Does your writing feel totally academic, corporate, or just plain ol’ BORING?

YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Though I now get compliments all the time on how my writing “makes you want to jump up and down” (an actual reader comment!), I used to be a boring, academic, corporate-sounding writer.

I swear it.

In college I worked as a writing consultant where I assisted undergraduates, graduate students, and various academics with their academic writing.

In academia, nearly every writing lesson you learn has the ultimate goal of eradicating your personality from your writing.

Don’t get me wrong, I learned a ton from working as an academic writing consultant. I use a lot of the skills I learned to teach entrepreneurs how to write amazing sales pages.

However, when I finished school and started blogging, it took me several months to “unlearn” every stylistic rule I’d learned about writing for 16 years of education.

(That’s a lot of rules to break! Even for me.)

No matter how much you’ve struggled to add more personality and pizazz to your writing, you can get better at it! I’m showing you how in today’s video:

 

Tweet out your favorite tip from this week’s video!

Hate writing? Here’s how to “get in the mood”: http://ow.ly/TFQpN from @CourtRJ 

My fave writing trick: Record yourself talking! Cures writer’s block instantly. http://ow.ly/TFQpN @CourtRJ 

 

No time for video? Here are my best tips for “finding your voice” in your writing.

1. Get in the mood – While it’s often drudgerous work, I promise that writing can be fun. The best trick is to soak yourself in happy vibes before you sit down to type. I personally like to listen to my Rule Breaker’s Club Soundtrack on Spotify.

2. Record yourself – This is a big tip from New York Times bestselling authors: Don’t type, talk! Open up the voice recording app on your smartphone and hit “record”. You can easily hire someone on Upwork to transcribe your content for you.

3. Spice it up later – The writing process is a multi-step adventure. You can’t create content, organize thoughts, and edit your language all at once. Be kind to yourself. Get the thoughts out of your head first. Then, once you’ve got a draft on paper you can start spicing up the language. Ask yourself: “How can I say this with more personality?”

4. Stop judging yourself – You don’t have to be Mark Twain to write. You’re not trying to win a literary prize here (at least I’m not!). Your perfectionism is selfish, don’t you know?

5. Keep track of language that you love – If you don’t already have a love affair with language + psychology, start a torrid one right now! Whenever you hear a word or phrase that tickles you, take a mental (or physical) note. Ask yourself, “Why do I love this language so much?”