Writing to Deadline


One thing I keep telling anyone who will listen is to write when you're inspired... and take the time to get inspired. This means doing a little planning, too, then. Inspiration will have a hard time finding you, buried in emails and racing between meetings.

I asked my friend and mentor, Neil Everton of Podium Media and Communication Coaching, "Do you plan your time to write? Or do you write when you're inspired?"

The response I got was neither! "Planning and inspiration are not concepts I'm familiar with. I write best when there’s a deadline."

I use deadlines, too, but for me they are a last resort. I find it hard to be creative when I'm stressed about a deadline.

Do what works for you. Whatever it is that causes you to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard needs to be harnessed and exploited. Creating great content that people want to read doesn't happen without some effort.

photo by erink_photography / Flickr

Click to Tweet this Article


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where To Find Your Best Content Ideas

Image
"What will I write about this week?" Wouldn't it be great if content ideas popped into your head just when you need them? (Cue the light bulb!) You’ll find the best content ideas amid your daily business activities – but you have to be alert for them... and jot them down. For example, let’s say you… have a discussion with a customer or prospect. Content ideas: a success story, answer a question, describe a service/product, define why you're different, an anecdote, how to solve a problem, local news. receive an inquiry by phone or on Facebook. Content ideas: FAQ, describe a service/product, benefits and features. learn something new . Content ideas: teach your fans, describe the learning process, give a review/opinion, share the source. find a quote you love on Twitter. Content ideas: why you like it, how it's relevant to what you do. do some online research . Content ideas: share what you found, how you found it, what it means to your readers. try...
Keep reading »

The Importance of Your Subject Line

Image
Most people have email boxes that are overflowing and not enough time to read it all. If you are like me, a day out of the office can bring dread when I finally get back to my desk... and my inbox! Your subject line needs to prompt your subscriber to open your message. To avoid spam filters, a quick Google search will unearth lists of words not to use in an email subject line. Getting past the spam filter is just the first step - you still need to encourage your recipient to open your email. Help your subscribers save time with your email subject line. Make your subject line instantly recognizable in their inbox and include the main topic contained within. If they are really busy, they can file it for later reading or delete it without having to take the time to open it. Although they may not read every issue, they will appreciate your effort. Better still, if the topic is of interest to them, they are more likely to open and read it later. Your subject li...
Keep reading »

What Name Are You Using?

Image
This morning I deleted an email from a good friend and past client. I didn't realize it was from that wonderful lady because it didn't show up in my inbox from her name or her company's name. I only dug it out of my trash after deleting because the wording of the subject line seemed familiar. 42% of people check out the sender name when deciding whether to open an email. - source:  https://litmus.com/blog/6-shocking-myths-about-subject-lines My own newsletters, my blog posts and my weekly event list all go out from my own name - Linda Daley - and have for years. I absolutely know that if I suddenly changed the sender name on my emails, to say Daley Progress, my open rate would drop significantly. This is an experiment I don't need or want to try. Personal names often do better as far as email opens go but it can depend on how well you know your subscribers. More importantly, don't switch the sender name once you're well established. You want your su...
Keep reading »

Pinpoint Your Unique Content Marketing Opportunity

Image
If you think writing blog posts about what you do is your best content option, you might be sorely mistaken. The popular approach to content marketing usually includes some combination of blogging (podcasting, video, etc) + email + social media. (I love that equation!) The thing is, well, writing articles (or recording) is not for everyone. I've spent several hundred hours convincing (disguised as training) small business owners that blogging is a worthwhile endeavour. Some have success, more don't - for a variety of reasons. What I know is this: if you don't like the work involved, you won't be successful. Your momentum will wane over time. So, what the heck do you do if you don't want to write or record? (And maybe even if you do.) Identify something your target market wants and that you can provide easily through the activities you're already doing. For example, if you do lots of research and reading online, curating and collating others' conte...
Keep reading »

