Writing Content: It's a job not an art
I'm reading a lot of posts on WA concerning struggles with writing content so I wanted to offer a bit of advice.
I have 30 years of business writing experience and 20 years of creative writing experience.I have learned a few things about how to be a productive writer over those many years.I used to be daunted with the task of writing 3 simple double-spaced pages, but now I regularly write screenplays up to 120 pages, or more, and my biggest problem is that my screenplays are always much too long!
If I could just relay one useful piece of advice to anyone that struggles with writing it would be this: Just write it. Write it now.Don’t wait to be inspired.Don’t wait for the perfect mood to strike you or the planets to align.Don’t even wait until you know completely what you want to write about.I don’t know all I want to say while I’m sitting here writing this blog entry, but I’m writing anyway.Writing is work.It is not art.I say this as a professional, creative screenwriter.Action is power.Not just in writing, but in anything.Any writer that writes for a living also knows this: the muse likes a sure thing.The muse will never appear until after you have commenced writing. More often than not, she will not appear until after she sees you suffer a little (women!). The muse admires the ant, more than the lion.While the tiny ant builds cities, the lion sleeps.
Writing is more about RE-writing than about writing.Just get your ideas down on the page.Vomit all over.It’s okay.They are just words.I have written pages and pages of crap just to get to one sublime sentence.It was well worth it.Write with reckless abandon.Don’t self-criticize and your subconscious will lead you to what you never even knew you wanted to say.Once that happens, you edit and cut your work down to its essence.Brevity is best.That is how you write and produce content, whether it is a novel, business plan, screenplay, blog entry, or text for your opt-in page.
Well, look at that.I completed my blog entry without really knowing what I wanted to say.I think it turned out okay too!
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Thanks for this. My sister was always the "writer" of the family where I got other creative talents. I've been struggling with blog posts but I am finding the more I write the easier it comes and the better it gets.
My current post is relevant to my niche but not something I have much knowledge in...so I have to research and then try to re-work what I read into my own words when the words I read already seemed perfect!
I will just persevere, I am getting there, another few days and I should be able to publish.
That's just what I was talking about Amber. Your "muse" was waiting to see you struggle a bit before offering help. The more you exercise your writer's muscle the more developed it will become. I look forward to reading your completed post!
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Great advice. AS a fellow writer, I know exactly where you are coming from :)