you don’t really feel like maintaining your blogging habit, but you do it anyway, (just like you brush your teeth every night.) Other motivation could be that you need to be up with the times and have a blog.
That’s a decent motivation, but will it sustain you over the long haul? Probably not. Blogging works best if you like the medium and it meshes well with your business.
Then, write about the potential and current challenges of writing and maintaining a blog. For some, it may just fitting in the time to write. For others, you may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of just sitting down to write in such a visible form. It’s good to know your challenges and face them head on. Once you do that, go to the next section, your strengths, to harness your inherent abilities and accomplish the seemingly impossible, write your blog posts.
Now, write your strengths. Strengths include inner abilities like the fact that you know your business and your clients’ needs really well, could talk about them all day long, and know how to write about them. Another strength could be that you have a good sense of humor. Another strength could include that you have editorial support within your business support team. Another strength could be your design eye.
Are you a starter or a finisher? This is important to know because you need to play to your strengths and delegate your weaknesses.
Outline or write first? Your preference? Also note whether or not you like to plan everything out before you do it, or you like to dive in and start with little or no planning. There’s no right way. There is only your way. Just know what YOU like to do. And, if you don’t know — experiment! Allow yourself to learn and grow into this new habit.
So, where do you go from here? Now that you know what your blog is for, why it’s important, what your challenges are and most importantly what you strengths are in regards to blogging, you can develop a strategy to begin.
The most important aspect of your strategy is to block off 20-30 minutes to work on your blog. Based on your strengths, you will either outline your post or start writing it, or write a fast draft, or start with someone else’s ideas and elaborate from there. Again, there is no right way, only your way.
Lastly, your job is to write your posts. Write. That’s it. And allow yourself to enjoy this learning curve. Writing is an activity, so pencils down!
Have fun! And happy writing!
Beth
