How Blogging Lawyers Overcome Writer’s Block

Just write, says marketing guru, author and speaker, Seth Godin.

Godin is spot on when it comes to lawyers – and law firms.

“People with writer’s block don’t have a problem typing. They have a problem living with bad writing, imperfect writing, writing that might expose something that they fear.”

And how do you overcome this fear?

“The best way to address this isn’t to wait to be perfect. Because if you wait, you’ll never get there.

The best way to deal with it is to write, and to realize that your bad writing isn’t fatal.“

Perfection is the enemy of innovation and business development. Just ask any legal tech entrepreneur or successful CEO.

You need to move now and be ready to iterate based on what you learn.

I pen blog posts and go back and look at them more closely after I share the posts on social media and see that people are reading them. I occasionally get feedback on grammar and spelling via email and social media.

Don’t get me wrong, I proof my copy before I hit the publish button, but I’m not freaked out about reaching perfection.

Blogging is business development – networking through the Internet.

If you were networking offline – talking to people at a conference or a social event – you’d be professional, but fear about the words and sentences you used would not stop you from talking.

Your blog will never have lower readership than the day you start. If you’re worried about how you “sound,” take solace in the fact that not that many people are reading.

Like any activity or sport, you’re not going to be great when you start. Let alone great, you’re not even going to feel satisfied with how you’re doing in the beginning.

It takes time to develop your own style of blogging, your own voice. If it takes a year or more, that’s fine. You’re out engaging people and building a name – something ninety-nine percent of your peers are not doing.

I’ll never forget Rebecca Blood writing in The Weblog Handbook, almost twenty years ago, that “You can blog bad, but for only so long.”

Her point being that your blogging improves by just blogging.