When the Well Runs Dry

by Elle Ray | Jan 16, 2018 | Writing

How to Kickstart Your Creativity with 10 Tips

Whether you’re a cabinetmaker, a writer, a photographer or painter, you’ve probably run into some version of writer’s block, when it seems like nothing is working and there’s no way to kickstart your creativity. Creative types rely on an inner muse or drive that provides the fodder for that next novel, painting, wooden bowl or sunset picture.

But when the muse is asleep or when it feels like she’s on an extended vacation, creative people often have to turn to the same motivators as the rest of the world: inner drive and previous experience. And when you make a living from your creative pursuits, usually you can’t afford to join your muse lying around lazily in the clouds. Instead, you’ve got to produce. You have to find a way to kickstart your creativity … no matter what.

You’re in Good Company

No creative personality runs on 24/7/365 creative juices. As author Philip Roth put it: “The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” There’s nary a man or woman alive who hasn’t run into a dry spell. It happens, and when it does, it feels nigh impossible to produce anything even close to bordering on original.

That doesn’t mean you’re no good at what you do — which is something your ego may be shouting. And it certainly doesn’t mean you need to find a new line of work … at least, that shouldn’t be your first impulse necessarily. If you let Nellie Negativity ruin your show, then maybe you can’t cut it as a professional creative.

10 Tips to Kickstart Your Creativity

If you prefer to knock Negative Nellie off her perch and wade through those dark days when your muse flies the coop — whether you do it for a paycheck or just to save your integrity — try a few of these tips, sure to kickstart your creativity, or at least save you from sinking deeper in the mire of mediocrity:

1. Listen to Salvador Dali, who said: “Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it.” And let go of any illusions that you can, or even have to be, perfect.
    
2. Walk away. Take a day off. Walk away for a couple hours if that’s all the time you have. Sometimes, just moving your body can kickstart your creativity by mixing up your endorphins that make you normally so creativity productive.
    
3. Change your mind. Leave a project that seems to have you stuck and move on to one that continues to hold your attention. It’s just a matter of priming the pump. After a bit, when you can go back to that dry hole, you’ll find it’s not so empty after all.
    
4. Close your eyes and take a head trip back to a time when you were cranking out the poetry or painting up a fury of beautiful canvasses. Remember who you are, and your muse will come running back to be by your side as you kickstart your creativity right off the charts.
    
5. Let your fingers do the work. Get your mind out of the way and just start typing, drawing, molding, whatever it is you do. Your hands have muscle memory; they’ll go about creating whatever they do best. Trust your body to take your creative mind where it needs to be.
    
6. Forget about the money for a minute. Sure, you need to pay the bills, but you know in your heart, you’ll do that. Instead, kickstart your creativity with a joke on your muse. Laughter is good for the soul and for your creativity. Remember what Robert Benchley says: “The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.”
    
7. Call a good friend. You’ve got at least a couple friends or family members who love you and support what you do. They also love to see your finished products, so call them and ask them to remind you how talented you really are and how much they — and the whole world — need you.
    
8. Cruise the internet. Set a time limit because you know how time can just get lost when you dive deep into web searches. Just troll around your favorite sites or search for lists like this one. Kickstart your creativity with someone else’s ideas; it’s OK to get inspiration from others. You’re not the only one with a muse.
    
9. Look to the heavens and to whichever higher power you pray to. Meditate. Turn off all the voices in your head that want to enter the void left by your muse. They do not have your best interests in mind. When you empty your head, your heart has room to expand.
    
10. Get outside. This one works especially well if your creative work keeps you locked in a room or studio. The air, sunlight, stars, wind, cold or heat … the birds, smells and all the sensations of the outdoors … nature itself can awaken a sleeping muse.

Whatever you choose to do to kickstart your creativity, do it with a carefree attitude. Do it as if no one is watching. Actually try doing it when no one is watching. It’s the ego who steals the muse from you; she’s really never far from your heart. You just have to dig deep to find her. Now that you have, go create something only you can!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

The Joy of Writing

by Mark Bloom | Jan 9, 2018 | Writing

The Joy of Writing Exists, But Not for Everyone

Among writers, both amateur and professional, there’s a common saying that’s built on half-truths and lazy innuendoes. The paraphrased saying goes like this: “It’s much better to have written than to be writing.” The insinuation is that the act of writing, of putting words into a document one after the other, is no fun at all. so how can there be a joy of writing?

