Why writing feels hard sometimes
And how you can simplify it
Hey there, brandcrafter, Friday came and went, and here we are on Saturday. Thank you for being understanding.
Have you ever sat down to write a piece of content, but just stared at the screen instead?
Yeah, I’ve been there, too, even as someone who writes for a living. And I’m sure we can analyze it from all the ways, but the reality is…
Writing is hard because it’s hard, so we have to find little ways to make it easier (or at least simpler) for ourselves.
(Ok, I promise this subject line isn’t clickbait or a “gotcha.” Sometimes we just need to be reminded when things are hard to validate when we struggle to know it’s not us. And writing is one of those things, even for professional writers.)
This week, I was tinkering around in Notion to build out a content management system for my Content Writers Guild members. Just something to help them capture their ideas, organize their research, and keep track of what they’re creating and sharing.
Here’s the content database part where it all comes together. Super simple and easy for them to implement. It’s tempting to chase after complex solutions to think we’re making progress when in reality, we need to simplify to focus on what’s most important.
(And tracking the content isn’t the most important part. Creating it is.)
I was going to keep it just like this — a way to capture and organize information — but I thought about what makes good content…good (and enjoyable to write), so I created a template to help them break down their content and structure it with prompts so they don’t have to start from a blank screen.
Coming up with ideas is the easiest part (besides clicking “publish”). You just need to go on Quora or any forum, type in a relevant keyword, and get thousands of questions people are already asking. It doesn’t have to be this huge guessing game or research project people make it out to be.
(And usually if someone is talking about how hard it is to generate content ideas and they share a complex plan to help you find ideas, they’re selling something — and not very well. This should be the easiest part of your content creation journey because questions are widely available.)
The problem isn’t so much the idea itself but the execution of the idea — the perspective you’re taking and what you’re bringing to the content table to say something different from what’s already out there.
(And, of course, knowing where to even begin.)
In my experience, most of the work to just start is psyching myself up to just write the piece. It’s more of a mental practice of feeling connected and excited about the idea so I see the possibilities of what I can create.
And templates are a perfect way to get you in the zone and focus on what’s most important rather than feeling like you need to start at the beginning and work your way to the end to figure it out.
(P.S. The beginning is a terrible place to begin anyway.)
While the fully integrated Notion template is exclusively for Content Writer Guild participants (if you’d like to participate in February, click here), I’ll share the outline I use to help me organize the info and work from the inside out.
A planning process to simplify writing.
On the outside, you might be wondering why you’d spend time answering these when you could just dive in and create. After all, that’s what you came here to do: write.
But the problem with just diving in is you could get lost along the way.
You might start out writing about one thing but get sidetracked (hey, I’ve got ADHD, too, so it happens), you might start writing for a different type of person with a different problem, or you might not know all your supporting ideas from the start.
Planning helps you create strong content using a repeatable system.
Goal → Have one primary goal per piece of content. What do you want this content to do?
Rank on search engines (authority)
Educate your audience (trust)
Increase banklinks (discoverability)
Who → You’ll want to know who, exactly, this piece of content is for, and if you’ve created audience personas, dig those out.
Who is this person and what are they looking for?
Why is this piece specifically important to them? (In other words, why would they spend time consuming this vs your competitors’ content?)
What emotion do you want to evoke through this content?
Keyword (or keyword phrase) → Even if you don’t want to rank on search engines, you’ll still want to consider the keyword/phrase of your piece so:
People will find your content
You can stay focused while creating it
Outline your content → The order here is important. Ignore at your own risk (and frustration).
Main point → Your primary message. Ideally, distill this into 1-2 sentences at most.
Supporting points → What are all the ideas that support and illustrate your main idea?
Call to action → What do you want people to do after they read your content? (Ideally, connect this to your overall business or creator goals or a campaign, so you know how each piece of content is impacting the whole.)
Hook → How are you going to capture their attention and keep them intrigued?
Headline → Make sure to include your keyword somewhere in there!
Notice the first things people read are the last things you create. There’s a reason.
Along the way, you might discover something new pop up where it shifts the perspective or focus of the content, which will make you revise the hook and headline.
Doing it this way will actually save you time because your headline and hook are like the bows on a present. It should wrap it up nicely and give people a teaser of what to expect.
(And how can you write a summary or teaser when you don’t know what it’s about? Kind of silly to start there.)
Want to see this process in action? Here’s the outline for this newsletter you just read.
Did you find this breakdown helpful? If so, click the link to leave a comment to let me know!
Happy branding (and writing),
Cat Stickler