Content Marketers Anonymous: How I Learned to Stop Being Sensitive About My Writing
By Heike Young
My name is Heike, and I write for a living — but not in the beret-wearing, typewriter-wielding, poetic way.
No, I write content for a big (and awesome) tech company, Salesforce.
I like my job as a content marketer a lot. Over the past three years working as a writer and editor in the Salesforce ecosystem, I’ve learned that writing for a large business is complex in two key ways:
- Most of my writing is approved by at least one other person. In general, the higher visibility the writing, the more approvers.
- All work must adhere to a corporate style guide.
In my opinion, style guides are highly valuable and create a fantastic environment of editorial consistency in an organization. It’s the first bullet point — the part about writing approval processes — that I want to discuss.
Why? When you’re starting out as a new writer, one of the hardest lessons you’ll learn is how to take criticism on what you’ve written. Yet the greener you are, the more criticism you’ll probably get.
Here are a few stories and insights from my past few years as a writer who’s constantly getting feedback — both positive and negative — on my writing. I think feedback can only make you a better writer. But to sleep soundly at night, you have to learn how to accept that feedback. I hope these ideas help you deal with your writing critics more constructively.
Non-Writers Are Your Audience
People love to give feedback on writing. In some ways, writing invites more criticism than other areas in a business because everyone can read. Not everyone can deep-dive into a complex data set or code, so analysts and engineers are probably getting less feedback than writers.
In the past, I’ve felt frustrated when getting feedback on my writing from people who are admittedly not writers themselves. Maybe their edits include grammatical errors (gasp) or introduce a writing cliche. But on the flip side, non-writers probably comprise the majority of your audience. So if something doesn’t make sense to them, you need to improve your final product.
You don’t have to accept every edit. But you should genuinely consider them.
Our Word Choices Are Personal
The words we choose are personal to us; there’s no getting around it. Do you prefer the word “fascinating” or “compelling”? “Crude” or “crass”? “Insane” or “crazy”? Past experiences and personal impressions shape the way we speak, write, and react to words.
Just as you chose those words so intentionally in your article or whitepaper as a content marketer — because of what they meant to you — so, too, someone approves of or dislikes their use as a reader.
When I edited “For Dummies” books in a previous job, I had to learn this lesson up-close and personal. Sometimes the writer in me wanted to change a word simply because I preferred it. But the editor in me had to restrain. It was really the author’s call to make aside from an issue of clarity or correctness.
So if someone edits your work and comments vaguely, “I don’t like this word choice,” know that they’re bringing their own bias to the table. I recommend using the precise language you intend at all times, which will help you defend it. And a little flexibility helps.
You Are Not Your Writing
For many writers, the act of writing taps into who we are, deep in our innermost beings. We’re storytellers. We’re word-lovers. We want to narrate experiences and recreate moments for others.
But in a business context, you have to separate yourself from that personal aspect of what makes you love writing. In the world of content marketing, you’re delivering a utilitarian product to others for a specific revenue-generating purpose. So if someone doesn’t like your product, they’re simply saying that product doesn’t yet meet its goal. It’s not that you’re not a valuable person.
For example, in my job, I write e-books to explain marketing trends and technology to marketers across industries. If someone edits my work and says that what I’ve crafted doesn’t serve its purpose, then I need to start over. It’s like if I worked in a car factory and showed my boss the final car, but the key didn’t start the ignition. Those words don’t work? Fix them.
Yes, writing is an art and some gray areas exist about what’s right and wrong. But it’s still a utilitarian business product. If you get some edits on your work, remember that it’s not personal. It’s a workplace transaction. (But if you want it to be personal, see the next section.)
Find a Non-Work Writing Outlet
When you’re writing to earn a salary or freelance paycheck, you’re literally writing as if your life depends on it, because it does. You’re building sentences and paragraphs to meet a company’s business goals, not to push yourself creatively (although if you can merge both in a project, that can be a win for you and the company).
Many people who end up in technical writing, content marketing, journalism, or another writing-heavy job are there because they enjoy the thrill of writing — of transforming a blank page into an educational, entertaining, or emotional experience.
Work probably isn’t the place to test different writing voices or crazy techniques. It also may not be the place to showcase your love of craft beer (unless you work at New Belgium, which has an amazing blog), adopting feral cats, refinishing wood floors, customizing motorcycles, or parenting. A personal blog or freelance writing can give you the outlet you need to combine your passions: writing plus whatever else you’re really into.
I have a personal blog where I share thoughts that don’t belong on the Salesforce blog. It’s fun, low-pressure (I haven’t posted there in a few months and I don’t feel a shred of guilt about it), and helps me build my personal brand on a different channel. One of my writing cohorts at Salesforce, Pres Maxson, recently released his first novel.
Don’t reserve all your writing talent just for your workplace. Let it shine in other places. And on bad days at work when it seems like writing is no fun, this extra outlet will help you remember why you love writing in the first place.
Everyone Needs An Editor
Who’s your favorite author? She or he had an editor. Maxwell Perkins was behind Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Wolfe. John Green gives high praise to Julie Strauss-Gabel, his editor and publisher, in the acknowledgements of The Fault in Our Stars. Ezra Pound gave T. S. Eliot some serious edits on The Waste Land. (Giving Eliot edits! Can you imagine?)
Even the most brilliant writers need an extra set of eyes. In fact, it’s extremely difficult for our brains to flag our own typos. It’s science. So the next time a few people weigh in on your work, channel your inner Eliot and let the editors do their thing.
It takes time to let edits roll off your back with grace and ease. But if you’re writing for a living, your blood pressure will thank you if you learn how. You’ll also be a better and more sensitive editor of other people’s work.
I would love to hear any stories of how you’ve learned to be a less sensitive writer. Send me a response here on Medium or tweet me: @youngheike.
Work in content marketing? Get our free e-book on how to actually measure all that work you’re doing. Download How to Measure Your Content Marketing now, and check out the companion e-book How to Create a Killer Content Strategy.
Originally published at www.salesforce.com.