Businesspeople who don’t consider themselves writers certainly agree. Writing for them is a sisyphean task. One simple blog post can take hours on end, hours better spent doing anything else — even accounting. And the end result may turn out to be a fragmented account of a semi-satisfied customer. In other words, all that effort produced something of little or no value.

The Joy of Writing for Writers

People who identify themselves as writers — and that may include you — usually find some satisfaction in the act of writing. For some, an original turn of phrase is what kindles that warm, glowing feeling. For example, we once wrote a blog post for a client about mountain biking on steep and dangerous terrain. In writing that article, a phrase appeared, as if by magic, a phrase that became the title of the piece: “Trails and Tribulations.”

For others, the joy of writing occurs during that period after the start, when a blank page gradually gets filled with a first draft. This is the euphoria we’re feeling while writing this blog post right now! Then there are those whose joy comes only at the end. The accomplishment, having written, imbues the writer with that warm, glowing feeling. No matter where it comes, all writers chase that feeling like spiritual seekers after enlightenment. It can become all-consuming.

Writing Is Hard Work

While everyone with a high school diploma can write, the art and science of writing a coherent story, essay or article takes work. Finding the right word, to paraphrase Mark Twain, means the difference between lightning and the Tampa Bay Lightning. And then there’s the grammar, spelling and punctuation to deal with.

Additionally, when writing something for your business, you may need to do some research to make sure you get your facts straight, and many people haven’t had to do research since their college years. But you can’t just publish anything. Your customers may see it, find an error or get the meaning wrong, and suddenly, your painstakingly written article is going viral for all the wrong reasons.

Get Help from Real Writers

If the joy of writing actually exists, then good writers actually feel it. If you’re struggling with a writing task, you need to find one of these magical creatures to do your writing for you. Your joy of writing may come from delegating the whole task. And that’s OK. Just as there are accountants to handle your books and plumbers to fix your leaks, there are writers to produce your content.

But you’ll find a big difference between hiring a plumber and hiring a writer: A plumber can save you money by protecting your home or office, but a writer, a real writer who lives for the joy of writing, can actually make you money. If your blog posts are engaging, informative and thought-provoking, your customers will read them. If your website is direct and helpful, readers will actually contact you about your products or services.

Let someone else fret over the right word choice and revel in the placement of a comma. Let someone else craft perfect sentences that speak directly to your audience with style, wit and erudition. It won’t even cost that much. Meanwhile, you get to go back to doing what you do best: satisfying the customers you already have.

Ray Access. We’re here when you need us
because good online content can make the difference
between a sale and a fail.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Be a Better Writer

by Elle Ray | Jul 25, 2017 | Writing

A Good Editor Can Help You Be a Better Writer

I’ve always wanted to be a better writer. I’ll never forget the first time I turned in a story as a full-time newspaper reporter on the city desk of a daily paper. I had labored over the opening line. I wanted it to “sing,” as my journalism professor used to say. And I found the perfect words in a line that was both clever and informative. I was thrilled.

I watched my editor read my article, excited and eager to hear the praise that was sure to follow. But I was stupefied when he took a red pen to that line I loved and said, “Start the story here.” To him, the second line was the best way to open the story. I felt crushed. “But I love those words,” I wailed.

“If you want to be a better writer,” he cautioned. “Don’t fall in love with your words. And learn how to let them go to tell the story better.” It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

Write for the Reader, Not for Yourself

That valuable lesson has served me well over 30+ years of writing. And it taught me the ultimate value of editors. While many harsh words have been said about editors — by almost everyone who has ever communicated with written words — there are just as many manuscripts, stories, novels, webpages and screenplays that would not have been published were it not for exceptional editing.

Writers like to hear themselves speak. It’s editors who sit in as the listeners. Editors strive for:

• Clarity
• Polish
• Ease of reading
• Comprehension
• Conciseness

As we wrote last week in the 7 Secrets of Effective Editing, good editing streamlines the copy, tightens it up and ensures that the message you’re delivering is clear and targeted.

It’s Not Personal

Though it may feel like it sometimes, editing is not criticism. The only goal of a competent editor is to help you be a better writer. Making you a better writer also ensures that your readers are happy and informed. For example, when your editor has to read a sentence more than once to figure out its meaning, something needs to change.

The sentence either needs to be broken into more concise statements, rearranged for clarity or completely reconstructed. Extra words bog down meaning; editors cut them out. Grammar rules are in place for good reasons — not to punish or control writers, but to clarify sentences for your readers. Editors invoke the English rules of grammar and punctuation to make the reading experience delightful and easy.

