We definitely had a creativity thread weaving through the week, both on the blog and the podcasts.
On Monday, I continued our “Quick Copy Tips” series by talking about the difference between benefits and features. It’s one of the first topics covered in nearly every copywriting book, but even experienced writers often get it wrong — because it can be so tricky to see with fresh eyes. I gave you a fast way to do exactly that.
On Tuesday, Stefanie addressed that nasty creativity killer: perfectionism. It takes many forms and hides in many disguises. She reminded us of the one thing we all have to do to defeat it.
And on Wednesday, we posted our creativity and productivity prompts for August. We’re offering a new pair of prompts for you every month this year, to help you create stronger work and more of it. This month’s prompts were heavily influenced by Growing Gills, Jessica Abel’s terrific book on productivity for creative people.
Over on Copyblogger FM, we republished an episode on writing (much better) blog comments. Blog comments can be a surprisingly great way to forge connections with web publishers … but there’s definitely a right way and a wrong way. Quit writing flat, stale comments and start leaving comments that actually make an impact.
And in an encore episode of The Writer Files, Kelton Reid shared a fascinating conversation with neuroscientist Michael Grybko about the nature of creativity — where it comes from and how to nurture it.
That’s it for this week — have a great weekend, and we’ll see you Monday. 🙂
Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital
Catch up on this week’s content
Boost the Relevance of Your Content with Benefits and Features
by Sonia Simone
The Non-Perfectionist’s Guide to Noteworthy Blogging for Your Business
by Stefanie Flaxman
2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The August Prompts
by Sonia Simone
How to Write (Much Better) Blog Comments
by Sonia Simone
How to Know Exactly What Content You Should Create
by Jerod Morris
The Best of ‘The Writer’s Brain’ Part One: Creativity
by Kelton Reid
How Website Personalization Grows Your Business Faster, with Brennan Dunn
by Brian Clark
Reader Comments (5)
Ryan Biddulph says
Stefanie wrote a gem on perfectionism, Sonia. Thank the gods I defeated that business-killing tendency early during my online career. Of course the pendulum swayed in the opposite direction. I had quality issues 🙂 But I feel grateful that I ran, and shipped and ran with it again during those days, because it developed the habit in me to create, to publish and to be prolific, not giving in to the fears of failure and criticism. These 2 fears feed perfectionism.
Sonia Simone says
Always about walking those lines. 🙂
Patric Chiri says
I really enjoyed Steph’s post on trying not to be perfect. It put somethings in perspective for me.
Benjamin Ehinger says
Stephanie’s article on perfectionism was a great choice! There’s nothing worse than letting perfectionism get in the way of productivity and sharing creativity with the world.
Max says
Great post. I’m always looking for new ways to be more creative with my content.
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