If you feel overwhelmed by writing, don't get discouraged
I'm totally amazed at how far along I've come in my writing. When I first started out and learned that an average article should be at least 400 words, I felt discouraged. That was so overwhelming to me, I remember trying to write my first article and it was so hard. It took me forever and in the end, it wasn't even very good. I got to 300 words and felt like I could never be able to punch out another 100. When I finally was able to write 400 words, I still wasn't sure how I was going to do this consistently.
Then I saw many people were writing very lengthy articles, 1,000+ words, like it was no big deal. How could I ever do that!? I could barely cough out 400!
But you know what I did? Instead of giving up right when I felt I could never catch up, I kept writing. It was hard, but slowly with every article I'd write, I got better. The words started to just come to me and flow naturally, I got better at typing and organizing my thoughts. I didn't hesitate to post my articles before they were "perfect" because I realized it was always going to be a work in progress.
Then I did the 30 minute writing challenge Kyle made for us in Bootcamp. I miraculously was able to write a 750 word article in that 30 minutes. It wasn't perfect, but it was mostly coherent and didn't really require a whole ton of editing before it was posted. There were other Bootcampers posting how they wrote a whole ton more than that, but I didn't let that get me down. I can't compare what others can accomplish to what I can do, because I know that for me it's a vast improvement from when I started.
And it will only continue to get better!
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Your profile and posts are inspiring. I'm having a hard time picking a niche and getting going.. It's nice to read how you faced these same challenges.
Glad I could help to inspire, I think it really helps a lot to know it wasn't so easy for everyone else, either. It took me such a long time to figure out a niche, and now I have so many ideas I can't even do them all! Once you get going and familiar with it, ideas just seem to pop out of nowhere! :)
I remember when I first wrote my first blog post a few years ago Wendy I was just like you, I couldn't believe some people found this thing so easy. But like Steve says when you just write in a conversational tone it just flows. It's the same with my youtube videos, when I started doing them it was as if I'd forgotten how to speak...lol Great post well done.
Like most things in life, you'll get better with a fair bit of practice. I always tell people, "You aren't writing a book report." You're writing for other people so a light, conversational tone will work better for both you and your readers. You'll quickly forget about metrics like word count as you get writing. Just convey the thoughts in your head!
Yeah, I agree. I no longer focus on word count when I'm writing like I did at the start. While obviously you need to write something with some substance, the length is not an important factor overall as long as you write effectively and can get your point across, whether it takes 400 or 1,000 words.
Excellent encouragement, WendyJane for those who may be struggling with this. Sometimes, when I write these articles, I have so much information in my head that my fingers can't keep up with the typing, and then ** blank ** and fear sets in. LOL, anyway, it's nice to let other people know that it's Ok when you feel overwhelmed....
Thanks again, Wendyjane, like I said before, great encouragement to others!
Yeah, no problem. I'm sure there are a ton of people here just starting out that feel the same way I did.
I think one of my issues in the beginning is that I wasn't very confident or assertive in my writing, so I'd be scared to let anything out in fear of sounding stupid. I just had to learn to get past that, and when I let it stop bothering me and just wrote with confidence, it all became a whole lot easier.
Develop an article outline and you will be amazed at how easy it is to write 600 to 800, and higher, word articles. And as you become better at writing you develop your own natural writing voice and it becomes easier.
Yeah that's good advice Rick. I don't use outlines in my writing but I probably should start as it'd only help me to improve and be able to write more.
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Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this problem! :) I had a hard time writing the About me page. I thought that should have been really easy, since it was about me! Then when it was hard, I thought "how am I ever gonna write other articles?" I am going through the bootcamp, so I am looking forward to the 30 minute exercise you mentioned!
Yeah I definitely had trouble writing my about me page too! For me that was the hardest part! That's awesome, keep at it!