Whatever you want to achieve by blogging – money, a fully-fledged business, recognition in your field, a creative outlet, or sharing your message with the world – you need to write.
There’s no way around it. Blogging is writing. Your platform, your means of communication, involves putting words onto a screen for people to read.
And that can be terrifying.
Lots of would-be bloggers get stopped in their tracks because putting their words out into the world feels so daunting. These fears are so normal … so if you’re struggling, please don’t feel alone.
As a blogger and writer myself, with a blog, newsletter, and online community for writers, I hear from a lot of people who are held back by a lack of confidence in their writing.
Their worries might be:
- “I might make a glaring error in my post for the whole world to see.”
- “Readers could leave nasty comments, disagreeing with my ideas – or attacking me as a person.”
- “My writing just isn’t good enough.”
- “No one will want to read what I’ve got to say.”
As a writer myself, it’s heart-breaking to see how anxious some would-be bloggers feel about writing. But I can completely understand why bloggers often feel unconfident or uncomfortable.
What’s Knocked Your Writing Confidence?
Some bloggers have never really identified as “writers”, so it’s tough for them to step into that role. Others are – quite understandably – daunted by doing something new.
But in some cases, bloggers lack writing confidence because of something specific that’s happened. That could be:
- Struggling with writing essays at school or university, perhaps receiving low grades or negative feedback from teachers.
- People in your life being unsupportive or even mocking you about your ambitions to make money blogging.
- Seeing other bloggers get torn down or criticised because of something they published.
You might find it helps to reflect on anything in your own experience that’s made you feel uncertain or worried about publishing your writing.
Even if something was true of you then, is it still true now? Even if you weren’t good at one kind of writing (such as academic writing), does that really mean you can’t write well in another, very different, context (such as blogging)?
I believe we can all write well. Yes, there are things you can do to improve bad writing … but there are lots of different ways your writing can be good. If you can hold a conversation or write a coherent email, you can put words together perfectly well enough to write a blog post.
It might also help to know that even highly experienced writers often feel a lot of self-doubt. My free ebook The Courageous Writer begins with quotes from some writers who I regard as extremely successful. As I researched that ebook, I was surprised to read about how they, too, had massive struggles with a lack of confidence in their writing.
What NOT to Do If You’re Struggling to Feel Confident About Writing
I’ve seen bloggers turn to all sorts of different coping mechanisms and tools to try to get around a lack of confidence in writing. Some of these can be a “quick fix” … but I don’t believe they help you (or your blog) in the long run.
There are three really common things that bloggers do to try to get around a lack of confidence that I want you to steer clear of.
#1: Don’t Stop Blogging Altogether, Hoping You’ll Feel More Confident Later
I completely understand why some bloggers write a few posts then give up on their blog, or perhaps even fail to get to the point where they’ve launched their blog.
Maybe, if you’re not feeling confident enough yet, you hope that you’ll somehow be ready in six months or a year to launch your blog.
But unless you’re actively writing for an audience, you’re not going to suddenly start feeling confident. You’ll just make “writing” feel like a bigger, scarier, tougher activity.
#2: Don’t Use AI for All Your Content
Lots of bloggers are turning to AI tools to help with the content creation process. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that (and let’s face it, AI is definitely here to stay). But using AI to write everything for you won’t help you become any more confident … and it could seriously harm your blog.
Google wants high-quality content, and frankly, an unedited draft written by AI simply isn’t going to be good enough. I promise, you can write better than an AI, with unique insights from your own life … and with examples and quotes that aren’t “hallucinated”.
Google also states that “Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.” That means that you need to be really careful about using AI-generated content for SEO purposes (e.g. to target high-volume keywords in your niche).
If you want to, it’s fine to use AI to help you brainstorm, to create an outline for your content, or even to do some rough drafting. But you need to be confident in your own writing abilities so you can heavily edit what the AI produces.
#3: Don’t Take Endless Classes and Courses on Writing
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with signing up for a writing class or course, if that’s something you’d enjoy. I did a whole MA in Creative Writing in my early twenties, and I have no regrets.
Some bloggers (and writers more generally) get stuck at the “learning” stage, however. They want to take just one more course or join just one more class because they’re convinced that, this way, they can master all the techniques they need.
