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How to 7X your writing speed?
Welcome to today’s issue of Efikó, a weekly newsletter by me, Dozie Anyaegbunam, with a focus on content marketing, writing, social strategy, and living your best life. THANK YOU for being here! I appreciate you.
Hello 👋
How’s your week going?
Tomorrow is my birthday. Pretty excited - it’s been a fantastic 12 months for me.
Moved the family to Canada from Nigeria.
Settled the family in record time
I got my first job in six weeks
I moved to UserGems (this has been a fantastic experience)
Freelancing has been great
Bibie and I started Not Enough Writers, and it's been amazing watching the community grow
And the best of all - the gift called Ronan came into our lives.
I am so, so grateful.
Plus, I think I am learning to accept that I know my stuff when it comes to content marketing. I tend to get imposter syndrome a lot, you know?
But this week, someone said to me that I have phenomenal storytelling abilities. Plus, I got this feedback from my boss after some work on a case study:
So yea, birthday energy is looking good!
Hahahahaha!
Let’s get to the business of the day.
How to improve your writing speed
The blank page is every writer’s curse.
Gosh, I'm not too fond of that part of writing. When you are in this sort of funk, it feels like you can’t think. Some call it writer’s block. I call it brain freeze.
One way to stop this from happening is to prep the page. Look, this is nothing new. It’s also called creating an outline or a skeletal draft.
For those who haven’t tried it before, here’s an excellent way to set this up:
Your headline: What’s the article about? What’s the angle (the headline is the first thing readers see)? Who are you writing for? What will your reader get in exchange for investing time in reading your article? Why should they trust you (you’re competing for their attention with thousands of pieces)?
Your introduction: Your introduction dives deeper into the questions you answered with the headline. Here’s what I mean; answer the same questions you have for the headline. But this time, with more detail.
The body: Are you writing a “how-to” article? Are you sharing lessons from doing XYZ? The prep stage is a great time to organize your writing ( and your thinking). You don’t want to start writing a “how-to” piece and then take your reader into a treatise on lessons learned. Your readers will struggle to follow your train of thought.
Finally, the conclusion: Can you wrap things up smoothly? What’s the final takeaway that summarizes the piece succinctly? Do you need a call to action? Are there any overarching patterns you need to share at this point?
By going through this process, you’ll find it much easier to ban that darned curse [of the blank page] anytime you write.
Here’s to better and faster writing!
If you read one thing
Lia Uzomah shared this summary of Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes on Newville. If you can, buy the book.
Content tools
A content tool I discovered this week
Today, I have a question. Can you all share your top five content writing tools? I’ll pick the top five from all the responses and share them with everyone. Leggo!
Not Enough Writers
We are planning a “30 days of writing” challenge in January or February 2022. It’ll be 30 days of writing:
250 - 400 words
Every day
That you’ll publish and share on any social network of your choice.
You in?
Know someone who might find this challenge helpful? Please get them to sign up here!
Content writing jobs
And here’s a Google Docs link that also includes high-paying pitching opportunities
All the best, folks. Would you please share with any of your friends/colleagues who might find this helpful? 🙏🏾
My biggest takeaway this week 🚀
Happiness isn’t compulsory. We have been raised with this illusory notion that we need to be happy all the time to be satisfied.
What I’m thinking about
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up with more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never, ever have enough.”
- Oprah Winfrey
If you would love me to review your writing and give you feedback, you can book a time here. Or just hit the reply button.
Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!
Be good out there. If you can’t be good, be careful.
I’ll be back on 12/10.
Dozie
P.S: If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it on LinkedIn or with a friend! If this was sent to you by a friend, get the following email by signing up here.
