Hate writing? 3 ways to start enjoying it

In a world where we communicate so much online, I feel sorry for all those people who hate writing. They are often smart, articulate people with dazzling expertise to share. But they struggle to get it out of their heads and onto the page. They agonize over impressing others through white papers, e-books, and other more extensive content.

Fortunately, by adjusting your approach, this writing can become a lot easier, even fun. If you are one of those experts who would like to relax and get better results from their writing, this is what you should do.

(1) Focus on the golden 20 percent.
(2) Work with a nimble and relevant theme.
(3) Write like you talk.

1. Focus on 20 percent gold. Remember the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, as 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. This also applies to research and anything you’ve recorded in a presentation, podcast, or other medium. Selecting what you want to transfer from research to writing is a big step in getting it on the page. Focus on the best trees instead of the entire forest.

2. Have a snappy and relevant theme. Express this in a clever job title that you can adjust a million times before you’re done. Your theme describes what you want to build from your content blocks. If you want to sell services or gain respect for your expertise, you can’t randomly collect blocks. Just like Lego, you need a plan for a robot or a castle. Otherwise, you’ll end up with an unimpressive structure that will probably collapse, as I know from my experiences with Lego when my kids were little. Make sure your topic means something to your potential readers. Think of the forest as a whole, rather than the many trees.

3. Write like you talk. Think about what you would say in a conversation about your topic. Then write as if you were speaking. Without taking a look at the research, though you can paste some key sections into your document before you start writing or indicate where you want to insert them later. The important thing is there for you to pick up from your memory. By going back to speaking, your first and favorite way to communicate, your writing will flow. You will be your social and fun self. Imagine you are talking to a friend about your favorite trees and what they mean for our forest.

Now that was much easier, wasn’t it?