3 Steps to finding your love for writing copy and content

Choosing passion over willpower to create a sustainable and enjoyable writing habit

I love Mondays because Mondays are content creation days.

It wasn’t always like that. I used to dread content creation day because I feared the moment when creativity left me and everything went silent in my head. All the topics and ideas that were waiting to stream out of my fingers only moments ago just disappeared and instead, my empty document was accusingly staring back at me.

My mind went blank and I couldn’t come up with a single thing to write about. I felt awful about writing.

I kept reminding myself: “But you love writing!” - “Yes, but not just creating my own content like clockwork!”

I have always enjoyed writing spontaneously but not when my schedule told me to. It felt like I was killing my own creativity and joy of writing.

What once had been a passion had become a stressor. Content creation had become a burden – something that I continued to do but didn’t enjoy anymore.

I was scared that I would lose my love for writing if I continued to make writing an act of sheer willpower.

And there it was – the concept of willpower versus passion.

Let me go a bit deeper into that concept and then share with you three steps on how you can move from forcing yourself to write to writing with joy and passion.

About the joy of writing with passion

Passion creates consistency.

It’s a simple principle: you want to do more of the things that you enjoy and less of the things that you dread.

Things that you enjoy doing or even have a passion for are “self-sustainable” because you don’t have to motivate yourself and you thoroughly enjoy the process.

As a result, you do more of it which, in the case of writing, leads to higher productivity and even writing mastery when you put some effort into improving your (theoretical) writing skills.

Writing a lot is the same as training your muscles – the more you do it, the stronger and better you get. And you also get something like a “writer’s high” similar to the pleasant feeling that you get during a run or after a good workout.

It’s a sense of achievement that doesn’t fade like the runner’s high – because you still have the fruits of your labour on your screen for as long as you care.

Being passionate about writing makes writing a desirable experience and with practice, you become a faster writer and increase your productivity – which is doubly rewarding.

And – on top of that – writing can trigger more creativity and excitement which lets you stop only after your brain is exhausted and you’ve burned up your energy during an intense phase of creative flow.

More on creative flow when you click on the links below:

Part #1

Part #2

Part #3

But if writing is hard for you and you force yourself to write…

About the struggle of writing driven by willpower only

So many small business owners dread writing. It’s their least favourite activity – an activity that they’d love to outsource without even thinking about it.

If only willpower drives your writing, then you’re sucking the joy out of writing. Writing with willpower only is not sustainable because it is so hard to motivate yourself to do something that you dread.

When writing feels like a chore, then you need to think about how you can change from writing with dread to writing with joy.

To do that, we need a bit of willpower to start with…

Step #1 – Making writing an enjoyable habit

Creating a new habit takes a while. Creating a writing habit is no different.

And for that, you need a plan to get started and some willpower to see it through.

Like anything you’re starting from scratch – starting with something that is easier for you and that you might even enjoy, is a good idea.

Allow yourself to put your content and copywriting ambitions to the side and start a daily writing routine that you enjoy and that gives you immediate benefits.

Journaling is one way of starting a daily habit of writing that is not only enjoyable but it also helps you process your thoughts and ideas, emotionally sets you up for the day, and triggers your creativity.

Just to list a few of the positive effects of journaling…

Reducing stress
Boosting health & well-being (e.g. lowering blood pressure)
Creating distance from negative thoughts
Processing emotions
Figuring out the next steps
Deepening self-discovery

Experiencing the positive effects of daily writing will also help to change your mindset about writing. More so if you connect it with other things that you enjoy – like a nice cup of tea, some quiet time where no one is interrupting you, diffusing essential oils that enhance your focus, a snack you like…

And when you finish your writing practice you get a sense of achievement for having completed a beneficial task.

I’d also recommend blocking non-negotiable writing time in your calendar and ensuring that no one disturbs you. Like that, writing will become your quiet and contemplative time of the day. A source of energy and positive emotions rather than dread and writer’s block.

Once you have created a writing habit – I recommend extending it to content writing. My next tip is about how to do that without getting stuck on ideation.

Step #2 – Finding messaging clarity

Too many people are getting stressed about writing because they don’t know what to write about and because they think that they don’t have anything worth sharing.

Let me state this very clearly: all thoughts are worth processing! You can do that just for yourself or share your thoughts with those who need to hear what you have to say.

But let’s focus on content creation for your business!

Let me assure you – there are hundreds of topics you can write about that are related to your business. You only need a way to discover them.

The best way that I have found – and a way that helps you generate endless topic ideas – is to understand your foundational messaging pillars:

YOU as a unique person with all your strengths, experiences, knowledge, skills, desires, struggles, quirks etc.
YOUR CLIENT with a similar inner world to you and the ambitions, dreams, struggles, worries, frustrations, and desires that relate to the problems you solve for them
YOUR OFFER with all its features, benefits, outcomes, steps or phases, changes it achieves…
YOUR BRAND including your stories, beliefs, values, purpose, personality, vision etc.

Clarity in these four areas allows you to generate hundreds of topics that are not only related to your business and services, these topics also elevate your status as an expert, make you visible and valued by those who follow you, take your readers through their buyer’s journey and help you to continuously improve your services.

And they help you to market your services more effectively.

Having messaging clarity makes your content creation habit sustainable, especially if you systemise it and make it a strategic part of your marketing.

Step #3 – Make it easy and sustainable

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that habits that are pursued through sheer willpower are not sustainable. But that habits that are driven by passion are.

There are a few things that you can do to make your content writing a sustainable habit.

You establish a positive writing habit (steps 1 & 2)
You create optimal writing conditions and an environment that inspires you (ask me for a checklist)
You develop a writing process that works for you (you can find mine here)
You master a few different writing structure (one of them you can find here)
You create your own editorial calendar that is built around the topics that you discover in step #2

Yes, you have to put some effort into developing a love for writing but this love for writing – or content creation in whichever form - has a huge impact on the success of your business.

Once you enjoy content creation, this joy will permeate your content and you will also create higher quality content and attract a different calibre of people into your community.

Let me assure you that working towards finding joy in your writing is a worthwhile investment of your time and efforts because it pays off in so many ways.

Follow the steps I shared and if you need a little more support, then send me a message and I can speed up the process!

Categories: Brand Storytelling, businesskills, Clarity, Content Creation, Content Creation tips, Contentwriting, Copywriting, Copywritingskills, Creative Flow