Writing creatively without sacrificing skill
Writing is a skill we all have to have on some level. The vast majority of jobs out there list communication skills (whether written or verbal) as a top priority for applicants. Writing emails, reports, or memos comes with pretty straightforward requirements.
But what about when you own a small business, and now you have to think about content creation? It's a whole different ball game to write email campaigns, blog posts, and instagram captions.
Or what if you own a copywriting or marketing company, yet you’re sometimes still stumped over how to capture every unique client’s voice and tone? In these situations, the simplest path is usually to lean on vague memories from childhood grammar classes - those rules feel familiar and knowable. But if that’s your only writing tactic, you may look back at what you’ve written and see robotic, lifeless content.
You’ve probably experienced this on some late afternoon when you’ve been staring at the same page for an hour, trying to figure out how to edit your words perfectly and make them sound compelling.
Questions crop up like:
“How do I craft compelling content that reads easily without obsessing over whether the sentences can be diagrammed perfectly?” and “Do I have to choose a lively tone versus composed writing with correct grammar?
The good news is that no, you don’t have to choose - so let’s figure out how to have your content creation cake and eat it too!
Here are some of our very favorite ways to get words on the page that feel like *you*, without sacrificing quality.
Show up and write
This isn’t a flashy point, but it's one of the most useful pieces of advice we can give! For any perfectionists in the room, this one is especially hard.
It's so tempting to stop and edit every new sentence that you write. But the truth is that will probably get you nowhere fast. Giving our word and ideas space to flow on the page is crucial to developing your voice and actually figuring out what you need and want to say.
It can be stressful to see typos and sentence fragments on the page in front of you, but just remember that you can always go back and edit. You can’t always replicate the way your thoughts will flow in the moment.
Treat grammar like bowling alley bumpers
We LOVE great editing – we would be nothing without it! Especially when you’re just starting out, grammar rules are like bumpers on the bowling alley lane. We need them to get us where we need to go! But every once in a while, the voice and message you’re trying to convey might not fit within the rigid boxes of perfect sentence structure. Human speech actually doesn’t follow perfect sentence structure all the time either.
The point is, there’s a difference between ignoring rules that need to be heeded, like the difference between “your” and “you’re”, and choosing to add or omit an extra period here and there for the effect you want your copy to have.
Get an editor
At the end of day, the easiest way to separate the work of writing from the work of editing it is to delegate the editing to someone else! There’s nothing wrong with depending on another set of more experienced eyes to catch small mistakes once you’ve nailed your message down. We bet it’ll even free you up to write the best content and stop having to worry about all the technicalities.
On the off chance you’re still feeling stumped on how to generate great content, remember that you can also outsource the writing itself, just like editing! We love working with companies that need a bit of help getting the words right - if that’s you, give us a call today.
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