How to Write With Confidence

 

A window sign in neon blue that says: "what's your story?"

The best way to learn to write is by writing, but that doesn’t mean you feel confident in the words you’re putting together, the story you develop, and the style you naturally gravitate toward. Sometimes, confident writing comes with time, education, and even writing courses where you benefit from the expertise of those who have been in your shoes before. The more you write, the more confidence your writing can exude, but you might be able to speed up the process by doing some of the following things. 

Try Something New

You might naturally gravitate toward a particular writing style, but there’s every reason to consider trying something new. When you’re not feeling confident in what you have created, you can ask women, men, readers, and writers for their honest opinion and take their criticism onboard without taking it personally. In fact, some confidence even comes from being able to scrap a content idea altogether, knowing it’s not going to work for you or your readers. 

Don’t Overwrite

When you have so much knowledge to share with your audience, trying to fit it all into one blog post or article is tempting. You want your readers to be as knowledgeable and passionate as you are, and you might assume it’s easier to achieve that goal with one content piece. 

However, too much information at once might have the opposite effect. Readers can become overwhelmed by the complexity of your content, causing them to find what they’re looking for elsewhere in fewer words. Instead, break your content down into several related articles with links between each. Readers can then choose to learn one aspect of your expertise at a time, setting them up for success in the long run. 

Establish a Writing Routine

Many business owners and writers want to inform their readers regularly, creating a content-packed blog with all the information people need to make an informed decision about various products and services. 

It’s good to have such goals, but some time-poor writers can let content writing fall by the wayside. To show your readers that you’re consistent, create a content plan with impactful content topics you’d like to cover and carve out a small amount of time each week to write them. Before long, readers will know they can check back in on a particular day and receive something new to read. 

Read Other Content

If you’re writing for your business website to improve its SEO, don’t be afraid to see what your competitors are doing to achieve the same goals. Take note of their topic choices, how they engage their writers, and the sources they’re linking to show authority. 

If you’ve never written SEO content before or articles in general, you’re likely not going to be proficient right away. However, when you take the time to learn from others who have seemingly refined their craft, you might become a confident writer before long. If a particular technique is working for them, there’s no reason why it can’t work for you. 

Writing with confidence doesn’t happen overnight, especially if you’ve never written content for an audience before. By seeing what other people are doing, setting aside time to write, and breaking your knowledge down into easily digestible pieces for your readers, you might gain the confidence you need to write high-quality content people look forward to reading.



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By Susan Barlow

Dr. Susan Barlow is retired from academia after teaching business administration, project management, and business writing courses for over 20 years.

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