How to overcome the "white page syndrome"

I'm going to tell you a secret: I suck at writing.

And it’s even more true when I write in English. I’m not a native speaker, so I don’t have all the nuances that I have in French and my grammar is a disaster!

And that’s OK!

Xavier Coiffard @AngeZanetti

In a previous startup, my co-founder keeps bashing me about grammar Telling me my content was not perfect enough. So we barely published anything 🤐 I'm now solo, made 2k+ tweets, and generate more than 3M+ views ➡️ Don’t worry about grammar, just hit the 'Tweet' button

In this newsletter, I’ll share with you the 3 simple rules to overcome my fears and anxiety about producing content.

I know a TON of startup founders/indie hackers that are terrified by producing content. They can spend days on a white page, looking for the best way to tell something.
If that’s you, this newsletter is for you!

1. Don't aim for perfection

Perfection is a trap.

If you aim for perfection, you most likely never going to start. That’s exactly what we want to avoid. So, start with something bad. Just write!

Writing, like building a product is a matter of iteration. Write without any second thought. Then, leave it alone and come back a few hours after and edit it.

But again, don’t fall into the trap of editing over and over again until perfection. You’re not writing a novel, and, if you’re just getting started you probably don’t get read by a ton of people.

Focus on the value you provide, as soon as it’s comprehensible just hit publish. Don’t be a perfectionist!

2. Use tools

I couldn’t publish all my English content without tools. Well, I did, but it was terrible!

Hopefully, we live in a time where you can get a lot of helpers when writing, here are the few tools I use every day:

1. CopyAI - It’s like an assistant. It generates some blog posts from bullet points, or bullet points from a title, and a lot of different formats. The outcome isn’t perfect, but it’s great to overcome the white page syndrome and get started!

2. Grammarly - The most important Chrome extension for me. It corrects all my English mistakes and gives you synonyms with a click. I extensively use it right now while I’m writing this post :)

3. Hemingway - It’s a tool that highlights the complex part of your writing and helps you be crystal clear. And it’s FREE!

3. Writing is a process

Writing should be part of your routine as an entrepreneur. Because we all need to write every day, but also it’s how it becomes easier.

Try to write daily, just take some random notes or tweet them.

It might seem obvious, but one of the easiest ways to overcome writer's block is by doing it all the time. Don’t try to be brilliant, try to be super consistent.

Quality comes with quantity (and learning the process)

Bonus: Ask for help!

If you're the kind of person that can be stuck for hours or days on a white page, try to ping one of your friends - or a fellow entrepreneur.

I love the 20 min rules for that:

If after 20 min of research/thinking you don’t know what to do - or if you haven’t started yet because it seems “too hard”, then ask for help!

I know it can be hard to find someone to ask for help, but try to always have 1-2 people that you can ping.

I’ve been thinking of restarting a small community that can help with that and marketing in general.

If that is something you’d be interested in, please fill this quick form and I’ll be in touch!

That’s a wrap

I hope these few ideas will help you get started and overcome the fear of producing content!

Let me know the tips that worked for you in the comments - or just hit reply.

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