Rich Brooks of flyteblog and Business Blog Consulting posted about how difficult it is for clients to write the content for the Web sites Rich’s company designs for them. The post was titled: News Flash: Web Sites Are a Lot of Work!
One of Rich’s clients wrote him, “I am amazed at how time consuming the writing and organization is.” No kidding. As a full-time freelance copywriter, I’m not surprised or amazed. As I noted in a comment on Rich’s blog, writing is by far the hardest work I’ve ever done.
I then offered a few suggestions that might make writing a little easier. I’d like to repeat them here:
First, research, organize, and outline your material before you start writing. It really helps to know where you’re going before you start.
Second, write quickly. Listen to the voice in your head (the one who did all that research) and just take dictation. Don’t worry about typos or bad spelling. You’ll fix all that later.
Don’t try to “think it up”. Just get it down. Be clear, not fancy. If you don’t know a fact, type (insert fact here) or something similar. Try not to interrupt the flow.
Give yourself permission to write a lousy first draft. Even for professional writers, perfect sentences usually do not flow easily. Just try to get your basic ideas down, even if they’re awkward and ill-formed at first. Later, you can (and must) go back, edit and rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, etc.
Oh, and rewrite some more.
What part of writing is most difficult for you? I’m collecting a series of writing tips that I hope to release before the end of the year (sorry, other projects are due first) and your input would be valuable.
If you’d like a copy when it’s ready, post a comment below or ask for it at my Web site.