"But I'm Not a Good Writer" with Kevin Phillips (Content Lab, Ep. 7)

Listen to the Episode

Resources Mentioned by Kevin

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Everybody Writes by Ann Handley
• Writing Without Bullshit by Josh Bernoff
• 14 Examples of SERP Features You See Everyday

One Thing: Give Yourself a Break

I hope you enjoyed that conversation. I certainly did -- so much so that I’m going to take a page out of Kevin’s book and keep it simple with this week’s one thing.

The one thing that you can do right now to make the content you create more awesome.

This week, I challenge you to give yourself a break.

Seriously.

Kevin and I talked about this at length, but us content nerds go through the same emotional highs and lows as you do with creating content. But the reason we are able to push through and keep going isn’t because we’re wizards -- although that would be really cool.

It’s because, in those moments, we give ourselves a break.

We tell those negative voices in our head telling us that writing is only this hard because we suck at it to cool it and cut ourselves a little slack.

So, the next time that happens to you, give yourself a break.

Tell those mean inside voices who are trying to convince you that you can’t do this to pipe down.

Then remind yourself that writing is a process.

It takes a little mental elbow grease, and running into a few roadblocks as you think things through is totally part of the process.

Now, if our words of affirmation and admissions of crippling cases of writer’s block don’t inspire you…

Weekly Awesome: Ann Handley Wisdom

...this week's Weekly Awesome is a quote from Ann Handley's Everybody Writes that speaks directly to fears around being good enough with writing:

“In our world, many hold a notion that the ability to write, or write well, is a gift bestowed on a chosen few. Writing well is considered a kind of art, linked murkily to muse and mysticism. That leaves us thinking there are two kinds of people: the writing haves—and the hapless, for whom writing well is a hopeless struggle, like trying to carve marble with a butter knife.

But I don’t believe that, and neither should you. 

The truth is this: writing well is part habit, part knowledge of some fundamental rules, and part giving a damn. We are all capable of producing good writing. Or, at least, better writing!”

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