Ah, well, that truly is the question, isn’t it?
Whether you struggle to write or whether you struggle to come up with things to write, the answer is both surprisingly easy and annoying and a bit cliché.
But still very, very true. And that is:
Writing begets writing.
What that means is, the more you write, the more you subconsciously train your brain to write, so your brain starts coming up with more to write.
Ben Settle, arguably one of the best copywriters (there’s others, relax if I didn’t use your favorite), has written books, email series, newsletters, client work (back when he did client work), etc., was asked how does he come up with so many ideas to write about, because he does write at least one email every single day in addition to the other stuff he works on.
Below, I put an excerpt from his response:
“Writing an email every single day moves mountains and answers all questions.
That’s been my experience, at least.
In fact:
- Without writing daily emails for the past 18 years (when I first started doing ‘em daily, not just when I had something to sell or whatever like I did the 6 years prior to that) I probably never would have written the nine novels in my Enoch Wars series with it’s many World-Building complexities, interconnections, and storylines spanning thousands of years… with another series of novels in the hopper being worked on now.
- Without writing daily emails I’d never have written all the non-fiction books I’ve done.
- Without daily emails I never would be able to pump out sales copy as quickly as I am able to.
- Without daily emails I would not have gotten even 5% probably of the ideas generated as a result of writing each day for the 100’s of affiliate and other campaigns I’ve done over the years.” – Ben Settle
If you want to sign up to his email list and get helpful writing and marketing tips, you can check out his website at https://bensettle.com/
Personality-wise, he’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Whether that’s what he’s like in real life or whether that’s his persona for that particular list, I don’t know. You’re signing up for wisdom, not comfort.
Of course, the main point is: writing every day.
It doesn’t have to be an email, but you need to write every day.
Even I, inconsistent that I am, find that once I get in the groove of writing something every day, my brain starts working on coming up with something more to write, whether a blog post, a scene in one of my screenplays, a book chapter, or whatever it is.
And if you don’t have anything to sell or recommend, you can still write an email every day. In that case, you can think of it as a daily announcement.
You need to build the habit.
The rest will come.