Home Office Holiday Party

Image
In preparation for our office party this year, I wrote a poem. Then I gathered together the things I would need to have a party with Romeo and Danielle. (The Temptations were for Romeo, the phone for Danielle, and the coffee for me.) Romeo, my cat, is used to hearing me talk out loud as I proofread and he was unusually excited about hearing the poem. Danielle, who lives several time zones away in Saskatchewan, also works alone (and helps me out lots) so I invited her to my office party by phone. It was a good move because she's a master at rhyming words. After much anticipation, I started to read the finished poem aloud to them. As you can see in the photos above, I had their full attention. Ode to a Midnight Blog Silent night, late at night, I've still got my blog to write. My laptop propped up on my bed, I'm hoping ideas will fill my head. Yawns escaping, eyelids drooping, Neck is stiff, my thoughts are looping. My brain is sore, I th...
Keep reading »

Why and How to Do a Wrap-up Article

Image
A wrap-up article is a logical and unique grouping of pieces of content where the grouping provides value to the reader beyond the individual pieces on their own. You might think of it like a themed gift basket. There are several reasons we need to be creating these wrap-up articles. They... serve as a great resource - valuable information grouped together use commonly searched keywords and phrases (good SEO) encourage deeper reading are often faster to create provide a process to repurpose past content remind us of what we've written and provide inspiration to write more Wrap-up articles serve us better than just about any other content we might create. Of course, we have to be creating content on a  regular basis  to be able to wrap it up. There are lots of different ways to group pieces of content : by topic - e.g. content idea generation, writing tips by use - e.g. how-to, conceptual, tips by thing - e.g. infographics, videos by user - e.g. for begi...
Keep reading »

Are you Easy to Find? Use Linked In to Improve Search Results.

I should be able to find anyone online these days.  I often search for specific people or company names to get product or contact information.  Sometimes it's fast and sometimes it's very frustrating.  Three times in the past week I failed to find websites (that I knew existed) for local companies.  What business owner doesn't want to be found? If you search my name on Google , the second entry is my Linked In profile . This leads people to a wealth of information about me and my company, including my phone number, website and blog - even if they aren't on Linked In themselves. Take advantage of this prime search ranking!  Complete your Linked In profile.  The more complete and compelling your profile is, the more people will take it seriously and visit links you have posted. Click to Tweet this Article
Keep reading »

Pick a Topic Like You Would Pick an Apple

Image
Consider how likely you would be to open/read articles with these titles: How to Be a Politician Small Business Marketing Healthy Foods for Everyone Dressing for Work The Benefits of Travel How to Find Any Job How to Be a Millionaire Nothing much exciting... been there, done that. How useful can any of those articles be? First, it would take a really hefty article to cover any of these topics well, and still, it wouldn't be enough. Each of these topics has too much detail to cover in a useful way. Much like we talk about finding a niche for our business, if we apply this to our articles they will be more concise and useful, will draw a more specific readership suited to our business. Also, if we're hoping people will find us through search, broad topics like these won't put us on page one... they've already been done over and over. Think about it like an apple tree. Instead of writing about the whole tree, pick only one apple to write about. Narro...
Keep reading »

How to Publish a Newsletter without Writing

Image
There are two things that usually keep someone from starting a newsletter. One is compiling their first mailing list. The other is: "But I can't write very well!" There are ways to publish a newsletter without having to do a lot of writing. #1. Come up with the ideas and prepare an outline. Then delegate or hire someone to do the writing for you. #2.   Curate content . That means researching and gathering content from other sources that you then share, giving appropriate credit. This model is used by online publishing empires like Huffington Post and Smart Briefs. Search for content online or set up Google Alerts for your keywords. #3. Solicit content from other experts serving the same target market. Using a model of guest contributors , offer the opportunity for writers to get in front of your audience. Develop systems to attract relevant, well-written content. #4. Use a different medium ; create and include your own photos, graphics, video or audio...
Keep reading »

SocialMention

Image
Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. http://socialmention.com/   Click to Tweet this Article
Keep reading »