Writing isn’t something you can learn just from reading a blog, studying a book, listening to a lecture, or even turning in assignments. It’s something you do for an audience. You’ll learn how to write better, stronger blog posts by actually writing and publishing them.
Eight Practical Steps to Grow Your Writing Confidence – and Grow Your Blog
So what can you do to become a more confident writer and blogger? I’m going to take you through some practical steps to try. I’ll explain why each of these steps will help build your confidence – and I’ll give you ways to put it into practice, even if you only have a little bit of time.
Step #1: Build a Regular Writing Habit
One great foundation of feeling confident about your writing is … actually writing!
It’s hard to call yourself a writer or blogger if you’ve not written a new post for months. Get into the habit of writing regularly, and you’ll begin to feel less resistance to sitting down and putting words on the page. Just like building any other habit (like exercising, reading, or eating more veggies), the more you do it, the more natural it’ll feel.
You don’t have to write daily, though some writers find that helpful. I’d suggest aiming to write at least a couple of times per week, otherwise you’ll struggle to have a sense of momentum.
Keep track of how much you write in each session (and how long the session was). Before long, you’ll have a good idea of how long 100 words takes you.
Short On Time?
However busy you are, I bet you can find five minutes a day to write. You could use a blog post or journaling prompt, or simply write about whatever’s on your mind. Set a five minute timer and write without stopping … you might be surprised how much you get down onto the page.
Got More Time?
If you have a bit more flexibility in your schedule, how about blocking out some hour-long writing slots each week? If you find it hard to stick to your planned writing times, you might use an app like Focusmate or join a group that runs regular group writing sessions (for instance, my Writers’ Cafe has writing hours three times a week).
Step #2: Break Down the Writing Process into Separate Stages
If I told you to sit down in front of a blank screen and write a blog post on the spot, you’d likely freeze and struggle to even know where to begin.
I’ve never come across a blogger who could simply pull up a new document, instantly pluck an idea from the ether, and start typing a flawless draft.
Blogging, like any kind of writing, involves a specific process. You might not be used to thinking of it this way, but you could break down the process of creating a blog post like this:
- Selecting an idea for your post
- Outlining your post
- Drafting your post (this is what most of us think of as “writing”)
- Editing your post
- Publishing your post
You don’t need to do all these stages at once. In fact, I think it’s helpful to tackle each one separately – and to break it down further where possible.
In the next steps, we’ll look at specific tips for building your confidence during each part of the process.
Short On Time?
The process might look time-consuming written out, but each step doesn’t need to take long. And the great thing about breaking it down is that you can easily use little bits of time. You might have 5 minutes to brainstorm ideas, 5 minutes to very quickly plan a post, then a 10 minute slot where you can draft the first key point – knowing that your outline will keep you on track, even if you can’t come back to your draft for a day or two.
Got More Time?
One fantastic way to use bigger blocks of time effectively (and to really boost your confidence in your ability to stay consistent with blogging) is to batch together different writing tasks. For instance, if you have two hours, you could first list a whole bunch of ideas, then you could pick from those ideas and fill out your whole content calendar for the next three months.
Step #3: Select an Idea You’re Excited to Write About
Brainstorming blog post ideas can be a great low-pressure activity if the idea of writing a whole post feels daunting. I like to come up with a whole bunch of ideas at once. At this point, I don’t self-censor my ideas: even if something sounds silly or too tricky to write, I jot it down.
Then, I go through my list and figure out which ideas might work best with my audience. This is the point where I also think about keyword research and finding the best way to frame my idea to match up with what people are searching for.
Even if you feel that it’s tricky for you to come up with ideas, you’ll find that as you begin writing them down, more ideas come to you. One not-quite-right idea could spark a new train of thought … leading to several really strong ideas. You can also use AI to brainstorm blog post ideas: this could be a great starting point and may lead you down paths you’d not considered before.
When you choose an idea to write about, choose one that you feel excited about or truly engaged with. You want to share something truly useful, heart-felt, or thought-provoking with the world.
Short on Time?
Coming up with ideas doesn’t need to take long … and in fact, you may well find that you’re more creative when time is short. Having a time constraint can push you to start throwing ideas down on the page, making connections, and developing thoughts. Set aside 10 minutes and challenge yourself to brainstorm as many ideas as you can.
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