5 Writing Tips For Overcoming The Blank Page

September 29, 2022

Good morning, this is the Not Boring Personal Branding. Your weekly tour guide for all things personal branding.

In Today’s edition:

5 Writing Tips For Overcoming The Blank Page

The best writers never start with a blank page.

They have a swipe file of inspiration.

They us what works:

  • Competitor blogs

  • Newsletters

  • Social content from people in their niche

Now here are 7 ways you can make writing easy by eliminating the need to stare at a blank page.

1. Warm up by copying a landing page or sales letter by hand

Here’s a few items to copy by hand:

You can even write out top tweets or posts by your favorite writers.

This exercise is all about warming up your brain. Just like stretching before you go on a run.

2. Write out the main sections of your post

For example, in google chrome type "docs.new" and write the following:

  • Your Hook

  • The Meat

  • The Lesson / punch line

  • The CTA

Now that you have your main sections written out, fill in the blank.

Remember coloring books where you filled in the lines?

Same thing.

3. Find a tweet or post you like and mimic the formatting

Do not plagiarize though.

Instead:

  • see what ideas you can use

  • see what formatting make the writing digestible

  • use Taplio for viral-content you can use as inspiration

Part of the game of personal branding is being able to recognize what works for engagement. Then making it your own.

4. Remix an old post

20% of my content is new, 80% is recycled.

  • Change the hook, lesson, or call to action in an old post.

  • Use an analytics platform to see which posts did best for you in the past (Taplio)

  • Take a company blog post and summarize it in your own words

  • You may get more views on your summary than the company blog gets

Most people think you need to come up with new ideas everyday.

When really you just need to know how to move around the puzzle pieces every day.

5. Go on a walk an record yourself with Otter.ai

When I feel like I am “stuck” i do this.

Otter records and transcribes what you say.

When you are back from your walk, copy/paste and add some formatting.

BOOM!

Your Weekly LinkedIn Template

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Instead:

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idk who needs to hear this but...​

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