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Blog Writing For People that Hate Writing—6 Tips

A confession: I don’t enjoy writing. For me, the process is ugly, inefficient and difficult. I often face writer’s block and can’t get started in the first place. Sometimes I manage to start, then end up hating everything I write. Sometimes I write something, revise it for hours and then ultimately chuck it. I have learned a few things that have made writing easier though.

Write every day, at the same time. When I write every day, I find that after a few days I get into a rhythm and the ideas flow better. I don’t get this if I trust to inspiration and sit down to write haphazardly. Also, some days I just don’t feel like writing. That doesn’t matter. As long as I sit down every day at about the same time and start writing, something useful eventually comes out.

Pull topics out of daily experiences and make sure the writing benefits your reader. When I struggle to “make up” hypothetical situations I always stall out. Instead, I think about all the problems I faced the day before or all the questions people asked me. This gives me something concrete to write about. I also look at things I’ve written about before and ask “what else should somebody know about this”? This all helps give me solid topics I can write about knowledgeably without too much trouble. It also ensures that I’m addressing real-life situations that my clients face and providing real value to them. Remember, I’m writing for them—not myself.

Use a journal to brainstorm. I find it impossible to open up a single document with a headline and knock out an article. First I start brainstorming ideas in some kind of document writing down whatever I can think about regarding a specific topic. Generally I’ll try to answer certain questions like what, how, why and list out as many facts and arguments as I can think of. Then I do research to gather more information and make sure my facts are correct. Once I have an inventory of facts and ideas, I write a headline so I have a sharp focus for my article. Then I proceed to write the article.

Keep each article to a single idea. Every article has a scope to it and it can be a challenge to acknowledge that some details are outside the scope of the current article. It is best to pick a single point to address with your article and to write the article around that. Sometimes you need to go into a little bit of detail to support your point. That’s ok. But be careful not to digress too much. Be ruthless. After all, if you really need to elucidate a certain point in greater detail, that’s great—you have a topic for another post!

Let each post sit a few days. Don’t publish what you wrote right away. I know that sometimes I’ll write something and think it’s brilliant. I’ll see it the next day and be embarrassed by how sloppy it is or how poorly developed the ideas are. It’s ok to take some time with your writing. After you write something, let it sit a few days. Evaluate it with fresh eyes.

Print it out, edit it once or twice, then publish. When it is time to edit, print it out. It is much easier to catch mistakes. Plus you can markup the printout with your corrections as you go instead of trying to edit over and over again as you go along. Do this one or two times but be careful. Many writers are apt to make a score of edits and revisions. That is part of the writing process and isn’t bad itself. But it is important that you actually publish the article at some point. If the article gets your point across, is concise, exhibits clear, accurate thinking and good grammar/spelling, then you have done a good job and are ready to publish.

You don’t have to be a gifted writer to be a successful writer. You don’t have to have perfect, artistic, impressive or witty writing. Focus on giving your audience useful information, in a way they can and will use and you will be successful.