The Daily Freelancer: Just Hit Publish
Have you noticed that fiction writers like to talk about their word count a lot?
I’m a fiction writer, and am actively in the fiction writing world, so I’m very aware of the word count challenges, the comparison of daily word counts, the asks as to how many words you should be writing per day.
I never see journalists or copywriters talking about hitting or not hitting daily word counts. I think it’s because they can’t be concerned about word count. They just have to get it on to the page, and get on to the next piece.
If you’ve read my piece, “Dear Writer: The Muse Is a Lie,” you’ll see that I’m a firm believer in churning out work, whether it be fiction or non-fiction. There is a certain kind of deliberateness that comes with being a fiction writer, and that’s probably for another post, but I don’t subscribe to being hesitant. If you’re writing blogs, marketing copy, social media posts, and other digital content, you need to write it and get it out there.
In other words, don’t be afraid of the page. And don’t be afraid to publish.
But, having come from the fiction world, I totally was.
When I started writing more copy, I would come at it with the need for it to be right the first time. Or, I would revise the heck out of it. Or, I would procrastinate before I hit publish. And then I would stall on the next thing. But here’s what I’ve learned over the years that can help you if you can’t just hit publish.
Trust Yourself
The old adage “perfect is the enemy of good” is in high gear here. If you come from a fiction background like me, you spend hours on the right word and the right phrase, because you’re striving for art. But when it comes to creating content, you have to trust that it’s good enough, and send it out. And if you’re any kind of professional writer, you already have an advantage with your skill, and your 70% will be someone else’s 110%. In other words, there’s no need to revise and revise and revise. Just write it, do a read through or two, and hit publish.
Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
If you’ve traditionally had the ability to spend time on revising your work, and you start generating content that needs a quick turnaround, it’s not going to be your best work. It just won’t be. As a writer, the idea of “good enough” is terrifying, but that’s Ok. If you’re aiming for quantity, then you know quality is the compromise. But if you’re a writer, the quality probably still won’t be that bad. And just know that media is constantly about the new — your old writing will be yesterday’s news, your audience will be fleeting, and you can create anew today.
Practice to Scale
It’s incredibly hard the first time you put something out into the world, especially if you know you’re going to have a lot of eyes on it. I had written content that had been read by audiences before, but I remember this sharply when I took a role at a college where my weekly email newsletter went out to a 1000 students. I remember writing it, revising it, reading it again, and again, and again, and finally closing my eyes and hitting send. I was terrified I had gotten something wrong! But I had to start doing that every week, and the more I did it, the easier it got, because I got more accustomed to scale.
Shift Your Mentality
Ultimately, this all requires a mental shift from perfectionism to production, from finding the right word to finding a word that’s right enough for the day, from making work that lasts (you can do that elsewhere) to making work that informs for the moment. If you can see the freedom in that, then you’re almost there!
Hi! I’m Jessica, and I can write your content. Head to my Writer for Hire page, and work with me today!