Blog

Welcome to my blog. Make yourself at home.

 

You’ll find ideas, inspiration and practical advice to help you use what you write to build a business that you love.

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writing, mindset Sharon Tanton writing, mindset Sharon Tanton

How to write your way through brain fog

What do you do when the words don’t flow? When you can’t keep the goal in sight, you get lost in the document and it’s all an exhausting and frustrating muddle?

Whether it’s due to stress, tiredness, or illness, for most of us there are times when writing doesn’t come easily. So how can you write when you’re not feeling your best?

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writing, planning, content marketing Sharon Tanton writing, planning, content marketing Sharon Tanton

Write your way to your best future

Goal setting in business is powerful but the details of those goals are often confined to spreadsheets. And I find it hard to get motivated by numbers on a spreadsheet. So here’s an exercise that combines goal setting with creative writing. It will help you uncover what you really want to achieve, and can help you chart a way to make it happen.

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writing, planning, content marketing Sharon Tanton writing, planning, content marketing Sharon Tanton

How to create delicious content, time after time

Even if you’re committed to the idea of creating content to build your business, when it comes to actually doing it, writing can feel like a huge chore. We find all kinds of excuses to avoid it. Whether it’s no ideas or no time, or something else entirely, it’s really easy to find a hundred reasons not to write. Here’s how to make content creation easier and more enjoyable.

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mindset, writing Sharon Tanton mindset, writing Sharon Tanton

How to say ‘yes’ to writing, even when you don’t feel like it

Sometimes writing is easy. The ideas and the words just flow. You don’t even notice the time passing. Most of the time it feels like work. Eliminate distractions and get into a flow and it goes okay.

However sometimes it feels completely impossible. You have the time and the space, but you don’t have any ideas. Or motivation. Or anything.

This is for that time.

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mindset, writing, content marketing Sharon Tanton mindset, writing, content marketing Sharon Tanton

How to cope with overwhelm. And how to write for people who are feeling it too

I’ve been having lots of conversations recently with people who are feeling overwhelmed. Whether it’s lockdown, work, lack of work, family dramas, fears about the future, there’s something about the restricted way we’re living at the moment that is prompting an uncomfortable feeling of overwhelm. Here’s how to counteract that, and write with kindness and clarity.

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writing, mindset, business development Sharon Tanton writing, mindset, business development Sharon Tanton

6 things I’ve learnt about my freelance business during lock down

Two months ago I wrote a blog about the first week of being in lock down. I’ve just reread it, anticipating finding different words on the page. Two months seems like an age, and I feel more grounded now, so I was expecting to find something more naive and jittery. But actually it’s pretty sound. I surprised myself.

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writing, mindset, business development Sharon Tanton writing, mindset, business development Sharon Tanton

How to sidestep imposter syndrome and get writing

Imposter Syndrome is everywhere, and it’s got some new guises. There’s the ‘anything I say right now feels irrelevant compared to what’s going on in the world’ version. There’s a debilitating ‘I’ve lost all my confidence’ strain.

If you’re thinking ‘there are real heroes emerging all around us, I’m not expert/brave/important enough to add anything worthwhile’ I’m not surprised that you’re finding it hard to write anything at all.

This might help.

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writing, business development, mindset Sharon Tanton writing, business development, mindset Sharon Tanton

How to make your writing feel like a hug

Our words are a proxy for everything we can’t do at the moment.

We can’t meet people; touch them, hug, laugh, persuade, smile, show, flirt, reassure, explain, commiserate, calm. We can’t just be with each other, passing the time doing nothing in particular, sharing the everyday mundane things that connect us - but our words can do at least some of that for us.

Here’s how to make your writing feel more immediate and alive while you’re isolating.

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writing, content marketing, mindset Sharon Tanton writing, content marketing, mindset Sharon Tanton

Seven types of content worth writing now

I get it. You’re worried about your business, your life, the universe and everything. Emotional, stressed, overtired, trapped, anxious - you’re finding it hard to focus on anything, let alone writing for a business that’s feeling scarily precarious.

But if you want to write now - and there are lots of reasons why you might - here are some pointers on where to put your attention.

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mindset, writing, business development Sharon Tanton mindset, writing, business development Sharon Tanton

Seven things that have made this crazy week slightly better

If you’ve had your fill of corona virus inspired blogs, then this isn’t for you. But if you’re like me, and keen to find out how other people are coping, then this might be helpful. From managing anxiety to feeling cheered by seeing other people’s piles of washing, here’s what’s helped this week.

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writing, content marketing Sharon Tanton writing, content marketing Sharon Tanton

How to write headlines that make people read your content

Did that headline get your attention? I hope it did. Writing effective headings is not easy. This one is very much of the “it does what it says on the tin” school — and that’s often no bad thing.

But when your audience is skimming through hundreds of emails, posts, tweets and blogs, how do you write headlines that grab their attention?

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