Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Is your writing all dressed up but going nowhere?

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During today’s radio interview with Katherine Reschke of Passions That Pay, we were discussing the fine line between perfectionism-induced paralysis (no writing at all) and going overboard with your corrections until you don’t sound like yourself anymore.

Then, an analogy popped into my head.

If you were to leave your house today while you’re still wearing your pyjamas, slippers and curlers (ok, I’m not sure if anyone wears curlers, but you know what I mean), you’re probably not going to make a very good impression.

On the other hand, you certainly don’t have to pour yourself into an evening gown or tuxedo to take a stroll around the block. You won’t be comfortable, people won’t know how to relate to you and your message will be lost in the distraction of how you’re dressed.

It’s the same thing when you try to sound too smart in your writing, which is an issue I cover in the free report, Readability Secrets for Coaches Who Write.

Instead, take the time to clean yourself up and deal with any glaring errors so that you can make the best impression you can. But don’t try to be someone you’re not. You’ll risk intimidating your readers so they can’t relate to you.

Writing Prompts: Use this 5-point readability checklist as a systematic way to “run a comb” through your writing before you send it out into the world.

Who’s writing articles?

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I'd love to hear about the articles you've written by using the Top 10 Article Generator. Please comment on this blog post or contact me with your success stories.

How else I can support you to write more articles? Let me know!

Writing Prompt: It takes 10 successful article submissions to become a Platinum Author at Ezine Articles and reap all of the benefits of article marketing. If you're not there yet, what will it take to move you to that next level?

Multi-thinking, a creativity strategy from Jeffrey Baumgartner

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I’ve been thinking a lot about multi-tasking lately, mostly recognizing how detrimental it is to my productivity, peace of mind and relationships. I know that the busier I get, the more I feel the need to multi-task, and since this has been such a busy summer, well, the multi-tasking has gotten out of hand.

I really appreciated this article by Jeffrey Baumgartner, which invites us to consider "multi-thinking" instead of multi-tasking. He says that we’re doing it anyway, so we might as well relax into it and capitalize on the ideas it can produce.

Similar to the idea catchers that I’ve written about, such as blogging and Jott, he encourages readers to keep an open notebook nearby to capture your ideas while staying on task.

Writing Prompt: Carry around a notebook with you for the day (or week), and notice any synergistic moments where you’re doing something totally unrelated and it sparks an idea for your business.

A story that shows how writing works to attract new business (not chase it)

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A friend of mine is pregnant and she’s having some physical challenges as a result. An alternative health clinic in her neighborhood put out a newsletter and one of the practitioners, who specializes in pregnancy, wrote an article about some of the issues he treats successfully in his practice.

She saw herself and her own symptoms in the article, called him up to make an appointment and now he has a new client!

Writing prompt: What problems or symptoms do you solve for your clients? How can you describe them in the same language your clients use, so that they see themselves in your writing and are drawn in?

Batching – group similar tasks to make the most of your time

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I had a wonderful meeting with my mentor at the end of July, and one of the things we spoke about was "batching." In essence, she asserted that my time is valuable, and to make the most of it, I need to use it efficiently. That means grouping together similar tasks and getting super-focused on doing them all within that same block of time.

I had already intuitively implemented a lot of batching practices in my life (though I have to say that I practice some more regularly than others). Things like:

  • When I run errands, I group them together based on location  (there's extra incentive now because of gas prices)
  • Saving up cheques for less trips to the ATM (I also avoid any fees by doing my cash withdrawals at the same time, at my own bank)
  • Processing emails only twice a day (this one's been harder to stick with, and I still do like to check more frequently for messages from clients)

When it comes to writing, batching has meant creating a special block of time in my calendar every week for drafting, writing and pre-scheduling blog posts. I'm sitting in this time slot right now, and it feels spacious and precious to me. This routine has progressed out of my blogging in fits and spurts technique, and using the "draft" post function as an idea catcher is what makes it work.

Writing Prompt: What are some writing jobs that you could group together to tap into the momentum and efficiency of batching?