How Not To Be Completely Terrible at Content Writing as a Beginner

A quick guide to not being shit as a beginner content writer.

Ever turned in a project, and your boss reads it and the look on his face screams “dissatisfied.”

It hurts.

He doesn’t even have to say the words “so-so,” it’s written all over her face.

But the truth is, writing mediocre content is almost unavoidable for a beginner content writer. And this is because there simply isn’t a definite path to being perfect.

When readers organically respond to your work, you realize you’re quite decent at what you do.

As a beginner, you’re not going to roll out with content that’ll automatically shake the room, and if you do, it’s probably luck.

If you aren’t lucky enough to have lady luck on your side, then you’ve got to take the losses that will come. You might not like them, but you must take them in stride. The key is to keep learning and evolve.

This article is a compilation of my findings on what you need to not rely on luck and take your writing to the next level.

Master the Fundamentals

Content writing is a growing field with great potential, and the world only got a whiff of it a few years ago. So, as a result, people believe that having a background in English or Journalism guarantees success in content writing.

I promise you it’s not.

Fundamentals give your content writing household a foundation to stand on. Once you have a solid foundation, brick-by-brick, you create and you perfect.

Knowing the basics of content writing, which you can learn from numerous online education platforms like Udacity, Hubspot, Coursera, Linkedin Learning, Pluralsight, the list is endless. Lessons from these platforms will make the next step a lot more doable.

Practice!

Practice makes… well, you know the words.

Only by practicing can we fine-tune our content writing skills and become absolute content killers.

It is a well-known fact that you build confidence in your skills (any skill at all) when you actively try to perfect them. And this much-needed confidence will be noticed by your employers or recruiters. They can smell it on you, like sharks to blood.

Remember, having the skill is one thing but having the confidence to back that skill is golden.

Read and Copy the “OGs” in Your Industry

When starting in content writing or anything, there are always people you should admire. And, if you want to be as good as them, first you have to study them and copy them.

Now I’m not talking about plagiarism — if you do that, your career will end before it even starts — because that’s bad.

Study how they write, understand the nits and grits of their content, and tailor your discoveries into your content. Austin Kleon takes a deep dive into this in his book Steal Like an Artist.

When Kobe Bryant talks about Michael Jordan, he always says how he stole his moves; but made them his own. If Kobe can steal and still be one of the greats, why not give it a shot?

Enjoy the Process

It’s no secret that the process can be a long and arduous one, but it can also be fun.

Being passionate about your work is essential because it is the only thing that stands between it being grueling.

Passion breeds interest and interest is what keeps the fire going. To become passionate about content writing you have to fuse it into your life, obsess over it, and most importantly, love it. And in turn, it’ll love you right back.

Celebrate Small Wins

It’s easy to lose momentum, heck, even I have. it’s easy to lay down and give up when your hard work is spurned.

But when you celebrate your small wins by yourself, you fuel yourself to keep going.

It’s easy to develop a lackluster attitude when a lot of your work keeps being looked down on.

Always remember that L’s come and go, but the wins stay forever. so celebrating yourself whenever you can is crucial.

Make Your Audience Your Priority and Create Work you’re Pleased with

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “customer-focused” going around. Well, in any industry, especially this one, your audience takes precedence when constructing content.

Mainly because their patronage pays the bills. Without their patronage, you might not have groceries for a week. The audience is god, and she must be pleased.

With your target audience in mind, you must empathize and create work that you can be proud of.

How do you do this? Well, if you’ve been paying attention, you’d know that firstly, you’ve got to know the fundamentals of your field, practice, read and copy the badasses in your industry and enjoy the process.

Starting is the hardest part of any journey, you have to constantly prove yourself, and sometimes you might doubt yourself. But that’s normal. Anything worth doing is hard. And doing this is borderline herculean.

But if you have the aforelisted things etched in your brain, everything else is easy peasy.