Writer’s block and zero days

Do you ever have one of those days where, no matter what, the writing just absolutely sucks?

I’m having one of them right now, and it’s so bad that I wanted to come here and type out this blog.

Here’s the problem: I wrote a FABULOUS blog post at the end of last week, all about my four tips for copywriters…and as I went to save it, the website threw an error and the whole thing was lost. The rewrite is atrocious, void of voice, and frustrating the hell out of me. How can I write a post teaching young copywriters when this one SUCKS?!

The worst part was that I remember getting to the end of that post and thinking, “man, this one is GOOD. I’m so excited about it!” So that’s only compounding my frustration.

And it’s not just that post, either! I tried to write some meta descriptions. Nope, they sucked, too.

It’s so weird to me that one day, you can feel totally on top of the world in your skill, and the next, poof. Gone.

I call these zero days, but I guess it’s more commonly called writer’s block.

I remember reading something about overcoming writer’s block a long time ago, and it’s always stuck with me:

“The only way to get through writer’s block is to write through it.”

I don’t remember where I read it or who wrote it, but whenever I feel this frustration, I think about that. And I open my giant notebook or blog post or a Google sheet or my Day One journal and just start writing. I lower all expectations: it doesn’t matter what comes out, just shake it off.

I guess the lesson here is…we can’t expect every day to be perfectly productive, right?

And hopefully my copywriting tips post will be all the better for it.