How to beat boredom and recapture the joy of writing
Let’s get you out of that rut.
No matter how many technological bells and whistles come along, writing is still the bedrock of PR. That writing is often exciting, like when you have a new product or a creative brand partnership to announce.
But let’s be honest: when you’re hyping a 47th annual event, trying to jazz up a new hire press release or attempting to find a new angle on a product you’ve been selling since 1974, writing can be a bit of a grind. There can be a sense that you’re trying to find new words to write about the same things over and over.
If you’ve fallen into this rut, here are a few tips for crawling out and finding the joy in writing again.
Ignore the past
When you’re writing about something run-of-the-mill, your first reaction may be to reach for what you’ve written in the past.
Don’t.
Looking at past versions, whether they were written by you or a predecessor, can lock you into the same ways of thinking.
Instead, start with a clean slate. If you’ve usually issued a traditional press release, maybe this should be a video instead. If you’ve usually done a Q&A, push yourself with an oral history project. Different content formats can make even less-than-fresh information seem new again.
Do a swap
If you’re struggling with this, chances are other folks in your organizations are too. Are there other writers who you could swap an assignment or two with? Check in with your internal comms team, for instance, or even advertising copywriters. Trying a related but different discipline might just give your creative juices a new infusion.
If you work in a smaller organization and you’re the sole writer, don’t lose hope. Find an outside peer and ask them how they’d approach this project. Take advantage of their fresh eyes to give you new ideas, even if they can’t fully write the assignment for you.
Recharge your creativity
Step away from the career and self-help books. Close the LinkedIn tab. That’s not what we’re talking about here.
Writers, even if we work in professional industries and settings, are creatives. We need to feed our brains and souls with new and interesting inputs to give us bright ideas to push our work and our company’s goals forward.
To reinvigorate your creativity, turn to other works that are completely outside your field. Listen to a masterpiece jazz album. Take a walk through the woods. Visit an art museum or read a book of beat poetry. All these activities can help change your mindset and tweak your perspective. Again, our goal is breaking out of old modes of thinking and expanding the possible.
Try something new
This last one is the trickiest to get buy-in for, but it can also have the biggest impacts. If you’re doing yet another press release because that’s what you’ve always done — not because it’s what gets the best results — look at overhauling it.
If you’re bored, your audience may be bored too.
Try a new theme for an event. Try changing your traditional press campaign to a social media blitz. Could you experiment in the metaverse?
The past can be an anchor if you allow it to be. Instead, keep looking for ways to evolve your work and push yourself creatively. You’ll likely find that breaking out of the rut delivers better results than keeping to the same old path.
Good luck!
Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
