Having Trouble Writing a Paper, Blog, or Any Piece of Written Content? Try This!
Even in 2020 with all the video and voice content that's out there, writing is still a critical part for your business (online content) or for your experience as a student (written assignments). Writing is like any other skill where some people are naturally better at it than others, but anybody can become great with practice. The issue that many people are facing today is that writing as a form of general communication (such as text messages and emails) does not translate well to writing as a form of formal communication (posting a blog, writing an E-Book, or writing a report). Over the years I've found that the formal writing up today is more closely linked to formal speaking than it is to other forms of writing. So today I'm going to show you how I'm writing this blog and how you can use the same strategy to produce your written content more efficiently.
Step 1 - Create a Google Document
I always start my written content in a Google document for two main reasons:
I can access the information from anywhere such as my computer or my phone
The information is backed up on the cloud automatically, so I don't have to worry as much about losing deleting the document by accident
While these are both important, the first reason yields a lot more benefit then simply opening a Microsoft Word document on your computer first.
By having the document available anywhere, I can start writing whenever the time comes. many people experience thoughts are creativity differently and it's important to not force yourself to write something in the same place at the same time on a regular basis. Instead, it's better to have the document available whenever you want so you can jot down quick thoughts or even paragraphs as the thoughts come to you any day of the week.
Step 2 - Use Your Voice!
What's even more important is a fact that by accessing Google Docs through your phone, you can use voice typing from your phones microphone (which I've found to be better than using Google's voice typing feature in Google docs) to write everything out. In fact, I'm doing that right now! This stuff is crucially important not only because it's more accessible for some people but also because as was mentioned earlier: formal writing follows formal speech more closely than it does other types of writing (such as IM and text). Many people, including myself, will find it easier to dictate a formal writing by getting in the mentality of speaking formally and then talking to their phone rather than trying to sit down and type everything out silently. Over the years I've used this strategy to write academic papers, technical memorandums, promotional material, and these weekly blogs.
Step 3 - Convert to Microsoft word
Once I'm mostly done putting everything into the Google document, I make the decision to take what's in that Google document and throw it over into Microsoft Word for final editing. I prefer Microsoft Word to Google Docs for the final version because it allows the use of more tools to ensure the quality of the product you're creating. In my experience, Microsoft Word has better formatting tools, more fonts and graphic tools, and most importantly, better spell and grammar check tools.
By starting the process off in Google Docs, I can access the document anywhere and take advantage of the mobility and accessibility that Google Docs has to offer. And then by taking the Google doc and putting it into a Word document I can take advantage of all the Microsoft Word features and create a better final product.
This strategy might not be for everybody, but for those of you who tend to speak formally more often than you write formally, it can be a game changer.