You’re a business owner who gets
You can sit with friends, family and potential customers and easily speak about what’s special about your product. It flows. It’s inspired and from the heart.
Then you try to blog or write about it and suddenly it’s crickets.
Your well of inspiration is as dry as a dad joke. And almost as cringe-worthy.(No offense to the genuinely funny fathers who walk among us, unfortunately, the dads I know best – my husband and brother – perpetuate this stereotype frequently.)
This is not good.
You know that having awesome online content can help your customers and build your brand.
If you’re writing your business blog copy, you may benefit from some inspiration from the greats.
I’ve listed some inspiring quotes from famous authors. Whether you’re in a rut, or simply need a spark of motivation, these quotes will help get you back on track.
1. Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
For the longest time, I considered writing to be magical process, and one that couldn’t be explained easily – or forced. I wouldn’t write regularly; I waited for inspiration.
Well, my writing input dwindled.
Inspiration wasn’t coming on schedule, and this wasn’t an ideal set of circumstances for someone who makes their money with words.
King smashed my romantic perceptions and put them together again.
Writing is beautiful and magical. But it’s also a job. A task. So, I sit down and get to work.
Don’t wait for the inspiration. Get to typing and let you creative muse meet you along the way.
2. Jeff Goins, Author
Writing is Manual Labour
Goins Writer
Like King, Goins see writing for what it is: a manual task.
In this podcast, Goins calls on writers to show up everyday, clock in and do their hours.
Now you might have competing priorities right now that make getting copy down constantly impossible. Then it’s time to start outsourcing the work to a content writer.
But if you can’t outsource, just see your blog or email as another thing you have to do as part of running your business
It
Goins also has advice on how to create writing habits. Overall, this is geared towards professional writers. But I do think the idea of carving a writing habit is useful for business owners who want to write regularly.
3. Margaret Atwood, Author of the Handmaid’s Tale
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
Goodreads
I’m a professional writer. I make a living by putting words and sentences in a way to communicate ideas.
Many times I sit behind the computer and I feel resistance. I don’t want to be there. And I don’t want to write. But I know I have to show
Even when you don’t feel like it, and you think you have nothing to say, start by getting one word down. And then another. You’ll feel yourself loosening up.
4. William, Zinsser, Journalist, Writing Teacher & Author
“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”
-Zinsser in On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
William Zinsser is one of my writing heros. If you want to improve your writing, it’s worth picking up his book, On Writing Well.
The thing that struck me was that even legends like Zinsser found writing hard. I’d always imagined that for people like Zinsser, it was just a matter of deciding when to write. The rest was effortless, I thought.
But it’s difficult for them, too. So, the next time you you’re struggling to get string a cogent phrase together, remember, it’s fine if it’s hard.
Think of it like this – if you and writing were having a raw, honest conversation, writing would say: “It’s not you, it’s me.”
5. C. J. Cherryh, Author of Foreigner
It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.
– Sparkle Writers Club
How encouraging is it to know that even the world’s best authors have imperfect first drafts?
The first draft is your warm up. Once you’re done, you have something to work with. You come back with your chisel and refine.
6. Ernest Hemingway
Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline.
The Write Practice
The gist of Hemingway’s quote is simple: Write what you know.
That’s when it’s easier, and when you bring the most value to your readers.
7. Maya Angelou
“The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.”
Writers Win
There’s a strange thing that happens in the world of business blogging.
Sometimes, the words just won’t come out right. We sound a little less human. We start talking in terms of features and numbers, and less about the ways we’re going to transform our readers lives.
Joanna Wiebe, the original conversion copywriter, says you have to focus on your customer’s pain, and how you’re helping them to solve it.
In this podcast, she gives an excellent example of they increased conversions by speaking to customers biggest problems, in plain English.
Wiebe’s Copy Hackers agency changed the headline of a UK online clothing store from “Clothes you’ll love. Perfect for your shape and size.” to
“Big bum? Thick waist? Not so perky boobs? Find clothes you’ll love, ”.
Along with changing the CTA, Wiebe’s new headline drove a 127% increase in clicks on the CTA button.
Wiebe landed on the copy after learning about the problems bothering the retailer’s customers.
“…we’re like, “Okay, well let’s talk about then, overweight women, who are trying to find clothes that they feel comfortable and confident in.” How do these women potentially talk about themselves online? And we, so we went and eavesdropped online, right? People are writing in forums. They’re writing in YouTube comments. They’re writing in blog comments. They’re writing all over the place. About their feelings and experiences, and they’re using their natural language…”
This approach can even be applied to B2B content. Even though you’re in the business world, you’re still conveying your ideas to other people.
Speak plainly about a solution that will make you customer’s better, and your content will always be guided by the right intention.
So, the next time you’re struggling to put one in front of the other, remember, sometimes it’s hard, but it’s always worth it.
