The Right Way To Write

Click click click click. And one more. CLICK.

Ah. That final click that “posts”, “publishes”, “tweets”, or “sends” seems to always happen with a sigh of relief. And just as we sit back to enjoy the feeling of finished…briefly…then we go and open Twitter and Facebook, and the process begins all over again.

Content Marketing. With Google indexing everything on the internet, the demand for smart and consistent content is necessary to remain relevant. Like the man behind the curtain, search engines drive us to churn out more blogs, more e-blasts and more social media posts. The more value we create, the more we are valued.

As any writer, designer or developer knows, it’s fun to generate new ideas. The work comes in the follow through. Actually committing the time to write another blog or social media post can rank right up there with parenting Miley Cyrus.

Let’s talk about why.

We’re afraid.

We lament over our content and think that if it’s not perfect we shouldn’t publish. What if people don’t like our ideas? Worse still…what if that means they don’t like us?

But what does perfect look like anyway?

A newspaper editor once fired Walt Disney because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” And Charles Shultz said, “Nobody’s perfect, Charlie Brown,” long after his work was rejected…by none other than our good pal Walt.

We get in our own way.

How? We spend valuable time preparing to work. Reading other blogs, searching for the best anecdote and downloading the top productivity apps only serves to put us further behind. Stop procrastinating and start writing. If you can’t stop pining after the latest productivity-inducing gadgets, and really believe that’s what’s holding your brilliance back, then let these be your reward for a job…well…DONE.

We don’t know where to start.

We fumble with headlines, tone, and structure so much that now we’re not even sure what our point was. Here’s some stolen advice: Just do it. You’ll have plenty of time to edit, modify, and even redirect your message once you put pen to paper. (Anywhere on the paper will do.) There’s your starting line. Now go.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
-Ernest Hemingway

You already have everything you need.

Creating content should be a fun and fulfilling experience. Drop the excuses and leave your bag of habits behind. Redefine perfection to include all the things that make your writing unique.

After all, the world will never know if you’re any good until you make that final CLICK.