Consider the Medium

When you write a script for a video, you can take liberties with clarity because you have the actors or graphics to explain your message. When you author a novel, critics and readers alike expect a certain amount of long, endearing, fantastic descriptions. When you write a letter or an email, though, you don’t need to explain personal references or phrases that you know your one reader understands.

When you write for the web, however, different rules apply:

• Sentences must be scannable.
• Paragraphs should be short with plenty of white space surrounding them.
• Headers must explain what follows.
• Punctuation must move the story forward, not bog it down.
• The inverted pyramid style used in news reporting is strongly preferred. In other words, tell the reader what to expect on the page right from the beginning.

Leave It to the Beaver

You can be a better writer and still enjoy your work, your play on words and your witty banter, even when you rely on an editor. Your editor may take out the superfluous, the non sequiturs and the errors. Your editor doesn’t want to change your writing style; only make it stronger. If you edit your own writing, you’re taking the chance that your assumptions about your readers weren’t wrong.

But the best writers allow an editor to chew away at their copy like busy beavers. The best writers wouldn’t dare publish a sentence without an editor first giving it a read. The best writers know that the best completed communiqués come from a heavy-handed editor with the best intentions. A good editor can make you a better writer.

As Truman Capote famously said:

I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”

The Ray Access team won’t publish anything until it gets at least one thorough, professional edit. Mark and Linda often give pages two or three edits to ensure their clients receive their best work. If you enjoy writing on a variety of topics and appreciate a good editor, contact us about a part-time writing gig.

Beware the Buzzwords to Generate More Sales

by Elle Ray | Jun 22, 2017 | Writing

Write in a Language Your Readers Understand

Just because you know the “parameters of team competency assessment support” as it relates to your business, remember whom you’re writing for. Just because management talks about “maximized systems of strategic environmental processes,” don’t assume your readers know what the heck you’re talking about. Buzzwords confuse and annoy your audience.

Politicians and marketing professionals alike make good use of “gobbledygook communication” — words that sound like they should convey meaning, but really don’t. Most of the time, the discerning public knows to dismiss gobbledygook as useless verbiage designed to sell or deflect blame. As a side effect, though, it makes people think they’re dumb or less-than-informed.

Don’t fall for it. What makes you think your customers will buy into the mish-mash of buzzwords, trendy slogans and industry jargon? If you try to pass them off as your “message,” it doesn’t make you look smarter, it makes you look dishonest (or at very least — a poor communicator).

Say What You Mean

Nothing is more frustrating for your customers when they’re trying to find a vendor or service provider online. If they continue to come up against the buzzword salads that marketers are trying to push on them, you’ll find some push-back. To put it simply: If a visitor to your website can’t figure out what you do after reading your home page, they’re not going to call or buy from you.

Instead of telling readers that you invented a new “multi-tined tool to process a starch resource,” like Dilbert might try to pass off as revolutionary, just tell us that you built a better “fork for eating rice.” Don’t try to make yourself look smarter at the expense of clarity. Don’t say that your company can “leverage analytics to drive prediction.” Tell prospects that you’re really good at helping them “learn from the past to predict future sales.”

You Live It, We Don’t

Many blog writers and website content writers also get so wrapped up in their work that they forget that the average readers — including many prospective clients — don’t speak the same language. Salespeople and marketing professionals get caught up in their language when they’re going at full tilt, anxious to “ABC” (always be closing) and get their “CRM” (customer relationship management) up to date. To the rest of us, they’re just buzzwords.

Bankers forget that their customers don’t understand “AWE” (average weekly earnings) as well as they do. And tech marketers are infamous for using lingo when they talk about progress and their “sticky products” — those are products with high retention rates — and how their new programs create “zombie mode” — when users don’t look away from the app on their phones — for you.

The Bottom Line: Avoid Buzzwords

Write like you talk and consider who you’re talking to. If you’re writing for moms, let your mother read your latest article to see if she gets it. If you’re writing for homebuyers, ask find a new homebuyer to review it. If you’re writing for a medical practice, ask a doctor to read your writing. It’s only fair.

Success comes to your business when you break out of your stereotype and write so that everyone can understand you. If you have a relevant service or product, you want to reach as many potential customers as possible, right? So don’t use buzzwords in your writing.

Don’t alienate potential customers by trying to “effectuate improvement of your manuals to better elucidate your customer goals and empowering your interactive competency team processes.” Instead, try to “improve your manuals to clarify your offerings.” When you avoid buzzwords, you gain trust. And that leads directly to more sales. If you need the help of expert writers, you know whom to contact.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.