Always looking forward to your posts, Sid. They're very helpful for freelance writers like me.
I agree with a lot of your points. When I am given with a topic, I start with a lousy title and stare at the blank document. Then, I go outside the garden and just think. What questions do my target audience possibly wants answered? Then, slowly ideas come rolling in. The writing process is weird and creative haha!
Then comes the editing. Sometimes I think the writer and the editor in me are completely different persons. Sometimes, I hate what I write lol. But I just need to take my mind off it at least a day, and read it again. As if reading it again for the first time. The mind gets clearer.
Anyway, I find your post thought-provoking. Looking forward to more of your posts!
Thank you so much.
I figured, as I was writing this, the process is very much similar. Before though, I used to sit and write immediately because I was writing "news" and there was no room for thinking.
Then as I moved away from news and long-form articles, I was able to breathe. I do wish I had a garden too. :)
Seems pretty fun when we can walk bare feet while brushing the grass.
That's how it should be. One of the best tip I received on editing was to ask yourself: "So what?" with every sentence. This eliminates the need to express thoughts that are no longer important for the audience.
You are in the TOP of the chain then. Lots of copywriters do it this way. Again, it depends on the type of content. I only do this for important ones — for sales pages, emails, etc.
What type of content do you produce?
Thanks for passing on the so-what tip. I'll make sure to apply that in my work process.
Mostly, I do blog posts. But I also do product descriptions and content for web pages 😀