7 tips for writing about a boring subject

It’s called ‘work’ for a reason, and they pay you to do it, but grinding out X-hundred words on a tedious topic needn’t crush your soul. Try these tactics.

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Here are ideas for handling assignments you wouldn’t typically pick:

Picture your audience

Adding a face to your audience—even an imaginary face—instantly personalizes your work. Pretend you’re writing your human resources article for your spouse or your college kid. Picture your mom or grandma reading the piece you’re tackling on mold growth.

Although envisioning a specific person may seem counterintuitive for business-to-business topics, the truth is that businesses don’t read articles; people do. Keep that in mind, and you’ll make your work less mind-numbing for yourself and your readers.

Mix it up

Just because you’re writing about Web coding or software packages doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun. Try adding a bit of humor to the writing, the way posts at Carol Roth often do.

Look for a personal story to incorporate. In many cases, when these small touches are done right, they actually go a long way toward improving your overall work.

Free-write

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