How did I transform my content writing?

“How to make emotion your best friend?”

This is my hook. It got the most number of votes in a class. This is the first time I got recognized for my hook.

Reasons could be:

1. This is the majority’s pain points
2. This is really a good hook

When we say emotion, it’s often associated with bad emotion. When we say a person is emotional, we often label the person as couldn’t control own emotion (get angry easily, always moody or crying).

So when I attach emotion (bad thing) to become best friend, the contrast hooks people.

My content’s hook ability has improved. In fact, this hook appeared in my head in just split seconds. I dedicate this little win to my vulnerability and writing skill memory muscle.

In the beginning of my writing journey, I wrote about my professional work on LinkedIn, as I found not much related content was available. My intention was to build a professional audience base that I can serve later.

When I started with a sentence, then my brain would jump to few related points concurrently. I stuck with didn’t know how to continue. I tried so hard to put everything from my mind to the content. Once done, I also cracked my head to create that Hook and googled a cover page photo. It ended up 5, 6 hours to hit the Publish button.

I later followed a Transformative Post template given by my coach. It got easier. But I couldn’t mould my every single content exactly into that formula. After a few posts, I still didn’t enjoy writing, crack my head a lot, long hours spent, messy thoughts, my perfectionism making sure my grammar is correct, worried about judgement, I wanted to provide massive values in every content. Ultimately, I procrastinated posting content.

Then my coach said:

1. Doesn’t matter if it’s a long or short content, it’s about training up your thought process and writing skill muscle
2. Even short content can have 1 or 2 values that easier for people to consume and takeaway with
3. Focus on how many people could benefit from your content rather than how many people would judge you
4. Maybe your are now still struggling with which topic you wanna write, that’s why you need to continue writing, write anything you want, then track any similarity in your content to find your passionate topic

I followed the advice, made more posts, once finishing writing I just published it. No more overthinking. No more checking the grammar back and forth. It took me months to overcome the inner struggling. Now, revealing to you my key takeaway by writing more and changing my approach:

1. Clarity of mind:

Writing is an underestimated yet powerful way to clear my thoughts and stay focus. When the thoughts are messy, we couldn’t deliver our message clearly or deliver just at surface level. Organizing my thoughts, write down the keywords, ask myself if I could go deeper and then expand the sentence structure. Repeat it to build up the brain memory muscle.

For example, writing this post, I only have one objective, which is to breakdown my thought process in my writing journey. I stay my focus and frame my content to serve this objective.

2. Openness:

The ingredients to attract readers: authenticity and vulnerability. The moment I add these 2 elements into my content, my storytelling skill improves significantly, because I show up as a normal human being and I don’t want to overthink about others’ judgement. Many of us share the similar pain. I encourage readers by showing them my true story and struggles then lay down how did I overcome it.

There are always silent or secret readers who never like, share or comment, but they consume our content. So actually how many people are benefiting from our content, the number could be more.

3. Write effortlessly

Now I find peace in writing content and I can easily enter into the flow! I have found my passionate topics! Tracking my past content, I wrote mostly on mindset, wellbeing, and emotion. I notice the writing process was smoother too. These topics really go deep to my heart because I had been in the darkness for many many years. Writing is part of the healing process and I want to gain back the control of my mindset, wellbeing, and emotion.

Along this journey, thanks to my coach reviewing my content so that I can improve. I also get inspiration and learn from different writers. My latest favorite is a Taiwan based writer CHIA-EN CHOU .

If you are into writing, I hope this sharing could help you kickstart or help you find your unique identity in your writing journey!t