Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Today's Tip: Write Like Nobody's Reading

At the end of hours writing alone -- researching, typing, soul searching -- it's easy to feel, well, insecure.  Here to buck you up is leading confidence coach Steve Errey, who shares his tips today with Copyblogger on how to de-personalize the response, push through "the process," and forget the readers.  His closing piece of wisdom: "Confidence isn’t knowing how things will turn out, it’s trusting yourself to do what you’re best at."

We would add one small point to Errey's list: don't be afraid to walk away —from the computer, not the project.  Writing is a process, as Errey rightly reminds us, and a frequent part of it is hitting a wall (mostly figuratively, sometimes literally).  When we get blocked, or feel stuck in a rhetorical rut, we find that the best remedy usually is to take a long break.  Hit the refresh button on your internal browser, and come back later with cleaner and clearer perspective.  It's amazing how quickly you can sometimes spot and fix the line or graph that is giving you grief.

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