For my professional development at work, I was very kindly allowed to have a few sessions with a writing coach. This helped not only in my job but also my personal life when it came to writing such as these blog posts or my book reviews on my Instagram. I thought I’d share a few tips on what I learnt from this course.
The first problem I’ve had with writing and this blog, for example, is the voices in my head telling me that I’m not good enough. The coach liked to call them the ‘gremlins’. You know, the ones that say:
- ‘Everyone will read your blog and laugh at you’
- ‘No one cares what you have to say’
- ‘You don’t know enough about this topic, who do you think you are?’
- ‘You’re a terrible writer’.
Talking through these fears and doubts helped me find where they came from. I wasn’t the best at English language or literature at school and I felt that everything I wrote was always wrong. I’ve internalised this as an adult by saying ‘I’m just not good with words’ in the same way that some might say ‘I just can’t do maths’. I feel as a society we just accept these phrases when actually it should be challenged about why these proclamations are still true over a decade later.
My favourite point from the course is about ‘shitty first drafts’. The hardest part about writing we might all agree is the dreaded ‘blank page’. That’s why starting an essay is just so difficult, there’s just nothing there to start with. Writing down a few bullet points of your initial thoughts can really help. Or, you can just start writing any old thing and start to edit it later, even if it’s just writing about something completely unrelated such as how you’re feeling or how your day is going. The point is, you just need to get into the flow of the writing, and your draft is going to be awful. However, you at least have a point of reference to improve upon. Write out a structure, and just ignore the introduction and conclusion for the time being, it doesn’t matter if it changes throughout.
When you’re writing you have to think about the audience. Who are you writing for? Some great questions we discussed were:
- How do you want the target audience to feel after they’ve read your work?
- What can you do to achieve this?
- Is there a specific target audience member you have in mind? What is their name? Why are they reading your work?
What helped me is looking at examples of what a good piece of content looked like. So, I found some blogs such as What’s Hot? and Amy’s Bookshelf and thought, what makes these so great? My initial thoughts were:
- Imagery – they all have high-quality, edited images
- Medium-length posts – the posts are to the point and about a variety of themes
- Consistency – they post consistently and have a huge backlog to show for it
- Personal – they have their names and bios on the side to put a face to the voice of the posts
- Passion – they are both clearly passionate about what they write (books / travel) and this shines through their posts
How to make writing a habit will be explored in a future blog post, but I was given an example Writing Log from this course to help. I use the free web app clockify to track my time and fill out this log on what environment I’m in when I’m writing. This might seem like more work than necessary, why can’t we just sit down and write? What you really need is data. Some examples that a writing log can show you are:
- Is writing from your bed really the most productive for you?
- Can you make it a ritual to have your fancy coffee / tea when you’re writing?
- When are your most productive writing hours? Are you a morning lark or a night owl?
- What are the usual distractions? Social media? Your kids / pets?
I’ll expand on how this writing log works for me in a future blog post, but if you’re like to find out more, the writing coach Dr Katherine Ellsworth-Krebbs has a fantastic podcast series you can check out, with an episode on just this topic!
It was fun to explore with a writing coach on what opportunities are out there to develop my skills in writing. As mentioned, I don’t think I’m the best writer as I’ve not had the best experience at school. Some writing retreats that are a mix of online and in-person are:
- Online writing retreat
- University of Berkely
- City of London (non-fiction)
- Arvon
Editing and getting feedback on your writing is just as important as the initial writing process. For conciseness, I was advised to take out 10% of the words in my work during the editing process. It also helps you learn some new vocabulary as well. Make sure to also have a tight feedback loop to help with your writing weaknesses. If you’re in a writing class, get feedback as frequently as possible, even just in each paragraph, to avoid dipping into habits.
Overall, I hope some of these tips and resources will help you if you’re interested in writing. I hope to explore more of these points in future blog posts. If you’re serious about improving your writing for work or personal purposes, I strongly advise seeking out a writing coach near you or online, and you may be able to have this funded through work. They’re not just there for authors writing a book, but anyone can build up a writing habit. Treat it like therapy for your writing.
